SUFFERING AND GLORY
P. J. Mutton
I have been impressed with the thought of suffering as connected with the thought of glory.
The one is presented in this chapter as being the reflex of the other. There are many ways in which we experience suffering—suffering in the testimony, which perhaps this chapter relates to particularly, suffering in our circumstances, and suffering in our bodies, which our sister experienced. We are mindful too of the circumstances that this has caused, and it affects all of us, because we are members of one body, “And if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it”, 1 Corinthians 12: 26. But our sister not only knew what it was to suffer in her body latterly—and, thank God, that is all over, it is something that never again will touch her—she also suffered in testimony. She has suffered for the Lord; early in life she had bent her feet to a way which involved what was alien to nature. She had known too the sufferings of sorrow as having lost a dearly-loved father in her very early years, but she found as she grew up that she was one who had been adopted, adopted by the Father as an heir, and not an isolated heir, but a joint heir with Christ, and now she has entered into her portion with Him.
The sufferings amongst the saints are many, and our sister experienced the severing of natural links, not through death, but through adhering to the Lord’s mind and His word. Out of all this comes glory. There is glory for God in the present and there is glory for Him in a day to come when He will finally display what He has worked out in the saints, what He has worked out in our sister whose body is with us today. But there is glory too for us, and here the apostle touches on it. After all, he was one who knew as much as anybody about suffering.
He had given up everything. He had reckoned all to be filth that he might gain Christ (see Philippians 3: 8)—not only Christ in ‘the sweet by and by’, but Christ now. And for him to live was Christ (see Philippians 1: 21), that is to say, it was his portion in the present to enjoy a living link with the Saviour. He was tested by the question as to which he would rather do, whether he would rather be with the Lord or whether he would rather be with the saints, and of course he knew which he would rather choose. He would rather be with Christ, which is “very much better”, as we have been reminded; but it was necessary for the sake of the saints that he should remain and be found here active amongst them.
Paul exhorts Timothy—“Take thy share in suffering” (2 Timothy 2: 3), and an occasion like this raises the question, ‘Who will fill the place that our sister has had in Edinburgh?’, and that applies amongst the saints generally. Who is going to take their share in suffering? Who of the younger brethren, the children of the saints? Who is prepared for it? Who is prepared for the path that our sister has trod, prepared to take up their responsibilities—not just for the brethren, but for Christ, that He should be everything to them, as He became to our sister?
We find on the road a vale of tears, and in the midst of suffering such as this who can see beyond it? What will tomorrow bring if the Lord leaves us here? The future maybe looks dark, especially for those who are in the midst of sorrow, and yet we can confidently look into the future as knowing that something is going to be revealed to us. There is something that will afresh be revealed to our brother in his sorrow, and to our sister too in her sorrow.
There is something that is going to be revealed, and it is glory! And what is glory? How can we define it? Even the Scriptures do not seem fully to convey what is involved in the coming glory, and the apostle, who knew more about glory than almost anybody because he had experienced what it was to be translated, to taste of heavenly things—the third heaven was something that he had witnessed—all he can say is it is yet to be revealed. It is so great, dear brethren, that only the coming day will enable us fully to understand it. We shall actually have bodies—as our sister will have a body in that day—of glory in “conformity to his body of glory” (Philippians 3: 21) and be always with the Lord. We shall understand then.
For the moment I thought maybe this passage would comfort us, would direct our thoughts out of the sufferings to the coming glory, with which, says Paul, the sufferings are “not worthy to be compared”. How difficult it is for us to see beyond the immediate, to see beyond the factor of death. And yet I am sure we would be encouraged to see that something is coming, something is about to be revealed to us, and it is greater than anything we can conceive of. May it be our portion afresh to experience something of this hope today, for His name’s sake.
Words at the burial of Mrs Elizabeth Gray, Edinburgh
24 February 1984
(The first word was published in the November issue).