But the wonderful truth is that, associated with Him, we inherit likewise a place in the dispensing of that vast economy of blessing. Is it not even thus that we are to be the praise of His glory? Vast the scheme of blessing planned! Immense the sphere to be subjected to the hand, and rule, and sway of Christ Jesus according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things, after the counsel of His own will! Yet is it also by the predestination or fore-ordaining of that same One, so characterized, that we have obtained our inheritance, a share in that glory of Christ.
He is the “appointed,” “established” “heir of all things” we read in Heb. 1:22Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:2), and He the Son of God. He, the first-born Son is the Heir, Heir par excellence, Heir in a sense we never can be; for by Him the worlds were made. All things created not only by Him, but also for Him, His inheritance of all things is a fixed established fact. And what delays the making good His title, and the taking in hand of power His great inheritance? We who are, in this His day of grace, being called out as His co-heirs know, understand, have reason to appreciate. That He might share it all with us, with us, the poor of this world, enriched spiritually through faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him—He thus waits, waits in patience to invest us at the right moment with the glory of the inheritance. The delay for us is blessing. And not only so, but we, waiting also, in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, stand here, as He sits there, in attitude of expectancy. The Holy Spirit we are sealed with is that Holy Spirit of promise, and we realize Him to be the earnest of our inheritance until, for, and with a view to, the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory. Wondrous the wealth, and honor, and glory, wrapped up in the words “co-heirs with Christ.”
But of more than being co-heirs with Christ does the passage speak. “If so be that we suffer with Him.” That is our privilege, to co-suffer with Christ. Think of what it means. We know what it is to co-suffer with men. That in a world so full of sorrow and suffering we should not escape so common a portion, what would be remarkable about that? We share with our fellows what none are entirely exempt from. As we read further on in the chapter “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now.” All that can be comprehended under that title of personification “the creature” not only is made subject to vanity, and not only is in the bondage of corruption, but “co-groans” and “co-travails” in pain. And we have our link with that. Children of God and heirs of God as we are, we wind ourselves too high if we imagine that connection with earth and a fallen creation is severed for us thereby. The earthen vessel, the body of humiliation, is itself witness of our belonging to, of our being in a very real sense part and parcel of, this scene of sorrow and suffering which, through the sin and fall of man, its head, is co-extensive with this creation. Included in that we are of necessity, and, in a sense, inexorably involved in its heritage of sorrow.
In all this we may say we co-suffer with man, with creation. But what we read of here is co-suffering with Christ. Ah! there we touch something unique, something sacred, something holy—Christ's sufferings. We here come upon what we may call a type of suffering utterly unknown to man or creature hitherto. In suffering, He who is known as the “Man of Sorrows” stood alone, ah! how unapproachably alone: And but for such scripture as this, well might we shrink from the thought of our sufferings being such as can be in any sense put alongside with His. Instinctively we feel that His were sufferings of a type peculiarly sacred. Yet are we said to co-suffer with Him. Privilege it is to suffer so, to have sufferings that belong to the same category as His! If there are depths here, of sorrow, and there are, what are they, in reality, but depths of privilege which it is an honor in being permitted to share, for such an association gives a new valuation to suffering and altogether transfigures sorrow. We are His co-sufferers.
