2010 New Year's Resolutions
Colossians 1:24
John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman are names you may not readily recognize. John was a potter and David a carpenter. But it was not their occupations that make them noteworthy—rather it was their pre-occupation. You see, these two men were so pre-occupied with Jesus Christ and His Gospel and the lost slaves of the West Indies that they left the security of their jobs and families in Copenhagen to become the first Moravian missionaries to these slaves in 1732. But even their going forth as missionaries is not what is most notable about these two men—rather it is how they pursued the mission of taking the Gospel to the unreached slaves in the West Indies.
You see, in order to have the opportunity to reach the slaves of the West Indies for their Lord, John Dober and David Nitschman sold themselves into slavery so they could minister the Gospel to and alongside the very slaves they desired to reach for Christ. As the slave ship pulled away from the docks with these two new white slaves on board the men lifted a cry, which became the resonating heartbeat of the Moravian Missions movement. “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering”
What was and is significant about their cry is that it was not just a slogan produced by two hearts filled with a reckless fanatical emotional fervency to do something most of their contemporaries and family members thought was pretty stupid. No—their plan, their strategy, and their actions were well thought out and grounded in Scripture. And the verse their plan and their heart cry, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering”, was grounded in was Colossians 1:24.
"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions."
Now, these two men believed that the Lamb of God went to the cross to provide redemption and salvation to those for whom he died—and that these for whom He died would be His reward as they repented of their sins and received the forgiveness Christ died to give them. But they also believed that unless these for whom Christ had died were given this glorious news so as to hear it and believe in Jesus Christ—they would not be saved and thus Christ would not receive His reward. In other words, they believed the whole Gospel and went against the grain of the “hyper-calvinism” of their day that believed that evangelism, missions and sharing the Gospel with sinners was not necessary.
They believed that whereas they could not add to Christ's work in saving anyone—that if believers did not do their divinely ordained work of preaching the Gospel no one would be saved because just as God had ordained the salvation of those who would place faith in Christ—he had also ordained the means of their salvation which was the preaching of the Gospel to them. So, they saw those who heard the Gospel and repented of their sins and trusted in Christ for salvation as those who were the reward of Christ's sufferings. And they saw themselves as those who were to “fill up what was lacking in Christ's afflictions” by propagating and preaching the message that Jesus Christ had fully propitiated the wrath of God toward sinners through His suffering on the cross of Calvary.
Now again, while, no believer can add to what Christ accomplished through His sufferings on the cross in terms of redemption, salvation, reconciliation with God, and propitiation—he can “fill up what is lacking” in terms of the propagation of the Gospel, persecution for the sake of the Gospel, and the preaching and practice of the Gospel in every area of life. Whereas Jesus' sufferings provide for our propitiation before God in that Christ in His sufferings on the cross fully satisfied the wrath of God against us and our sin—the propagation of this glorious truth through the preaching and practicing of the Gospel in every area of life fills up or completes the sufferings of Christ by sharing this truth with those who need to hear it so as to be saved.
You see, in God's grand plan of filling the earth with His glory by saving sinners from their sins, He first sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth for the purpose of propitiation and now He is sending His other sons—those who have had their sin debt paid by the Savior—throughout the earth for the propagation of the Gospel. And it is in this propagation of the Gospel through the preaching, proclaiming, and practicing of the Gospel as well as in the persecution and pressure that comes from propagating the Gospel that believers 'fill up or complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ”. And in Colossians 1:24, Paul makes three points about the sufferings that believers face when they take the propagation of the Gospel so seriously that they intentionally make decisions that will result in inconvenience, discomfort, loss, and even suffering so as to fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.
Paul's first point in verse 24 is that he rejoiced in his sufferings for the sake of others. In other words, how he responded to his sufferings and afflictions for the sake of the Gospel and Christ mattered. Thus, he rejoiced in the fact that he was in prison for preaching and practicing the Gospel not only because this response benefited him in terms of eternal rewards, but because it benefited the believers who were watching him and being blessed by his willingness to suffer for the sake of preaching, proclaiming, and propagating the Gospel.
Now here is where it is very important to understand that no one ever gets over his need of having the Gospel preached to him. You see the Gospel is not just what unbelievers need to hear to be saved. It is that but it is also what believers need to keep hearing in order to enjoy their salvation so as to grow in it. Listen—the whole Book of Romans is Paul's explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the Good News of Jesus Christ and of the sixteen chapters in Romans only the first four have to do with unbelievers hearing and receiving the Gospel. The other 12 chapters have to do with believers appropriating the Gospel to their lives as saved people. Thus, the message of God's acceptance of a person on the merits of Jesus Christ alone is something we need to hear every day—at least I do!
