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Suffering: The Sacrifice of Christian Hedonism | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. Today we are doing a deep dive
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into, well, what might be the hardest concept in the Christian
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life, the rationality of chosen suffering.
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It's a topic that really cuts against the grain of, you know,
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every modern idea about what a good life is supposed to look
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like, comfort, success. And we're going to be looking at
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why the Bible, and especially the apostle Paul, is so
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insistent that affliction isn't just some random unfortunate
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thing that happens, right, but that it's a a tool and
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instrument that God uses for a specific purpose for purifying
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believers and for spreading the gospel.
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And for our sources, we're leaning heavily on Paul's
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letters, which are just filled with these accounts of hardship.
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We're also looking at the idea of Christian hedonism.
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Which is a big one, the idea that going after your deepest
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satisfaction in God is what gives you the only real reason
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to accept intense pain. Yeah, and we're pairing all that
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theology with some really powerful stories, both
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historical and modern, of people who suffered for their faith.
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So the mission for us today is to really understand what's at
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stake. We're getting right into the
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central paradox of it all, and it's framed by this one
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startling verse in First Corinthians 15.
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That's the one, yeah, Paul basically asks.
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You know why, If our hope in Christ is only for this life,
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are Christians, of all people most to be pitied?
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It's such a provocative question.
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It is. So let's start right there with
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that paradox. When Paul writes that he's
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setting up a very specific picture of the Christian
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experience, it's one that involves, in his words, freely
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chosen suffering and sacrifice. And what makes Christians
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pitiable without that hope of resurrection is that their
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everyday choices just make no sense from a worldly point of
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view. Absolutely.
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The things Paul gave up were, well, they were extreme.
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We'll get into the details of that in a minute.
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But first, it's helpful to look at a contrasting view of what a
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noble life looks like. OK, the sources bring up this
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story about a Cistercian Abbot who is on Italian television.
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And the interviewer asked him a hypothetical, right?
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Yeah, a really good one, he said.
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OK, what if at the very end of your life, you found out atheism
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was true? No God, no heaven, no
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resurrection? Would you still think your life
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was well spent? And what did he say?
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The abbot's answer was that, well, things like holiness and
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silence and sacrifice, they're beautiful in and of themselves.
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So regardless of whether there's a reward.
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Right. He claimed he still would have
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lived a good life just because of this sort of ethical beauty
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of that self giving existence. It's a very compelling idea of
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secular goodness, you know. It is, but Paul takes the
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complete opposite stance. He just throws that whole idea
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out. He totally rejects it.
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The idea that his suffering was beautiful in itself, or that it
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made sense on some philosophical ground, he would have said
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that's nonsense. That's the cue distinction,
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isn't it? It.
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Is Paul says flat out that without the joyful certainty of
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the resurrection, without that eternal fellowship with Christ,
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all of his choices? The imprisonments, the beatings.
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All of it. It would make him pitiable.
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It would be utterly foolish. The reward at the end isn't just
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a nice bonus, it's the entire reason the sacrifice makes
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sense. Paul wasn't chasing some
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abstract idea of beauty, he was chasing Christ as a future game.
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So this really becomes an indictment for us, doesn't it?
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Especially for those of us living in places where faith
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doesn't cost us much, physically or materially.
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It does. It brings up a really sharp
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question for you, the listener. Does the Christian life you've
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chosen the way you use your time, your money, your energy?
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Does it require the hope of resurrection to be rational?
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Or would it just be considered a good or noble life even if
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atheism were true? I mean if the only benefits you
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get from Christianity are say, better mental health or stronger
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relationships or a good community.
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Those are all good things. They are, but you could argue
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they're rational things to pursue even if they were based
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on a delusion. They make life more comfortable
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now. But Paul's life was about
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maximizing sacrifice, not comfort, and it was all for an
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expected future gain. If you take that gain away the
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resurrection, the sacrifice becomes senseless.
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His entire life becomes a tragedy genuinely deserving of
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pity. The minute we try to soften the
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Christian life, to make it appealing on just an earthly
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level, we actually pull the rug out from under Paul's whole
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reason for enduring hardship. Yeah, if the prize is just a
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better life now, why on earth would you accept hardship that
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could ruin this life? It doesn't add up.
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OK, so that brings us to the second big theme we need to
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unpack how suffering isn't just a random penalty, but it works
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as a gift and a kind of purifying discipline from God.
