5/4/20
Wilson received more questions yesterday than we were able to cover in the 15-20 minutes Q&A period after our morning worship service, so I wanted to give brief answers to them here on our blog. I’m not exactly sure yet if we’ll be able to continue this Q&A in the same way once we resume gathering for corporate worship, whenever that occurs. But it’s been well received, so I hope to figure out some way to continue interacting with you in this manner.
Here are questions that we didn’t get to answer yesterday:
1. Connecting last week’s sermon and this weeks [on I Peter 1:3-5 and I Peter 1:6-9], are our responses to trials meant to be a gift of assurance to the believer? Conversely, are the way that people respond to fiery trials meant to show if we are in God or if the trials of this world choke us out?
This is a great insight. The parable of the sower in Matthew 13/Mark 4/Luke 8 makes this very point. The seed that falls on the rocky ground is “the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matthew 13:20-21). In Luke 8:13, the language of “a time of testing” is used in the place of “tribulation or persecution.” It’s clear that trials and tribulations are a test of the reality and genuineness of a person’s faith. In the child of God, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4; see also James 1:2-4). In the false professor, trials are very often the occasion of abandoning a profession of faith that did not flow from a true conversion. I’m reminded of Pliable in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, who followed along with Christian at the beginning of his journey, but at the Slough of Despond he turned back in disgust and discouragement. Of course, just because we respond poorly to a trial is not a reason that we ought to conclude we are not genuinely converted - as I mentioned in my sermon yesterday, Peter failed the test and denied Jesus three times. Yet he repented, he turned back in sorrow and new obedience, and strengthened the church through his writings. As God grants endurance, and repentance where endurance is flagging, we see the fruit that should lead us to be assured that we are in a state of grace as opposed to a state of sin.
2. Why does God have to use suffering to strengthen our faith? Why couldn’t He just make our faith perfect?
This question is indeed a mystery, along the same lines of “Why didn’t Jesus establish His kingdom immediately at His first coming?” or “Why doesn’t God take me home to glory immediately upon saving me?” God knows the answers to those question, though He hasn’t chosen to reveal them to us in their fullness. What He has revealed is that “it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering…[B]ecause he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:10, 18). If Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered (Hebrews 5:8), then we His people, still living on this side of glory, should not expect to learn obedience in any other way (especially since Jesus’ learning obedience did not entail any movement from disobedience to obedience, but only deeper experience of what obedience actually meant). We are being conformed to our Savior, who endured the cross before He enjoyed the crown. And just like in the case of Jesus, God uses our suffering to comfort and strengthen others who are suffering. One reason God doesn’t take us home immediately after saving us is because He has work for us to do in bringing other sons and daughters into His family - in the same way, when we suffer and are comforted by God, we “are able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (II Corinthians 1:4). Could God make our faith perfect without suffering? Certainly He could. But He has chosen not to do so, for wise reasons. And so we trust Him and obey.
3. When Peter says, “if necessary” [about our trials], I know he uses that to strengthen us but does Peter imply that God uses that as a tool for Christians who are in sin? We know God tempts no one (James 1).
The Bible is clear that trials can come as discipline for our sin, as well as for training for future righteousness. As I mentioned yesterday, a coach might make his team run sprints because they have been lazy or disruptive in practice, or even if they have been model athletes, he may make them run sprints in order to be in shape to last an entire game. In the same way, God disciplines those He loves, whether in response to our sin (to draw our hearts back to Himself) or irrespective of any particular sin (so that we might yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness, as Hebrews 12:11 puts it). I don’t think Peter only had in mind Christians who were acting sinfully, since later in his letter he will mention suffering for doing good (2:20; 4:16). But trials do come as a tool of God’s sanctifying grace, and so as the Puritans were apt to say, let us “kiss the rod” that smites us, and trust that God’s discipline is always for our good.
