Suffering With HopeНамуна

Christ’s Victorious Suffering

When Paul quotes from Psalm 44 in Romans 8, he does so in light of Jesus the Messiah. He employs these ancient words to convince his readers that nothing shall separate us from God’s love. Paul is making the argument about discerning God’s love amid unsettling circumstances: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and the sword (Romans 8:35). It can be easy to believe God is “for us” when things are going well in our lives. But what about during life’s challenges? Here Paul draws from Psalm 44, only the meaning is now modified in light of the coming of Christ. 

Originally Psalm 44 spoke of the people of Israel facing rejection and death. The question then, and for Paul’s audience, remained the same: Will God hide his face forever? Only in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is this question answered decisively and finally. Now Jesus stepped into our place to face the violence and hurt so it would not be our final or full story. Yes, we still face pain and difficulties. Paul doesn’t shy away from that. But they are not the full story. They are not the sufferer’s identity, which is now secure in Christ. 

Those who know the full story of redemption can experience joy even during suffering. Those who don’t know the story are left only with despair or efforts of self-improvement.

In Jesus the Son of God, we discover God’s solidarity with us, not just a fellow feeling but a redemptive solidarity. He absorbs our sin, enters into our pain, including our physical suffering and even death, not merely to better understand it but in order to overcome it.

In Christ we are secure. We can have confidence based not on our own faithfulness but on the faithfulness of our triune God. This God who began a good work in us will never abandon us (Philippians 1:6). Nothing—not enemies, not a devil, not our pain nor nightmares—nothing shall snatch us out of his hand (John 10:28-29). In the power of the Spirit we are united to the Son so that we may live in the Father’s grace and love.

Beloved, amid the trials and tribulations of life, let us have confidence not in ourselves, not in our own efforts, but in God. This God has come in Christ, and he has overcome sin, death, and the devil. While we may currently be walking through the shadow of death, may our God’s love, grace, and compassion become ever more real to us. And may we, as the church, participate in the ongoing divine motions and movements of grace as God meets people in their need.

Adapted from Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering. Copyright ©2017 by Kelly M. Kapic. Used by permission. For more information, please visit https://www.ivpress.com/embodied-hope