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And to make that idea rational, we have to start again with the
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necessity of that resurrection hope.
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If the dead aren't raised, then the truly logical choice is
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spelled out right there in the text.
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Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
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Pursue pleasure, avoid pain. Simple as that.
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That worldview says to go after maximum pleasure and, you know,
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actively run away from any kind of extraordinary pain or self
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denial. And that path of ease is exactly
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what Paul rejected. That's what makes his life such
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a stark challenge to us. I think we really need to detail
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the scale of the hardships he willingly walked into.
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We do. This isn't about minor
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inconveniences. No, or just emotional stress.
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He was talking about constant, literal physical danger.
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In 2nd Corinthians 11, Paul kind of lays out his his resume of
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affliction. He talks about 5 whippings from
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the Jews, 39 lashes each time. Do the map on that, Yeah, that's
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almost 200 lashes from just one type of punishment.
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And then he was beaten 3 times with rods.
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That was a Roman punishment, and it was far, far worse than the
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Jewish lashes. He was stoned once and left for
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dead. Left for dead.
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And that's just the organized violence.
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Beyond that, he's dealing with shipwrecks, sleepless nights,
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constant hunger and thirst, cold exposure.
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He says he was in danger from rivers, from robbers, from his
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own people, from Gentiles. Even from false brothers.
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Yeah, and he he wasn't just passively letting this stuff
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happen to him, he was actively pursuing a lifestyle that
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guaranteed it would happen. He said he was in danger every
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hour and he protests that he dies every day.
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So the reason any of this makes sense, this extreme self denial,
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is his single minded focus on a game that was infinitely
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greater. He said he counted everything
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else as loss. Everything, his achievements,
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his status, all of it garbage, so that he might gain Christ and
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attain the resurrection. That hope of a full, bodily,
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eternal fellowship with Jesus is what made the suffering right
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now not just rational, but the wisest possible choice he could
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make. He saw it as a short term
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investment for an infinite return.
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That's a good way to put it. Which then sets up this really
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surprising claim in Philippians 1.29 where Paul calls suffering
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a gift. Yeah, he says.
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For it has been granted to you for the sake of Christ, not only
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to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
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Granted, the word means freely given to call suffering a favor,
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a gift, just like faith itself. That completely changes how
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we're supposed to look at affliction.
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It means God sees it as being for our benefit, designed for
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our good, even if it feels awful.
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And notice who he's talking to. It's for all the believers in
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Philippi, not just for the Super apostles on the front lines.
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This suggests that suffering is a kind of universal spiritual
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asset for the whole church. So how does that work?
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How is suffering a gift that actually benefits a believer?
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The sources point to what they call God's universal purpose for
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all Christian suffering, and it's this to make believers rely
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not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
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That makes sense. Sin at its core is self reliant.
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We think we can handle our lives, manage our own plans to.
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Fill our own needs and suffering just comes in and dismantles
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that whole illusion of control. It forces us to look outside of
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ourselves for help. When your health gives out, or
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your finances collapse, or you're facing persecution, all
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the things you normally lean on, your own strength, your friends,
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your job, they all suddenly give way.
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Right. So the gift of suffering is the
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gift of necessary reliance on God.
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It weans us from our false sense of independence.
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And that process fosters, as the sources say, more contentment in
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God and less satisfaction in self and the world you.
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Learn in a very practical way that God is enough because,
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well, sometimes he's all that's left.
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And we don't just see this in Scripture.
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You see it reflected in the lives of so many people who have
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walked through deep affliction. Think about the Christian
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journalist Malcolm Muggeridge. Late in his life, he was looking
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back and he observed that everything that is truly
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enhanced and enlightened my existence has been through
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affliction and not through happiness.
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Wow. That's a strong statement.
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It is, he even said, that if he had managed to get rid of all
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the suffering in his life, his life would have been too banal
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or trivial to be endurable. His joy, his clarity, his
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purpose, all of it was sharpened by the very things we're told to
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avoid at all costs. And there's another powerful
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example. Alexander Solsenitsyn, the man
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who went through the Soviet gulag.
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I mean, we're. Talking about prison camps known
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for starvation, cold, and just absolute psychological horror.
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He spent years in that system. And yet he called it a gift.
