THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERING

       " . . . the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." NKJV (Phil 3:10b)

The RSV reads, "share in His sufferings." The depth of spiritual experience to which we have been called is marvelous. We will find that the more grievous our experience in the flesh, the more profound can be our experience in the Spirit, or our fellowship with Christ.
     We participate in Christ's sufferings in two ways. First, by faith, we share in the effects of our Lord's vicarious, or substitutionary, suffering. That suffering eventuated in Him "tasting death for every man" (Heb2:9). These are the "sufferings" foretold by the Prophets, which resulted in "the glory that should follow" – the glorious salvation of his people. However, there is another aspect to His sufferings in which we participate.
     These are the sufferings that have been left behind for us. As it is written, "and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church" (Col 1:24). Other versions read "what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . . what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church" (NASB, NIV). These are the sufferings through which we are "conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom 8:29). In them, we learn the manner of the Kingdom, and qualify, as it were, to receive comfort.
     Jesus "learned obedience by the things that He suffered" (Heb 5:8).  These were not the sufferings of the cross, but those He experienced while living for God in a hostile world. Sufferings were the means through which He was made perfect, becoming the author of eternal salvation (Heb 5:9). When our Lord was tempted, He suffered, coming to the point where He had to be sustained from heaven (Heb 2:18). These are the type of sufferings Jesus "left behind" for us–a sampling, as it were, of Divine life. Peter referred to this when He wrote, "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth" (1 Pet 2:21-22).
     There is a closeness to Christ in these sufferings that cannot be realized any other way. It is like the fellowship of the fourth man in the furnace of fire. Sweet succor is ministered that shines heaven and dulls the earth. It causes temptation and sin to be painful. As it is written, "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" (1 Pet 4:1NASB). Fellowship in these sufferings is obtained when we have the mind of Christ. In them we also have His fellowship.