And so Paul makes the point in Colossians 1:24 that his sufferings on account of his propagation of the Gospel—to believers and unbelievers alike are things he rejoices in not only because the sufferings mean something but because how he responds to these sufferings means something. And just as the sufferings and afflictions he is enduring for the sake of propagating the Gospel fills up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions—so do his positive response to his sufferings fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. In other words, God not only uses our sufferings to further His Gospel—He uses our responses to our sufferings to further propagate His Gospel as well. So, whereas your afflictions matter—your response to your afflictions do too.
We shouldn't underestimate the degree to which our positive response to life's difficulties can be used to further propagate the Gospel so as to further glorify Jesus and His work of propitiation. Our responses to suffering and affliction says volumes more to those who are watching about what we believe about God, His sovereignty, and His goodness than anything we could ever say, write, or do. When we rejoice in our sufferings before others we are making a profound statement about what we truly believe about God's sovereignty and goodness. And when unbelievers and believers alike see a Christian respond positively to his suffering so that he is in fact rejoicing in the difficulty rather than complaining about it—people will want to know why—and a door for the Gospel is opened so that it is propagated for the glory of God and the joy of God's people and those who will become God's people.
Now the second truth I see in this verse is that not only did Paul rejoice in his sufferings for the sake of others—he also did his share on behalf of the body of Christ, which is the church to fill up or complete the sufferings of Christ.
Now—what did he do his share of? Was it work? Or ministry? Or giving? Or what? What did he do his share of? Well, since the whole context of this verse from beginning to end is dealing with sufferings and afflictions—I think his point is that is that not only does he rejoice in his sufferings—he is doing his share of suffering for the sake of the church. More than that, I think he is saying that he is intentionally pursuing those activities that while necessary also are the most taxing and costly in terms of suffering for the sake of the church which is the Body of Christ.
Now can you imagine yourself saying this—that you have done and are doing your share of suffering for the sake of the church—which is the Body of Christ? Can you imagine yourself intentionally pursuing and involving yourself in activities that will place you in the direct line of fire of suffering? Now, most of us have experienced suffering in some way, shape, or form as a result of an accident, sickness, our own mistake or foolishness, or even as a victim of a crime or some sort of disaster. But these are not the kinds of things we purposely pursue in life. What Paul is talking about is intentionally making his share of decisions that put him in the position of having to suffer for the sake of the Gospel and its propagation.
It is also important to see that in using the expression “doing my share” that Paul is not talking about a one-time decision to take a risk for the cause of Christ. No, he is talking about a lifestyle of intentionally living his life on the edge so to speak for the sake of Christ and the Gospel. Thus, when a Christian intentionally lives his life choosing to make life, family, business, career, financial, ministry, and other decisions that make much of Christ and His Gospel as well as also put him in the position of experiencing potential personal loss, suffering, tribulation, affliction, sickness, persecution, and possibly even death—this believer is doing his share on behalf of the body of Christ in completing the afflictions of Christ on behalf of the church. This was the norm for the Apostle Paul and lest you think God expects something different of us don't forget that the Scripture commands us in 1 Cor. 4:16 to be imitators of Paul.
In other words, we also ought to be able to say with Paul that we are making our share of decisions to make much of Christ and His Gospel even though these decisions may potentially result in personal suffering of some sort. And we should be able to say, with Paul, that when the suffering does come as a direct result of our intentional decision to go out on a limb for the sake of the Gospel that we find that a cause for rejoicing.
Now, my guess is that these may not be the aspects of Paul's life and ministry we are all imitating on a consistent basis. But, knowing this church and the kind of love and commitment you all have for our Lord—my bet is that these are the very aspects of Paul's life you do want to imitate and would like to be challenged to imitate in 2010. And the reason you would want to be challenged in this way is because you all along with me do want to make much of Christ by making much of His Gospel by being involved in the propagation of the Gospel to all peoples—including our own people here in the East Mountains—so that we fill up and complete the sufferings of Christ not by adding anything to them but by extending them to the people they were meant to save. Again—it is not that Christ's sufferings are deficient and insufficient to save and that somehow we can add something to them by our sufferings—No Way!
As John Piper puts it so well: “What is lacking is that the infinite value of Christ's afflictions is not known and trusted in the world. These afflictions and what they mean are still hidden to most peoples. And God's intention is that the mystery be revealed to all the nations. So the afflictions of Christ are 'lacking' in the sense that they are not seen and known and loved among the nations.” (pg. 22/Filling Up The Afflictions of Christ)
Thus, when we purposely and intentionally make the tough and from our perspective “risky” decisions to take or even send the Gospel of Jesus Christ across the street, to the mall, to your work place, school, or friend's house, or to an unreached people group somewhere on another continent at potentially great cost to us—we are filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.