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He called his prison years a gift because what he gained
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there was this essential clarity about being human.
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He said he realized that the line between good and evil
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doesn't run between countries or political parties.
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But right through every human. Heart, right through every human
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heart. The external suffering forced
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him into this massive internal reckoning, and it was there with
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nothing left that he said he was spiritually nourished.
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He even said bless you prison for having been in my life.
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It sounds like Affliction is this ultimate clarifying agent.
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It's just strips away all the comfortable distractions that
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let us live on the surface. It is, and the sources show this
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is a deliberate process. There's this dual design and
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affliction. Satan has his aim, which is to
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destroy your faith. But God in His sovereignty, He
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overrules that attempt, and He intends for that same event to
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be a loving, purifying discipline for you.
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And this purification speaks directly to the question of
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assurance, which is huge and reformed thought.
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How does suffering confirm that your faith is real?
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It kicks off this sequence that's described in Scripture.
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Affliction produces endurance, and endurance leads to proven
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genuineness. And that genuineness produces
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hope. So when your faith is tested by
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fire, so to speak. When everything you believe is
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being challenged by pain. And you don't deny Christ.
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You gain this deep internal sense that what you have is
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real. It's not just a theory anymore.
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And we have a visceral picture of this in the story of Richard
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Wormbrand. He was a Lutheran pastor who
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spent 14 years in the communist read prisons in Romania.
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His experience was just horrific.
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Unimaginable 3 years in solitary confinement, he never saw the
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sun, had no human contact except for his torturers.
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The physical abuse left him with lasting damage to his feet.
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Yet when he talked about it, he described an intense inner joy.
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It's hard to even comprehend. Where did that joy come from in
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the middle of all that pain? It wasn't physical pleasure,
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that's for sure. It was the conviction that
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Christ was absolutely there with Him, helping Him endure every
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single moment. He knew with a certainty that
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couldn't be shaken that his faith was being proven in the
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fire. So that intense joy was the
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fruit of a genuine faith that had been tested and shown to be
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real. For a worm brand, that assurance
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was greater than the temporary terror of the torture.
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So suffering in that sense confirms your Christian
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identity. It lines you up with Jesus's
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call to take up his cross daily. It's proof that you're walking
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in the footsteps of the Master. That's it.
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Paul taught that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ
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Jesus will be persecuted. So if you're living in obedience
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and you're facing opposition, that opposition is actually a
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sign you're on the right path. The path Christ laid out.
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Right. And on the flip side, if you're
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completely comfortable, totally conflict free in a world that is
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at its root opposed to Christ, well, maybe you should pause and
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ask what compromises you've made to get there.
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OK, moving from the believers own purification, let's turn to
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the external purpose of suffering, which is the
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propagation of the gospel. And this part really hinges on
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one of the most mysterious things Paul ever wrote.
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It's in Colossians 1.24. This verse gets misunderstood a
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lot, so we need to be really precise here.
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Paul writes. I rejoice in my sufferings for
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your sake and in my flesh. I'm filling up what is lacking
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in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body that is the
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Church. And just hearing that phrase
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filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, it can
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sound really jarring, like our suffering somehow completes
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Jesus's work on the cross. So we should be very clear about
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what this does not mean. It absolutely does not mean that
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Christ's atoning work was deficient or that it was
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insufficient for our justification.
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Our sources are clear on this. Christ's sacrifice on the cross
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is complete, and it is sufficient.
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It satisfied God's justice. Period.
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So no human action, no matter how painful, can be added to the
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worth of that sacrifice to secure salvation.
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Not one bit. OK, so if the atonement is
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sufficient, what is the lack that Paul is talking about?
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The lack isn't in the value of the sacrifice, the lack is in
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the knowledge and acceptance of that sacrifice around the world.
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I see what's lacking is that the infinite value of Christ's
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afflictions is not known and trusted in the world.
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The news of what Christ did is still hidden from vast numbers
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of people. Right.
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And God's plan for completing this worldwide revelation
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involves the willing suffering of His people.
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So the lack is about presentation, not propitiation.
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It's almost like a marketing term, not a financial one.
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That's a great way to put it. God's solution to this lack of
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presentation is to call believers, especially people
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like Paul, to make a personal presentation of Christ's
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afflictions to the world. God intends for Christ's
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suffering, His love, His forgiveness, His willingness to
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die, to be made visible through the afflictions of His people.
