Lesson 8: Warring Against the Flesh - Following Jesus in Suffering
Question 5
When we suffer in the flesh as we die to sin, we should remember two essential truths from our study in Romans 8:
First, when we suffer, we suffer “with Him” (Romans 8:17 NIV). You are not alone when you suffer in the flesh; you are with Jesus. He suffered too! Think of His suffering:
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus wrestled with thoughts of wanting to escape the cup of suffering, but He chose to go through with the cross because His heart is for you. He chose to suffer rather than escape the cross because He longed for you, wanted to draw you to Himself, and wanted to live with you forever. What kind of love is this?
When Judas betrayed him, He chose to endure it. He could have escaped this betrayal easily, could have knocked his betrayer and all the soldiers over, and walked right through them to escape. But instead, He chose you. He chose to suffer for you.
When God laid your sins on Jesus’ shoulders, when His soul was made an offering for sin, He loved you so much that He endured it. He suffered intensely with this choice, but His love drove Him onward to the cross.
When the soldiers beat Him mercilessly, when they wove a crown of thorns together and mashed it on His head, when they pounded nails into His hands and feet, He purposely chose to remain on the cross and suffer for you. Your forgiveness meant everything to Jesus, and your eternal life was worth His death. Your fellowship was worth a cross of agony.
And finally, when God poured out all His wrath on Jesus and shot Jesus full of the arrows of His hatred against sin, and when the Father turned His back on His only Son, He suffered intensely for you. Can you see Him there hanging between heaven and earth, being rejected by both? That is suffering! And that is love poured out for you!
And now, having viewed the suffering of Jesus, when you embrace suffering and war against your flesh, you suffer with Him, and He suffers with you! You are not alone in your suffering, Jesus is in you and choosing the cross today just like He chose it two thousand years ago.
Second, this suffering in the flesh leads to glory. “…provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Just as Jesus was raised from the dead, ascended to the Father, and now lives in eternal glory, so our suffering likewise leads to glory. The glory of freedom from our flesh, the glory of living upright and godly lives, the glory of obedience to God.
And again, just like your suffering was “with Him,” so living in glory is “with Him.”
Question 5. Why do you think our suffering is part of God’s plan for us when it comes to living free from overeating?
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