Sufferings that are for our Transformation vs Sufferings of Christ for His Body

There is a difference between the sufferings that are for our transformation or as a result of our mistakes and the sufferings that are for the Body; we need to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection to share in Christ’s sufferings for His Body, that is, for us to suffer for the Body.

The Christian life and the Christian experience are such a wonderful, mysterious, and organic matter.

It is not a living according to certain rules and regulations to “please God” but rather, it is a living by the divine life in order for God to be expressed through us.

We believers in Christ are following in the Lord’s footsteps; He set up a model, a pattern, of how to live the God-man life, and we imitate Him not in an outward way but by enjoying and experiencing Him to become His duplication.

The Lord Jesus lived on earth not by His human life but by the divine life; He denied His perfect human life and lived under the cross daily so that He may express God and not Himself.

For Him, He first went through death and then entered into resurrection; with us, we first enjoy and experience the power of His resurrection and then be conformed to His death.

The way we should live today as believers in Christ is death and resurrection; we need to live one spirit with the Lord to put our natural man and self to death so that Christ may live in us.

The way for the church to come into being and to increase is not by human effort or zeal; it is by the death of the cross.

The Lord Jesus did not take the way of being glorified and appreciated outwardly; even though those around Him even wanted to make Him a King, He withdrew, and He was hidden from them.

Instead of seeking outward glory and being enthroned as the King of the Jews, the Lord Jesus took the way of death and resurrection.

He said He is the grain of wheat which falls into the ground to die so that in resurrection He may produce many grains (John 12:24).

We as the many grains, the many believers in Christ, were produced in the resurrection of Christ, and we follow in His footsteps.

Sooner or later, we all need to learn to die so that the divine life within us may be released.

We do not need to seek suffering or the experience of the death of Christ, but we need to be open to the Lord so that, in any kind of experience we have, we would deny the self and live by the divine life.

The Lord wants to change us in our very nature so that our living may express Him; this is by our experience of Christ in His death and resurrection for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

There is a Difference between the Sufferings for our Transformation the Sufferings for the Body

When we speak of sharing in the sufferings of Christ for the Body (Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24), we need to realize that there is more than one kind of suffering for us as Christians.

First of all, there are sufferings that all men go through; simply because of the fall, we go through sufferings, for sufferings are the allotted portion of all human beings.

Sufferings began from the fall of man; because man is in conflict with God, there are all kinds of sufferings, confusion, and chaos in the world.

Wherever people are, there are sufferings.

Besides these, there are the sufferings that are due to our mistakes, shortcomings, and weaknesses.

We may commit a sin, we may make mistakes, and we may have weaknesses; therefore, there are sufferings, but these are not for the Body.

If we are late for work consistently and the manager warns us many times, but we keep being late, we should not consider that we are suffering for the Body if we get fired from our job.

Due to our mistakes foolishness, and weaknesses, we have many sufferings.

Now that we are out of work, however, we may have a lot of time to pray; the Lord may use such sufferings for His benefit, for we may develop our intimate and personal relationship with the Lord.

We could say that such sufferings, though they are the result of our mistakes and sins, are for our transformation.

Besides this kind of suffering, there are the sufferings for our transformation.

These are sufferings that we experience for us to be transformed.

We may not do anything to deserve these sufferings, but they are allotted to us by God in order to be transformed (2 Cor. 3:18).

As we see in the case of Job in the Old Testament, he did not do anything wrong per se, neither did he have weaknesses or sins; however, the Lord brought about many sufferings for him to be transformed by first being stripped of his own righteousness and goodness.

The Lord will allow many things to happen to us, to our family, and to those around us whom we love, in order for us to be transformed.

He wants us to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ, and for this, we need to be first stripped of what we are in our natural man.

How can we become in the image of Christ if we still bear our own image, we still have our own righteousness, and we live and express ourselves, even our better selves?

It is easy for us to be self-sufficient and to rely on ourselves and on other things.

There are many things that we rely on apart from Christ.

In His mercy and under His shepherding, God allows many sufferings to strip us of what we are in our natural man, in the self, and in the flesh, so that we may trust only Him.

Under the Lord’s mercy, He gradually strips many things away to the point that we are reduced to Christ; we will have Christ and only Christ as our everything, and we will be nothing.

Such sufferings are needed for our transformation so that we may not rely on our own ability, our natural gift, our possessions, our relationships, and anything that is apart from Christ.

In order for us to be changed in what we are to be transformed into the image of Christ, we need to go through many sufferings for our transformation.

In order for His life in our spirit to be released in us and spread in all our inward parts, there is a need for suffering.

Such sufferings are for our transformation, and they are not for the Body of Christ; they may issue into a benefit for the Body of Christ, but they are not for the producing and building up of the Body.

Paul’s word in Phil. 3:10 doesn’t refer to sufferings for our transformation; rather, these sufferings are for the producing and building up of the Body.

If we compare Phil. 3:10 with Col. 1:24 we will see the sufferings that Paul was speaking of in Phil. 3:10 are those that make up the lack of Christ’s afflictions for the Body.

On one hand, we thank the Lord for all the sufferings that He assigns to us, whether they are as a result of our failures or for our transformation.