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The sources use a smaller analogy for this.
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They talk about ape aphroditus. Right.
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He risked his life to deliver the Philippian church's
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financial gift to Paul. The gift itself wasn't lacking
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in value, but Ape Aphroditis completed what was lacking by
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actually delivering it by making that personal presentation.
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To Paul. So Pauls body suffering for the
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gospels. Like the delivery system for the
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message of Christo's finished work.
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The Romanian pastor Jason Son put a really helpful frame on
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this. He made a distinction.
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Christ's suffering is for propitiation.
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That's the atonement. But our suffering is for
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propagation, spreading the message and making it visible.
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So our physical sufferings are kind of like billboards for what
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Christ has already done. That's it.
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When Paul was beaten. And then he rejoiced in that
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pain. That act of visible joy made
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Christ's love and strength tangible to everyone watching.
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Our suffering becomes the visible witness, Paul said.
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His scars were the marks of Jesus.
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So through our willingness to endure loss for Christ, people
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can see the marks of the cross in US and feel the love of the
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cross from us. When we tell people about
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salvation, our suffering gives credibility to the message.
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It proves we actually believe Christ is better than whatever
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it is we're losing. Paul says it's so directly Death
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is at work in us, in his body, in his afflictions, but life is
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at work in you, the believers who hear the gospel.
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He said he willingly endured everything for the sake of the
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elect so that they could also get salvation.
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This takes suffering out of the realm of being just a private
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personal struggle. And makes it a necessary
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instrument for world evangelization.
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Yeah, that really shifts the perspective.
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And that leads us straight into the historical and modern
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examples that prove that old saying that's echoed through
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Church history. The blood of the martyrs is
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seed. That suffering is instrumental
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in the church's expansion. The first few centuries of the
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church give us some powerful evidence of this.
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The Roman Empire was actively trying to wipe out Christians.
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But their persecutions just kept backfiring.
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Why was that? A lot of it had to do with the
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attitude of the martyrs themselves, the calm, the
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dignity, the sheer courage they showed in the face of these
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horrible public executions. It made a huge impression on the
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Pagan population. They were seeing people accept
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unbelievable suffering with a joyful hope they just couldn't
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explain. And the story of Polycarp, the
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Bishop of Smyrna back in 8155, is a perfect example of this.
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He was an old man by this point, right?
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Yeah. Probably in his mid 80's.
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The Romans arrested him and took him to the stadium.
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The proconsul ordered him to curse Christ and swear by
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Caesar. And Polycarp's response is so
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famous. 80 and six years have I served him and he have done me
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no wrong. How then can I blasphemy my king
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who saved me? He just refused to compromise
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even as they were getting ready to burn him.
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The account says that even the soldiers who arrested him were
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struck by his piety. And when he finally died, the
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ancient record says that the crowd came to marvel at the
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great difference between the unbelievers and the elect.
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That public testimony was so powerful, seeing a frail old man
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choose a painful death rather than deny his hope, it
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communicated the value of Christ in a way 1000 sermons never
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could. It made the resurrection real
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concrete. And this pattern didn't just
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stop in the 2nd century. It's still happening today,
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especially in places that are hostile to the gospel.
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We have a really compelling modern story from the 1980s
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about a man named Danza. Danza was an African Christian
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leader in Ethiopia under a communist regime and his
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persecution was just relentless. He was imprisoned multiple
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times, beaten for refusing to stop sharing the gospel.
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At one point, as a form of torture, he and other believers
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were forced to walk on their bare knees over rough gravel
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roads for hours. The pain must have been.
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I can't even imagine. It was designed to break them,
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the sources say. The blood flowed from their
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wounds like a fountain, but Danza said they felt nothing.
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He said God's grace sustained them and that visible
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supernatural endurance was the key.
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And the outcome of that suffering years later is just
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astounding. When the Communist government
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finally fell, Danza and the other former prisoners were
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invited back to the very prison where they'd suffered.
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But not as inmates. Not as inmates, but as
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preachers, and they preached the gospel of the Christ, who gave
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them the strength to kneel on that gravel without giving in.
