Good Friday: Suffering Experienced, Suffering Redeemed

This piece originally began as a Facebook post (dated 11/24/2017), which I've since edited.

I’ve learned something difficult about God and the way He works: He chooses to redemptively work through the avenue of suffering to bring about life, growth, and, ultimately, His well-deserved glory. He chooses this.

He’s God.

He’s only ever good, loving, and full of mercy and grace.

He’s perfectly just and only ever righteous.

He’s the supreme being over all creation.

He’s God.

Christians, saved by His grace, bought by the blood of Christ, brought into His family, have been chosen to participate in the redemptive work God’s always been doing in the world. Because of this adoption into His family, we are privileged to receive the abundant blessings associated with that chosen son[daughter]ship.

Hallelujah!

But about that blood…

God, the Three in One, chose Christ’s death as the means to my salvation.

He chose.

Why?

Couldn’t He have done it some other, simpler, less disgusting way? The easy answer is this: atonement for sin, according to the Old Testament Law demanded the shedding of innocent blood to cover the sin of the guilty party. But from whom did the Law come? By whose design was sacrifice required?

God.

He chose.

The cross didn’t happen because God was backed into a corner with only one excruciating option remaining. In His sovereignty and wisdom, He intentionally chose a gruesome, bloody solution to redeem and restore creation. What once He had declared to be good, was now full of brokenness and perversion because of sin. God looking into eternity future, knew not only what would be required to atone for the sins of many, but what those redeemed sinners would later need to look to for their daily hope. They would need a God, who, while completely capable of breathing righteousness and perfection into existence by the very words of His mouth, chose this time to instead bring new life through suffering and death.

Why?

Because suffering is what we face each day. We still live in this broken, perverted, sin-wrecked world. God knew, in His mercy, this world is full of heartache and that in each sorrow of life we would need someone to comfort us, someone who has chosen suffering Himself and knows its heartache intimately. Moreover, we don’t only experience the effects of sin, we actually contribute to that brokenness and perversion every single day through our own sinful choices. He knew, in His patience, that living a life of obedience and sacrifice often feels impossibly unfair and that, in those little decision moments when it all seems too difficult and we desperately want to give-in, we would need to remember our Brother who made the most impossibly unfair choice to offer His own body as a sacrifice on our behalf: His innocent death for our guilty life. Ultimately, He knew, in His grace, we would need a Savior we could not only identify with as sufferers, but one we would have no choice but to worship as redeemed sinners.

What a Savior!

Earlier I mentioned this aspect of God’s character has been difficult to embrace. It’s completely counter-intuitive, going against everything I want. My sinful heart wants all of the blessings God has to offer through the much more pleasant avenues of ease, comfort, and security. I want all of the joys of seeing God’s glory shine in the hearts of people without the pain or inconvenience of living life with them. I want a marriage that portrays the good news of the Gospel without humbling myself in the middle of a selfish argument. I want to have a family that loves Christ and serves Him sacrificially without any actual risk to our health, finances, or schedule. I don’t want suffering.

But suffering is unfortunately a staple in this world. It’s also the means God redemptively uses to bring about life, growth, and, ultimately, His well-deserved glory. And thankfully, I can look to Him for mercy, patience, and grace in my own seasons of suffering because He does know them intimately. He has dwelt in those dark places Himself.

He chooses this, for me.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteem Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed…because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:4-5, 12b).