Suffering and Glory

Last Tuesday I attended a Presbytery Examination Committee meeting, and through one of the English Ministry pastors, I heard that many young pastors in English Ministry nowadays try to avoid suffering. But at our church’s Wednesday service last week, through our senior pastor, I heard a message centered on Romans 8:29: “those whom God foreknew”—that is, we whom God loved before the creation of the world, He also predestined (chose/elected before creation). The purpose of that predestination is “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” And what does it mean to be conformed to the Son of God, Jesus? On this earth, it means experiencing suffering.

Of course, Jesus is no longer on this earth but now in heaven, so the image of Christ we will one day be conformed to is glory. Yet while on this earth, just as Jesus “though He was the Son, learned obedience from what He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), we too, in following Him, must “learn obedience through the many sufferings He personally endured” (v. 8, Living Bible).

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).