Phil. 3:8-16, The Fullness of Suffering (1)

What about “the fullness of suffering?”  Jesus refused the “wine mixed with myrrh” that would have reduced the pain.  The first thing we should consider is what Paul said in Col. 1:24: I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.  The Catholic Church has taken this as the basis for many heresies in my view.  It is particularly the reason for the constant re-enactment of Jesus’ death in the “mass.”  We are always needing to “make up for our sins” by repeatedly crucifying Christ “under the bread and the wine.” 

Certainly, you cannot take Paul’s words to mean that Christ’s suffering on the cross were incomplete.  Paul is speaking of his sufferings (“my sufferings;” “my flesh”).  Paul has in mind the fact that he is a follower of Christ and thus bears his own cross.  Every follower of Christ feels this (Mk. 8:34).  In Mt. 16, when Jesus called His disciples to take up the cross, He had also announced that He was building His Church.  When we obey the command to “make disciples” (Mt. 28:19-20), we, like Paul, are serving through our sufferings for the sake of the church, those who will come to Christ.  Paul’s longing in Phil. 3:10 is the same: that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.  On the cross Jesus embraced everything having to do with death; that was His ministry.  That is not our ministry.  We have already, once and for all, been crucified with Him and raised to eternal life.  But now we carry our cross, and as He leads us, we are being “conformed to His death,” not completing or adding to His death.  As Jesus said, the work is FINISHED!

So now we ask, why did Jesus need to know the fullness of suffering?

·       Mk. 15:28: So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.  The term “numbered” is an important and familiar doctrinal term in the NT.  It means to “consider” or to think in a certain way.  In Rom. 4:3-5 it is used of Abraham believing God and it was “counted” to him as righteousness.  In Rom. 6:11 we are told to “reckon” ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God.  In 2 Cor. 5 it is translated “impute.”  Abraham was not considered partially righteous.  We do not halfway consider ourselves dead and alive in Christ.  Sin is not partially imputed.  So we must recognize, that when Jesus was counted or reckoned as a sinner, this was total.  He truly and fully became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).  He was not just an observer of our sins; He bore them in His body on the tree (1 Pt. 2:24). 

·       Isa. 53:6: The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  The doctrine of vicarious atonement figures into this as well.  Again, as Isaac did not have to die for sin because there was a substitute, so our substitute has provided full atonement.  Remember the Barabbas illustration in Mark 15: Barabbas was totally free and Jesus paid in full.  (More on this in the next post.)