GOD'S EVERLASTING LOVE Suffering is common to all of humanity. As it is written, "man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7). When sin "entered into the world," death, with all of its offspring, entered with it (Rom 5:12). Disease, sickness, pain, sorrow, trouble – these are all the offspring of death. They are wherever death is found, and are only removed where there is no death. As long as we are "in the body," we will be subject to trouble, despair, loneliness and other forms of suffering. Such trouble is common to saint and sinner, saved and unsaved, justified and condemned. It is part and parcel of living in the world. The only difference in men is the degree of trouble they experience, not its presence. – Tomorrow:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39, NKJV)
However, our text speaks of a special category of sufferings. These are sufferings for the sake of the Lord, or because we have embraced Him and His promises by faith: "For YOUR SAKE we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered" (NIV). This expression is taken from Psalm 44:22. There, the Psalmist was lamenting the fact that God's chastening hand was upon the nation. For that reason they were being subjected to death all day long and considered as sheep to be slaughtered. However, this is not the sense in which the reference is used in this text. Here godliness has resulted in a subjection to death, and laboring for Christ has incurred the view that they are considered worthy only of wholesale slaughter. This is New Covenant suffering that parallels the experience of the saints of old: "They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (Heb 11:37-38).
When we take hold of the Lord and His Word, the world at once begins to oppose us. It is driven by its hatred of the Lord Jesus first, then those who embrace His name. Thus Jesus said, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:18-19). This is why John wrote to suffering saints, "Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you" (1 John 3:13).
The world is animated by the prince of the power of the air, who has focused all of his wrath against the remnant of the "seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev 12:17). He is set against the people of God, willing to go to any lengths to rid the world of them. Praise God, he operates under the government of the mighty God, and is in subject to the Lord Jesus Christ – else he would have done all believers in long ago.
There are severe sufferings that have NOT come because of a departure from the Lord, as with Israel. Rather, they have come because of a close and productive affiliation with the Lord of glory – "For YOUR sake" (NIV). Make no mistake about this, God does not overlook such wicked treatment of His people. Rather, it furnishes Him with a justifiable reason for repaying the wicked. As it is written, "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you" (2 Thess 1:6). And again, "For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath He sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye" (Zech 2:8).
Marvelously, in these difficult sufferings, the present possession of the saints of God is confirmed. As our Lord said, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs IS the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great IS your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matt 5:10-12).
The question of our text is if being counted as sheep for slaughter, and being subjected every day to death, is capable of severing us from Christ's profound love.
Once more, I want to draw your attention to the nature of the things presented in this text. The Holy Spirit is NOT asking if sin can separate us from the love of Christ. He is NOT guaranteeing the love of Christ to the slothful, indolent, lukewarm, and rebellious. The hard hearted, those who have roots of bitterness, and in whom an evil heart of unbelief has arisen, are NOT the subjects under discussion. Those who guarantee the love of Christ to such individuals have gone beyond this text, and will be held responsible for presenting the Lord Jesus as One who maintains His love toward those who are unfaithful to Him or depart from Him. I do not know that there is a clear word in Scripture that affirms or suggests such a thing.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You that, like Moses, I can choose to suffer affliction with the people of God, knowing that even death itself is not capable of severing me from the love of Christ.