True, distinction is called for, and that as to the nature of His sufferings still more than as to their extent. He suffered for sin. There He stood alone. In that descent into the deepest depths none could accompany Him then, or ever, and, blessed be God, have no need to now. But He suffered in other ways, and in many of them ours it is in our feeble measure, to share. If by a link of death we stand connected with a groaning and suffering creation, by a link of life no less truly are we associated with Christ, and that even as to His sufferings. It could not be otherwise, this latter. Necessarily we feel, Christ, being what He was, must have suffered in such a world of sin and misery. And so He did, as we know. Of necessity also we, if we have the Spirit of Christ in us, will in some measure suffer similarly in this scene. What community of life and moral nature can there be if it result not in feelings of the same sort, as we encounter the same things day by day that were sources of such sorrow to Him. The occasions of suffering are numerous indeed in a world where everything morally is out of course, disorganized, disordered, totally opposed to good, and holiness, and God; where justice is set at naught, righteousness is rejected, and love outraged at every turn. A scene where sin distorts and defiles, where evil is to all appearance triumphant, and where death in all reality reigns. Where men are wallowing in iniquity, vileness, corruption, are stalking in godless pride, are making themselves in hypocrisy, are playing the fool, alike making a mock of sin and a ridicule of godliness, until death, grim death, neither to be mocked nor beguiled, levels their pride and closes their career of ungodliness. Can a child of God, a partaker of the divine nature, pass through a. scene like that and not suffer? The weight of it was on His spirit. Is not its pressure felt on ours? Having life in Christ Jesus, and being led by the Spirit we do suffer with Him thus.
Nor is it a question only of unanimity of sentiment and feelings, and effect on the heart and spirit. “A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He was all through. But active testimony there was also, and the meeting with outward suffering. “He was despised and rejected of men.” Righteousness He preached, truth He proclaimed, holiness He exemplified, love He manifested. And He suffered in the rejection of all. “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” Grief and sorrow were fully measured out to Him in that respect too. He wept at the grave of Lazarus, as the sense of what that scene of sorrow signified of the world's misery, and evil, and suffering, was borne in upon His spirit. But He shed tears also over Jerusalem, the most guilty rejecter of His love and grace. All was present to, and pressed upon, the perfectly attuned sensitiveness of His heart. The world He came not to condemn, but to extend love and grace and salvation too, would have none of it. And soon all culminated in the suffering and death of the cross. Man and the great adversary are still the same. The path of testimony is still one of suffering in this world. The Faithful Witness Himself suffered, and that unto death., Are we, His witnesses in turn, prepared for share of these His afflictions. To suffer for righteousness sake (1 Peter 3:1414But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; (1 Peter 3:14)); for well-doing (1 Peter 2:19-2319For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 20For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (1 Peter 2:19‑23)), as a Christian for the name of Christ (1 Peter 4:12-1612Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 14If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. 15But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. 16Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. (1 Peter 4:12‑16)), all these we may be called on to pass through. Association with a rejected Christ, itself implies suffering in this the scene of His rejection. The offense of the cross is not ceased (Gal. 5:11; 6:1211And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased. (Galatians 5:11)
12As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. (Galatians 6:12)). And he who in the gospel suffered trouble even unto bonds (2 Tim. 2:99Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound. (2 Timothy 2:9)) could exhort his beloved son Timothy, and through him surely us also, to suffer with the suffering gospel (2 Tim. 1:88Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; (2 Timothy 1:8)). John also, our “companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,” records the very words of the Lord Jesus Himself for us, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” Blessedly true is it also that the Lord added, “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” That consideration itself—of how much is it the assurance. The victory is sure, and sure for us. The time of tribulation, the short-lived triumph of the enemy shall pass, and in this confidence we may, even while passing through this interval of suffering, have peace in that One Who has overcome the world.
Such a universal element in the lot of the child of God— “for all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” —it is well to have in true perspective and careful estimation. One who, perhaps beyond others, himself experienced to the full what that was, has by the spirit been led to give us such an estimate. And this is his carefully-pondered and deliberately-expressed judgment. “I reckon” he says (Rom. 8:1818For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)) “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” It is in the light of the future glory that the present suffering can assume true proportions. No suffering, any more than chastening, can for the present seem joyous but grievous. But things are not what they seem, and when the present, freed from the exaggerated bulk it assumes in our distorted vision now, falls back into its true place and perspective by and by, not only will the profit of our exercises under it be apparent, but its intrinsic importance, the “momentary lightness of our affliction,” will be seen in true comparison with its sequel, the “eternal weight of glory.” This as to the suffering in itself. But when further it is remembered that suffering with Christ is the true character of all that is hardest in our path through this world, that association with Him in that respect is our privilege now, the estimate of the apostle has its significance intensified when he looks on to the future and reckons as he does. It will yet be seen by each one of us how great the privilege was of co-suffering with Christ in this the scene of His sorrow and rejection, and ere yet His kingdom in power was set up, or He had taken to Him His great power and reigned.