4. Why does God need to see if our faith is real if He already knows all things?
It is true, God already knows all things from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9-10 - "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’”). He knows those who are His, whom He has chosen from before the foundation of the world (II Timothy 2:19). Yet in Genesis 22:12, after Abraham shows himself willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, God says, “[N]ow I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Some commentators say that this text proves that there are some things God doesn’t know, and must learn through experience. This is a dangerous and heretical view of God. But why do the Scriptures speak in this way? I think John Calvin answers this question well: “Truly, by condescending to the manner of men, God here says that what he has proved by experiment, is now made known to himself. And he speaks thus with us, not according to his own infinite wisdom, but according to our infirmity. Moses, however, simply means that Abraham, by this very act, testified how reverently he feared God.” Another way to put it is that the trial of our faith reveals to ourselves and to others that our faith is genuine. It’s not that God needs to see if we really have faith, but trials demonstrate the reality of faith for all the world to see. And on the last day, as we saw from I Peter 1:7, we will be glorified and openly acknowledged before God and all creation.
5. How does this text help us to help others in their suffering?
I think this is a powerful text to use as you counsel and encourage those who are suffering. Use my three points as you speak to them: God recognizes your suffering - He sees it and sympathizes with you. God reassures you that He has ordained suffering just for a little while if necessary. God has reasons for your suffering - in this life and in the life to come. These truths are a healing balm to the wounded soul, and I hope that all God’s people will apply them to their own hearts and use them to help others. And as I mentioned above, II Corinthians 1:4 shows us that another reason God ordains suffering is so that we can enjoy His comfort in the midst of it, and thus be able to give that comfort to others. Sometimes God’s primary reason for bringing you through a trial is so that you might be able to minister to someone else walking through a trial. Has not every believer seen that at some point in our life?
6. If God does not punish believers because of their sins because of Christ, what are we to make of the Old Testament when God seems to be doing this to His people?
The saints of the Old Testament were definitely judged for their sins. Just to take two examples, the Israelites in the wilderness were excluded from the Promised Land because of their refusal to believe God and go into the Promised Land; and Israel and Judah were sent into exile to Assyria and Babylon, respectively, for their idolatry and sinfulness. But it is absolutely imperative to realize that, like the church today, Israel was a mixed multitude of unbelievers and genuine believers. So to use Paul’s language in I Corinthians 11:32, God’s judgment on Israel was condemnation/punishment for the unbelievers, but discipline for the believers. The word “judgment” refers to the suffering and affliction endured, but in itself it does not carry the negative connotation of condemnation (see also I Peter 4:17 in this regard). Jesus bore the punishment of all His elect people on the cross, including the Old Testament saints. Yet in both covenants, old and new, true believers have suffered God’s judgments as discipline. As Proverbs 3:11-12 tells us, God disciplines and reproves those He loves. That verse, which applies first to Old Testament saints, is picked up in Hebrews 12 to apply to New Testament saints. The principle of I Corinthians 11:32 is operative throughout the whole Bible.
7. Can we ever see the precise reason for our suffering in this life?
I believe that using the Scriptures as our guide, we can discern many reasons for our suffering. But even as we scan those reasons, we may not know the precise reason why God has ordained a particular trial come into our life. Providence is best read backward, as someone once put it. We see after the fact what God was doing through our suffering. I love the illustration of a tapestry, that underneath looks like a tangled mess of thread, yet when you turn it over you see the most exquisite design. In the same way, in the moment it is difficult to makes sense of suffering. Yet even in this life, God pulls back the curtain to some degree to show us His purposes. Of course, some suffering may go unexplained or un-understood all our life. And I’m not even convinced that we will know comprehensively all of God’s purposes in our suffering in the life to come - since we will be finite rather than infinite in a glorified state. But I trust that God will show us what He has been up to in our lives to such a large degree that we will be able to glorify Him perfectly in glory - that we will be able to affirm like never before that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).
8. How can we direct those caught in a “health, wealth and prosperity gospel” using a proper understanding of suffering?
There are entire books written on this subject (see this website, for example), so I will be very brief. Show those caught in the prosperity gospel, that Jesus suffered and calls His people to take up their cross as well (Matthew 16:24; I Peter 2:21). Show them that Paul says “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Show them that he writes that “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (II Timothy 3:12). Show them that God has granted us suffering along with faith (Philippians 1:29). Show them that we are called to rejoice in our sufferings, and that sufferings are to be expected in the normal Christian life (Romans 5:1-5; 8:17; Philippians 3:10; James 1:2-4; etc.).