Middle Glory, the Gospel, and The Promise of Pain
by Steven Smith on January 14, 2016 in Christian Life
So we do not lose heart.
Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. II Cor. 4:16,17
Pain is painful. It is difficult and I’m not pretending otherwise. But, the real fight for my life is not taking place in the circumstances, its in the mind. And I am in the process of getting my mind right. The rumble is going down and God, for whatever reason, has allowed Satan to choose this site – my mind. I can’t ignore it. I have to show up and fight.
My intuition, and perhaps yours, is to think of pain as an unwanted island; an anomaly jutting out conspicuously from the otherwise beautiful sea of life with its jagged edges breeching my hull and confusing the crew. Or perhaps we think of it is as a pit we have fallen into. A sudden and strange anomaly. If God were better to us and we were more astute, we would have missed this pit. We didn’t. We are in a hopeless pit. But, here is the question, how could this be extra-ordinary if it was promised to us over and over again in Scripture?[1]
Pain is a Promised Valley
If pain is a promise, then how should we think about it? Here is a metaphor to carry with you while you walk through it.
The best metaphor for suffering is not an island or a pit, but as a valley that each one of us must walk. A pit is an interruption to a path; a valley is itself a path. God has called us to walk down from ourselves and up to Himself. The presence of these two mountains, the mountain of descent and the mountain of ascent, creates a valley.
God made a decision to make us like Jesus (Romans 8:28,29). Jesus was humiliated and exalted. We imitate the life of Christ and the trajectory of Christ as well (Phil. 2:5-11). It was His trajectory and it is ours. So the pain is promised, but there is a promise attached to the pain: those who descend will, in fact, ascend.
The Promise of Pain
In this way the presence of the valley is the evidence of the mountain. The connection is most clear in II Cor. 4:16,17:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
Affliction prepares for us the weight of glory. The presence of suffering is not glory, but it is the evidence of glory. Only those with a present can have a future. Pain is God’s down payment to us on future glory for us.
Therefore, the life we now live is a prelude to glory; a sort of middle glory between the peak of decent and the peak of ascent; the middle glory between the mountains of salvation and heaven. In this way our lives filled with pain are a metaphor for the Gospel.
Those who know the Gospel understand that Christ came to earth, lived a perfect, yet painful life, died a perfectly painful death, and then ascended to the Father. Jesus came down from glory and then up to glory cratering out a valley in which He calls us to walk. He walked middle glory. Jesus is not just our Savior, He is our leader. Be encouraged: your pain is not an island; a strange aberration to an otherwise good life. It is not a pit with no future. It is a breathing existential metaphor for the Gospel itself.
Your suffering is a promised valley whose very presence promises future glory. It is middle glory. And I know it is so because the presence of this pain promises it to be so. Pain is the greatest evidence for a life without it. Pain is the evidence of one day being pain free because, modeling the life of Christ, suffering is woven into the fabric of glory. There are two very different parts of one whole. Therefore, to have one is the evidence of the other.
In this way, suffering is always a prelude to glory. Suffering is walking the valley of middle glory. A middle glory which is itself a real picture of the Gospel.
[1] See II Cor 4:16-18, John 15:18-25, II Tim. 3:12, or Matt. 16:34
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8 Comments
Thank you, Stephen. Very encouraging. Still praying. Ronny
Thank you Ronny. Very grateful for you!
This is a new way of thinking and I will keep this as a resource. I work with multiple cancer patients and struggle with how to help them spiritually. Thank you for your words of wisdom!
In His Grip , Gala 2:20
Thanks Tina. Really great to hear from you. I pray you all are doing well!
Wow, such great and inspired words. Steven, I remember so many good messages at Hillcrest that God spoke through you. As I have heard of your challenges it has been a privilege to pray for you and yours. I thank God very often for helping me understand His word by those who preach it so wonderfully. To say the cumulative effect of those preachings has changed my life you be a sort of understatement. They have changed my life profoundly. I still remember sitting down and sharing with you one Wednesday night at prayer time. You are dear to me and the thought that I will share eternity with Jesus, you and so many I love is exciting.
Thanks Todd. You have always had a wonderful gift of encouragement. God is good to us.
If the Lord’s events are seen through our hurt and pain, then we tend toward bitterness. But if the Lord’s events are seen through faith, then we hold to hope which is our present glory. When we choose faith in our faithful Lord in the midst of the hurt and pain of His events, we gain hope and glory.
Thanks friend. That is very well said. We never view God in light of our problems, but our problems in light of God. Would love to connect at some point.