Presence Weekly 10/14/2024, "The Paradox of Our Hope, Part 2"

⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:6-7

It is comforting to me that the narrative of the Bible never presents a picture of life without suffering apart from the Garden (Genesis 1-2) and The New Heavens and New Earth (Revelation 21-22). Everything in the middle, where we live, includes suffering. In this letter, Peter affirms both the reality of the suffering the elect exiles face and the fact that they possess something that can move them from the agony of suffering to the joy of hope. 

Christians are objectively different from those who do not have a living hope. However, it’s an awareness of the implications of our living hope that makes all the difference in our daily lives. Therefore, it’s essential to understand our suffering differently than others - who are not elect exiles - understand suffering. 

We are unsure of the source of suffering for these elect exiles. Most scholars agree that Peter’s original and intended readers were Jewish Christians who had been forced out of Rome through local persecution. So, perhaps their suffering came from no longer being at home in Rome. It may have been political suspicion under which they now found themselves in their new home. It could have been the religious persecution that they were experiencing from both the traditional Jews and the pagan idol worshipers around them. Perhaps they were experiencing economic hardship as the merchants among them were being boycotted for refusal to produce the local idols for sale in the marketplace. Whatever it was, Peter acknowledges it as real and painful. 

Suffering is Real and Painful

Suffering enters the world in Genesis 3 and remains a regular part of the biblical narrative until Christ’s return. The scope of suffering presented in Scripture is as complete as it is staggering. Scripture presents everyday sufferings such as hunger, inconvenient weather, difficult working conditions, exhaustion, family strife, loneliness, unwanted singleness, and economic hardships. Sharing a general sense of commonality with the people of the Bible, who experienced the same hardships that all of us are familiar with in one sense or another, is reassuring. 

But I believe the real comfort comes from seeing more severe suffering presented in Scripture: crippling chronic disease, the painful loss of spouses and children, homelessness, rape, incest, murder of innocent children, murder of family members, slavery, adultery, genocide, widespread famine, debilitating mental illness, suicide, false imprisonment, torture, and economic ruin. 

While some will get through life experiencing only a limited number of these hardships, no one gets through life without dealing with the radiating effects of death. Others, however, and certainly more than we are aware of, have lived through or are currently enduring many of the most unimaginable and devastating horrors described. 

How is reading about this level of suffering comforting? 

It is comforting because God has given us a story that includes the most unimaginable and debilitating suffering so that everyone can place their unique suffering into the narrative of God’s story of redemption. By “story” we mean the recording of real events, real people, real history, and real consequences in narrative form for the purpose of communicating something real about ourselves and also the God of steadfast love and faithfulness. 

Suffering is Temporary and Meaningful

Suffering is more than just real and painful.

First, our suffering is temporary. When we are in the middle of suffering, even if it is with a chronic illness, we have a hard time seeing our suffering as temporary compared to the nature of our inheritance. Parents who have lost children will live the rest of their lives with a hole in their hearts. The sexually assaulted will never forget the event that changed their world. Most of the disabled and paralyzed will live out the rest of their days in that condition. In saying, “though now for a little while,” Peter is not saying that their persecution-related suffering will be over in a bit. In fact, we know that the worst of the persecutions are still to come. Against earthly suffering, Peter is making a statement about their eternal lives. However long their earthly suffering lasted, it was sure to end as they passed into the presence of the living God, which Revelation describes this way, 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Rev 21:1-4

Second, our suffering has meaning. Peter says that God uses our suffering to refine our faith, which is “more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire.” The fact is that we often place hope in all the wrong places. Our misplaced hope is burned away through suffering, leaving only our living hope. Although suffering is difficult and painful, it also has the ability to force us to re-examine our priorities and where we have placed our hope. 

As someone who has experienced and endured a disproportionate number of aspects of suffering on the above lists, it’s undoubtedly challenging to reconcile the purposes of God with the pain that comes from hardship and tragedy. What it has taught me is the limitations of existence as a creature rather than Creator. Suffering has driven home the truth that I am finite and fragile and that there are things about life that I do not and cannot understand, let alone enjoy. However, Peter’s message is that God uses these experiences to form us into his children - children that he redeemed by sending His Son, who is foretold in Isaiah 53:3,

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Jesus endured unspeakable suffering to experience all that we experience and to turn His longing and hope to His Father even in His final moments. Likewise, in our suffering, our experience of sorrow and grief turns our longing and hope towards our Father.

Servants and leaders in the public square are uniquely positioned to encourage what is good that limits suffering, to repair what is broken that currently allows suffering, to create what is missing that will mitigate suffering, and to oppose the evil that causes suffering. This work as suffering-alleviators is part of what it means to participate in Christ’s mission of making all things new. It offers a foretaste of the new New Heavens and New Earth. But all those efforts will always lack the final consummation; suffering will always exist. This leads us to the most important point…

Suffering can Produce Joy

No word is doing more work in this passage than “this,” 

⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The “this” Peter refers to is not the refining by fire which suffering produces, but rather what Peter just mentioned: 

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Pe 1:3–5.

Suffering can only produce joy when contrasted against the certainty of our salvation! In the midst of our suffering, we cling to a hope established for us by Someone who is living but who we have not seen – and this ends in our great joy! This is our theology, but it is not our daily practice.

We will examine that aspect next week.

Application Questions

What aspects of suffering have you experienced in your life? How have those experiences impacted your faith? Because suffering is real and painful, it’s appropriate to consider the good, the bad, and the ugly impacts of suffering on your life. 

Is there an area of current suffering that you need to place within the context of our living hope? How could that alter the way you move through life?

Through your vocation in the public square, what suffering are you well-positioned to alleviate through encouraging the good, repairing the broken, creating the missing, and opposing evil?