On the other hand, we want to go further with the Lord in the experience of Christ so that we may know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to go on with You in our Christian life. Grant us to be transformed into Your image day by day as we behold You and reflect You. Amen, Lord, keep our being open to You, even when You assign us sufferings and hardships for us to be transformed. We want to be transformed in our inner being until we are conformed to the glorious image of Christ. Save us from trusting in ourselves, our ability, our possessions, and anything else apart from Christ. Lord, You see who we are and what we rely on apart from You. Have Your way, Lord, to strip away anything that is not of You and to reconstitute us with Yourself. Keep our being open to You so that there would be the reducing and stripping of the natural man and there would be the renewing and building up of the inner man! Have a way, Lord, to spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will to transform us into Your image fully!

Share in the Sufferings of Christ for His Body by the Power of Christ’s Resurrection

There is a difference between sharing in the sufferings of Christ for His Body and experiencing sufferings for our transformation.

In Col. 1:24 Paul regarded his own sufferings as the filling up of what is lacking of Christ’s sufferings for His Body.

Christ never had to suffer in order to be transformed; He did have to suffer in order for His outer man to be stripped and decay, but He never suffered for transformation.

However, Christ did suffer for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ, and these sufferings are not yet completed.

Even today, Christ still suffers for His Body so that we as believers in Christ may be regenerated, renewed, transformed, conformed to the image of Christ, and glorified.

And we can share in these sufferings today.

Paul was in prison not because of his sins, weaknesses, or mistakes; he was fully in the right, but he was in prison sharing in the sufferings of Christ for His Body.

In Gal. 4:19 he testified that he travailed again in birth until Christ was formed in the believers.

He suffered and shared in Christ’s sufferings in order for the Body of Christ to be built up.

Such travailing is for the building up of the Body of Christ.

We need to ask ourselves how much of our sufferings are for the Body of Christ.

How much do we travail for Christ to be formed in the saints?

Are we burdened to pray for the saints, even be desperate before the Lord for their growth in life?

Do we struggle before the Lord in order to care for the saints according to God so that they may go on with the Lord and be brought to maturity?

Do we share in the sufferings of Christ for His Body by the power of Christ’s resurrection?

Or do we still go on in our independent ways, living life the way we want to, going to the meetings and going about our business?

Do we merely care for our success and experience or are we burdened for the Body?

The sufferings of Christ for His Body are still going on, and we need to share in them (Phil. 3:10; Acts 9:4-5).

When Saul was persecuting the believers in Christ, breathing murder and seeking to imprison them, the Lord appeared to him on the way to Damascus, and He said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?

The Lord was one with His believers; He shared in their sufferings, and their sufferings were His sufferings, for He is the Head of the Body and the believers are His members.

The Lord identifies Himself with His believers, and so many members of the Body of Christ are suffering today for His sake.

He cares for the saints to such an extent that, whatever they go through, whatever they are suffering, He too is bearing that.

Stephen was being stoned to death in Acts 7, and the Lord was there, watching, observing, even standing up and looking at Stephen, infusing him with Himself until Stephen went to be with the Lord.

The Lord is seated on the throne, having accomplished all, but for the sake of His member who is suffering, He is standing up to observe and see and infuse him with what He is.

Similarly today, we as believers in Christ are members of the Body of Christ, and we need to share in the sufferings of Christ for His Body.

In Rom. 12:4-5 we see that we are members one of another, and if one member rejoices, we all should rejoice with him, and if one member suffers, we all should suffer with him (Rom. 12:15).

Just as the Lord emphasizes so much with the members of His Body, so we need to empathize with them.

When a member of the Body suffers, we should not be glad that it’s him and not us, nor should we think that they deserve it; rather, we should suffer with those who suffer.

If one member of the Body rejoices, we shouldn’t be envious or think that they will calm down and it will all pass; rather, we need to rejoice with him.

This requires that we put off our soul-life and live in resurrection, even experience the power of Christ’s resurrection, so that we can enter into the sufferings of Christ for the Body.

It is when we suffer for the Body that we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection.

May we open to the Lord concerning this so that He may shepherd us to advance in this aspect of our Christian life and church life.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Head of the Body who sympathises with our sufferings and rejoices with our happiness. Grant us to have the same feeling and attitude as You toward the members of Your Body. Save us from our individualistic ways and from our independence; we want to know the Body, care for the Body, and live in the Body. Amen, Lord, grant us the experiences we need for us to share in the sufferings of Christ for the Body. May we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection as we suffer for the Body. May we live as members in the Body, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice. May we care not just for our going on but also for others’ growth in life. Grow in the saints, Lord. May Christ live in the saints. May Christ be formed in the saints. Amen, Lord, may the saints be conformed to the image of Christ.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray M. in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians, pp. 308-311, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 5, entitled, Knowing the Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings and Being Conformed to His Death.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, to know Thee as the Body, / Is my desperate need today, / Oh, to see Thee in Thy members, / ’Tis for this I long and pray. / No more just to know Thy headship / In an individual way, / But to see Thee incarnated, / As the Body-Christ, I pray. (Hymns #1225 stanza 1)
  – I would cease completely / From my efforts vain, / Let Thy life transform me, / Full release to gain; / Build me up with others / Till in us Thou see / Thy complete expression / Glorifying Thee. (Hymns #841 stanza 6)
  – If I’d have Christ formed within me, / I must breathe my final breath, / Live within the Cross’s shadow, / Put my soul-life e’er to death. / If God thru th’ Eternal Spirit / Nail me ever with the Lord; / Only then as death is working / Will His life thru me be poured. (Hymns #631 stanzas 2-3)