To the future, however, as the apostle so immediately directs our gaze, we turn. We learn that to be glorified together with Christ is the portion yet reserved for us. “If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Peter, in his epistle, writes in similar strain to what we have here. In a beautiful summary at the close of his First Epistle (chap. 5:10), we have “But the God of all grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.” Called unto His everlasting glory—there is purpose there, the eternal purpose of God. We are “the called according to His purpose,” and glory is the end of that path on which His calling sets our feet. “Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate.... Whom He did predestinate them He also called, and whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified.”
Is it not well to remember that it is His eternal glory? His, not only in the sense that He and He alone is the Author of it; but also as being the One whom it primarily concerns, the One who Himself reaps its harvest. In Scripture, glory is in itself an economy, a scheme of things, a system of universal extension, almost, one might say, a dispensation like law or grace, were it not that in itself it is the crown and culmination of all ages and dispensations. God has reaped glory all along, as He has also sown seeds of grace all along. But as in this dispensation of grace He is, so to speak, filling the field with nothing else than grace, so in that future system, may we call it, He is to have not merely gleanings, but an eternal and abundant harvest of glory. “His everlasting glory” that takes us past all dispensations and times, millennial and otherwise. And it is to that, His eternal glory, that the God of all grace has called us, by Christ Jesus. No doubt it is “after that ye have suffered awhile.” That is our present portion. To none would this seem more strange perhaps than to one who had formerly been a Jew, and accustomed, according to his Jewish faith, to look for the calling of God to result in blessing, temporal and material, here and now. To Jewish believers Peter writes, and according to the wisdom given unto him, is careful to remind them of what they might expect, and doubtless had experienced, regarding the nature of their pa way through this world. Suffering meantime, and for awhile, they were to know that glory in the future, and glory forever, was what awaited them.
Not only so but, to refer again to Rom. 8:1717And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17), it is in association with Christ that all is to be enjoyed, “that we may be also co-glorified.” Co-suffering with Him here, we are to be co-glorified with Him then. The link that made the path of suffering a privilege holds good when its blessed counterpart, glory, is introduced. Blessed prospect! It is with Him, with Him in the eternal glory, that we are to be forever associated. Not that he has not a place and a glory peculiar to Himself, that which none can share. As He in grace undertook suffering, and stood in a place where none could follow, no less true is if that by virtue of what He is in Himself, He must have reserved for him a position unique and exclusive. “And now, O Father,” He prayed, “glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” A glory of His, too, there is, a glory of His own, which He wills and is desirous that we shall behold. “Father, I, will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” He has a conferred glory to assume, as well as essential glory to resume, and it is in that glory which He has won and earned and received that we are to have our part. “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one even as we are one: I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.”
All is the gift of love—this participation in His glory spoken of here. When the world sees us in the same glory as Christ, and thus made perfect in one, it will rightly conclude that we are loved with the same love. The truth of our association with Christ, fruitful in so many respects, will be evident then. For this being co-glorified with Christ the world will see in due time. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.” “If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him” the apostle tells us, referring no doubt to this same time of manifestation to the world in the day of His appearing and kingdom. But for the full thought of this our association with Him in glory our hearts turn to that eternal glory to which the God of all grace has called us by Christ Jesus, where back of all, beyond all, “in the ages to come” He shall “show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
Heirs of God, we are associated with Christ in the inheritance, being His co-heirs. That does not relieve us from suffering meanwhile in this world; but bestows upon us the privilege of being His co-sufferers here. And, finally, when the day of glory dawns it will find us co-glorified with Him, according to the purpose of
“That love which gives not as the world, but shares
All it possesses with its loved co-heirs.”
(Concluded from page 144)
J. T.
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