• Monday: Morning: Micah 7:1-7, Acts 26:1-23, Luke 8:26-39,
  Psalm 1,2,3 // Evening: Psalm 4,7
• Tuesday: Morning: Jonah 1:1-17a, Acts 26:24-27:8, Luke 8:40-56, Psalm 5,6// Evening: Psalm 10,11
• Wednesday: Morning: Jonah 1:17-2:10, Acts 27:9-26; Luke 9:1-17, Psalm 119:1-24// Evening: Psalm 12,13,14
• Thursday: Morning: Jonah 3:1 - 4:11, Acts 27:27-44, Luke 9:18-27, Psalm 18:1-20// Evening: Psalm 18:21-50
• Friday: Morning: Ecclesiastes 1:1-10, 18-27; Acts 28:1-16, Luke 9:28-36 Psalm 16,17// Evening: Psalm 22
• Saturday: Morning: Ecclesiastes 3:17-31, Acts 28: 17-31, Luke 9:37-50, Psalm 20, 21:1-7 // Evening: Psalm 110:1-5, 116,117
• Sunday: Morning: Ecclesiastes 4:1-10, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Matthew 16:13-20, Psalm 148, 149 150 // Evening: Psalm 114,115

• Cabinet Agency: The Office of Government Ethics (USOGE), which “leads and oversees the Executive Branch Ethics Program which is at work every day in more than 140 agencies. The Executive Branch Ethics Program works to prevent financial conflicts of interest to help ensure government decisions are made free from personal financial bias.”
• Think Tank, Lobby group, NGO: The staff of the Project of Government Oversight (POGO) which “champion reform to achieve a more effective, ethical, and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles.”
• Weekly delegation: The Congressional Delegation of Florida as they deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. 
• News: For those going through the vetting process for Cabinet positions. For those preparing to leave Cabinet positions. For those doing background checks on potential Executive Branch appointees. For those at the Department of Labor overseeing last week’s approval of up to $10 million in initial emergency grant funding to North Carolina to support disaster-relief jobs and training services in 25 counties to help respond to Hurricane Helene. For the staff, the Department of Agriculture has deployed “to assist with response and recovery efforts. USDA is also putting in place contingency plans and program flexibilities to ensure farmers, foresters, and communities can get the support they need.”
• Personal requests: For a couple celebrating a child’s marriage. For someone putting together two major events this month. For someone exhausted from travel. For someone in a serious conflict with a coworker. For someone trying to get a consulting business off the ground. For someone wrestling with their understanding of God’s love in the midst of prolonged suffering. For someone recovering from minor surgery. 

• Go here first →  The Ideos Institute’s (Re)Union Project 31 Days of Unity. For the 31 days of October, you can receive daily texts — each with a prayer for unity, scripture reference, and a link to a short video reflection. Faithful Presence is participating in this initiative. 
• Read this first → Common Good Magazine has an essay on suffering that ties in perfectly to this week’s devotional, ‘Scars Are the Signs that Everything We Say About Jesus Is True.’
• Mere Orthodoxy has a fantastic piece by Kristen Sanders on how modern technical language can intrude on our understanding of Biblical concepts, like discipleship. 
• The Wall Street Journal has a deeply troubling example of what can happen when poor theology meets public square rhetoric.
• The Center for Public Justice has an extremely relevant interview with David Koyciz, the author of Political Visions and Illusions, entitled How Do We Honor Christ In Our Citizenship?

• Tuesday, October 15, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm, Baylor in Washington presents an online event, "Political Desaturation: How to Thrive Before, During, and After the 2024 Election," with a panel that includes Dr. Curt Thompson (The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope)
• Tuesday, October 15, The Aspen Institute hosts a “Moderated Dinner and Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence, Democracy, and Power”
• Wednesday, October 16, 10:00 am - 11:30 am, The Brookings Institute hosts Democracy at a Crossroads: Findings from the 15th annual American Values Survey.
• Wednesday, October 16, 1:00 pm to 2:00, The Bi-Partisan Policy Institute presents an online-only event, Learning from Local Successes in Addressing Homelessness.
• Friday, October 18, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm ET, The Trinity Forum presents an online event, Faith & Human Flourishing: an Online Conversation with Byron Johnson.

I just finished a wonderful re-read of one of the best works on presuppositional apologetics available. That is, of course, because Bahnsen’s work was a development of Dr. Cornelius Van Til, who effectively birthed the approach in the middle of the 20th century. Differing from the classical approach (philosophically arguing from natural law, to theism, to Christianity) and the evidentialist approach made famous in Evidence That Demands a Verdict and The Case for Christ, presuppositional apologetics places it’s weight on what we start our argument from - the truth of God’s Word.

In what amounts to a collection of teaching notes from his classes at Westminster Theological Seminary, Dr. Bahnsen lays out the fundamentals of the presuppositional approach. At the heart of his argument is the understanding that trying to reason someone to belief using “the wisdom of the world” will likely produce the very fruit Scripture says it will - nothing. Rather, presuppositional apologetics makes two starting assertions. First, God’s wisdom is true wisdom. Two, all other wisdom is ultimately inconsistent, self-defeating, and unsustainable. The author is no fan of starting in the neutral position. 

First, Bahnsen argues, in speaking with seekers and skeptics, we must engage with the understanding that only God brings repentance and faith, and that both are required for knowing the truth. Second, we must understanding not only what we believe, but the worldview of our conversation partners. This is necessary for both the method of engagement, and, more importantly, the ethos of the argument. It was this apologetic style, through the work of fellow presuppositionalist, Francis Schaeffer, that served to ground my faith in the early years.

Always Ready is over 30 years old, yet, despite significant changes to our culture, remains as essential as it was originally. Highly recommended!