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And the result. 170 prisoners and most of the prison officials
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converted to Christ. The visible presentation of
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Christ's power in their weakness was just undeniable proof of the
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truth. So the suffering propagated the
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message in a way that a comfortable mission trip never
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could have. And we see a similar story with
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Joseph, the Messiah warrior. He kept sharing the gospel with
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his village, and his village kept beating him viciously and
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leaving him for dead. Why did he keep going back?
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Because the object of his hope, Christ, was more valuable to him
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than his own physical safety and his persistence, his willingness
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to keep coming back despite the torment it finally broke
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through. After the third severe flogging,
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something changed. The women who were part of the
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beating started to weep, and shortly after that the entire
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village came to Christ. His suffering validated his
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message. And sometimes the Witness is
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more subtle. It's not always about organized
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persecution. There's a story from Jay Oswald
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Sanders about an indigenous missionary in India.
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Yeah, he walked barefoot from village to village and was
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rejected everywhere he went. But he kept walking.
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He kept walking, and when he finally got to this one remote
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village, the head man saw the blisters on the missionary's
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feet from the long our journey. And just the sight of those
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blistered feet. Convinced the head man that this
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was a holy man, someone who was willing to sacrifice for what he
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believed, and he asked to hear the Gospel.
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The visible hardship is what opened the door.
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All these stories really illustrate Tun's propagation
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principle perfectly. The suffering itself is the
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advertisement that makes the love of Christ visible and
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compelling. And this leads to a really
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sobering thought about the future of world evangelization.
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It's drawn from the Book of Revelation.
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In Revelation 6 you see the souls of the martyrs who have
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already died. And they're told to rest until
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the number of their fellow servants and their brothers
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should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had
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been. That sounds like God has a
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specific appointed number of martyrs whose suffering is
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required before the end comes and Christ returns.
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That's the implication. And for anyone involved in
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missions, that's a really serious thought.
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It suggests that the saving purposes of Christ among the
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nations will not be accomplished unless Christians choose to
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suffer. The sources even ask if the, you
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know, relative absence of martyrs in certain regions
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hostile to the Gospel, like parts of Muslim world, might
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actually be holding back evangelistic breakthroughs.
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As if the price for that region just hasn't been paid yet.
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That is a challenging, even ominous thought for mission
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strategy. So let's pivot now to the
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framework that gives the motivation for accepting this
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challenge, and that's Christian hedonism.
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This is the concept that connects the pursuit of our
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deepest joy with the willingness to accept the greatest pain.
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So what's the essence of Christian hedonism?
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As our source material defines it, it's pretty simple.
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Going after supreme joy in God, no matter what pain you're in,
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serves as a powerful testimony to God's all satisfying worth.
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God gets the most glory from us when we show we're most
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satisfied in Him. Especially when everything else
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is being taken away it. Kind of redefined selfishness,
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doesn't it? It says that pursuing our own
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greatest possible happiness is what actually magnifies God.
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Because God is the only object in the universe capable of
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actually satisfying that desire for ultimate happiness.
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For Paul, the goal was gain. His passion was for a full,
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bodily, eternal fellowship with Christ.
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He wanted to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better
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than anything on earth. So his decision to embrace
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suffering, loss and hardship was a rational calculation.
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It was a trade off. He chose to suffer because he
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knew the resurrection meant gain an infinitely better state of
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satisfaction. So if we had to boil down the
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meaning of suffering into one statement from this framework,
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what would it be? God is gain.
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God is gain. God is gain.
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The obedience of suffering isn't meant to show off our human
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strength. It's meant to manifest in
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childlike faith the infinite preciousness of His all
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satisfying promises. When we suffer and can still
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smile, we're showing the world that God is better than comfort.
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And this is how believers can authentically rejoice in
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sufferings, which is a theme Paul comes back to over and
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over. The sources layout four
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different pathways to access Joy even in the middle of
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affliction. OK, what's the first one?
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The first is joy rooted in reward.
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This is that immediate calculation of gain we were just
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talking about. Jesus told his disciples to
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rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
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So by focusing on how big the heavenly reward is, the pain
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you're feeling right now is put into context and shrinks.
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It does. Paul said.
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He considered the sufferings of this present time not worth
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comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
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When you know the reward is infinite, the present cost, no
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matter how high it feels, has to be finite.
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That mental framework is what allows for joy even while you're
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bleeding. The second pathway is joy
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deepening assurance. We touched on this with
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Wormbrand. Right, the internal evidence.
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Loop affliction produces endurance, endurance produces
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proven genuineness, and genuineness produces hope.
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Wormbrand's intense inner joy during his torture was this
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exact kind of joy. It wasn't happiness about the
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pain. But joy from the solid
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conviction that his faith was real because it had passed the
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ultimate test. It meant he was genuinely saved
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and he was on his way to the game.
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Right. And the third pathway has to do
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with Christ's own sufferings, joy as a pathway to glory.
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This is from the Apostle Peter. Yeah, Peter encourages believers
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to rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that
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you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
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So our current participation in suffering is defined as sharing
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Christ's own experience. And since Christ's path through
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suffering led to His glory, we know that sharing in the first
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part is the appointed way to get to the final rejoicing when He's
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revealed. There's a sense of privileged
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partnership in the pain right now.
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And the last pathway brings us back to propagation, joy in
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others, salvation. Paul said it directly.
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I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.
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His joy wasn't a solitary thing. It was a communal pleasure that
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came from seeing more people come to faith.
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Every new convert saved partly through the witness of his
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suffering, becomes a new unique prism for refracting the all
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satisfying glory of Christ. The joy Paul had in the
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converted Gentiles, he called them his joy and crown.
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It wasn't a different kind of joy than the joy he had in
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Christ. It was the joy of seeing
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Christ's glory magnified in their lives.
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And all these pathways, they all lead to 1 main goal, God's grace
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spotlighting. Suffering is designed by God to
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put a spotlight on Christ's grace and make it shine when
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Christians face calamity, sickness, financial ruin,
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persecution, and they hold on to Christ, relying on Him when
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everything else gives way. That action provides undeniable
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proof of Christ's sufficiency. It proves he is more to be
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desired than all we have lost. He's shown to be the all
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sufficient compensation and prize.
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This is why Paul could boast in his weaknesses, the insults, the
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persecutions, the difficulties. Because it meant the power of
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Christ would rest on him. When human strength runs out,
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the sufficiency of God is made obvious, and this rational,
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hedonistic pursuit of maximum gain in God is what makes chosen
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suffering worthwhile and even desirable.
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So we've spent a lot of time looking at Paul's motivation for
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a life of chosen suffering, and we've shown that it's it's very
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far from being just some kind of noble sacrifice for its own
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sake. The whole thing is rationally
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based on the promise of the resurrection.
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We've established that Christian suffering, when it's chosen in
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obedience and rooted completely in the certainty of that
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resurrection hope, It does 2 critical things.
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Internally, it acts as God's purifying discipline, weaning us
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from self-reliance and deepening our assurance.
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And externally, it's his key instrument for spreading the
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gospel to the nation's, making the infinite value of Christ's
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afflictions known to a world that doesn't yet trust in them.
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From the ancient martyrdom of Polycarp, whose dignity just
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stunned the Roman crowds, to the modern endurance of leaders like
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Danza and Joseph, the Masai warrior, the visible expression
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of joy and constancy and suffering is the seed needed for
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the Church to expand. And it's all fueled by Christian
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hedonism, that glorious, rational pursuit of Christ as
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the ultimate, all satisfying gain, which makes any present
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cost seem small compared to the future reward.
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Right? As we wrap up this deep dive, we
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want to leave you with one final thought.
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It comes from the challenge posed by Brother Andrew, the
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founder of Open Doors, who spent his life smuggling Bibles behind
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the Iron Curtain. Brother Andrew believed the
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Church needed a renewed, deliberate approach to missions
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that fully understood the suffering that would be
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involved. His question really gets to the
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heart of the matter for comfortable Christians.
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If we casually say Lord at any cost, I will follow you.
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Are we actually ready to accept the call to choose suffering and
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pay the price for our faith? Are we ready to move beyond just
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practicing Christianity and be prepared for the difficulties
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that come from earnestly following Christ in a hostile
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world? Remember, the suffering itself
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is never the goal. The goal is the glorious eternal
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reward and the visible witness of Christ's supreme worth that
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shines brightest when everything else is lost.
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The path marked by sacrifice with Jesus is, paradoxically, A
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profoundly happy one, but it is not a painless 1.
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So the question for you is, is your present comfort worth more
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than the eternal gain and the glorious witness that comes
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through affliction? Think about what your life says
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to the world, about the worth of your hope.