There is a third truth I want us to see from this verse and it is simply that whereas, we speak of potential sufferings for the sake of the Gospel—Paul actually suffered for the sake of making much of Christ by sharing His Gospel. There was nothing “potential” about Paul's sufferings or his pain. Make no mistake about it—he suffered for the propagation of the Gospel and the fact of the matter is—the vast majority of those in Scripture and in Church History who made much of Christ by making much of His Gospel suffered too. And I think the reason why is because when we suffer for the sake of sharing the Gospel—we are imitating One Who is greater than Paul—we are imitating our Savior Who suffered for those He came to save.
You see, whereas we think that suffering is the result of sharing the Gospel—it is better to understand suffering as being an essential aspect of God's strategy and methodology in effectively sharing and propagating the Gospel. Thus, rather than seeing suffering as purely optional and reserved for the “super-rhino Christian types”, we probably should view suffering as an essential aspect of effectively sharing the Gospel.
In other words, I believe that God's intention in much if not the majority of our suffering is for “the afflictions of Christ to be illustrated to the world through the afflictions of His people”. (Piper, p. 24) To take it a step further, I think Christ intends that His spiritual body the church be crushed and mangled for the sake of His Father's glory and the eternal joy of the nations—just as His physical body was. Therefore, whether your sufferings are the result of purposely choosing to do hard things and be in hard places working with hard people for the sake of the Gospel or are the result of some other kinds of decisions you have made or did not make--Don't waste them. Use them to make much of Christ by rejoicing in them rather than complaining about them. Use them to show the excellencies of Christ by continuing to pursue hard things rather than allowing them to persuade you to choose a trouble free, convenient, and comfortable lifestyle.
You know, I doubt many of us will ever be called by God to do something as radical and outrageous as selling ourselves into slavery so as to deliver the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others so as to “fill up what is lacking in Christ's suffering.” But I think we should be willing to—if that is what He were to call us to do. At the very least, I think we should resolve to do whatever God would have us to do, irregardless of the cost, so as to see Christ receive the reward of His suffering.
When all is said and done—here is a worthy new year's resolution for 2010 and the rest of our lives.
Resolved: To fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions by rejoicing in my sufferings that are the result of my intentional decision to do my share of making sure the Gospel is shared with all peoples for the glory of Christ and the eternal joy of His Body—the church and those who will become part of His church as a result of hearing and believing the Gospel.
Colossians 1:24
John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman are names you may not readily recognize. John was a potter and David a carpenter. But it was not their occupations that make them noteworthy—rather it was their pre-occupation. You see, these two men were so pre-occupied with Jesus Christ and His Gospel and the lost slaves of the West Indies that they left the security of their jobs and families in Copenhagen to become the first Moravian missionaries to these slaves in 1732. But even their going forth as missionaries is not what is most notable about these two men—rather it is how they pursued the mission of taking the Gospel to the unreached slaves in the West Indies.
You see, in order to have the opportunity to reach the slaves of the West Indies for their Lord, John Dober and David Nitschman sold themselves into slavery so they could minister the Gospel to and alongside the very slaves they desired to reach for Christ. As the slave ship pulled away from the docks with these two new white slaves on board the men lifted a cry, which became the resonating heartbeat of the Moravian Missions movement. “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering”
What was and is significant about their cry is that it was not just a slogan produced by two hearts filled with a reckless fanatical emotional fervency to do something most of their contemporaries and family members thought was pretty stupid. No—their plan, their strategy, and their actions were well thought out and grounded in Scripture. And the verse their plan and their heart cry, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering”, was grounded in was Colossians 1:24.
"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions."
Now, these two men believed that the Lamb of God went to the cross to provide redemption and salvation to those for whom he died—and that these for whom He died would be His reward as they repented of their sins and received the forgiveness Christ died to give them. But they also believed that unless these for whom Christ had died were given this glorious news so as to hear it and believe in Jesus Christ—they would not be saved and thus Christ would not receive His reward. In other words, they believed the whole Gospel and went against the grain of the “hyper-calvinism” of their day that believed that evangelism, missions and sharing the Gospel with sinners was not necessary.
They believed that whereas they could not add to Christ's work in saving anyone—that if believers did not do their divinely ordained work of preaching the Gospel no one would be saved because just as God had ordained the salvation of those who would place faith in Christ—he had also ordained the means of their salvation which was the preaching of the Gospel to them. So, they saw those who heard the Gospel and repented of their sins and trusted in Christ for salvation as those who were the reward of Christ's sufferings. And they saw themselves as those who were to “fill up what was lacking in Christ's afflictions” by propagating and preaching the message that Jesus Christ had fully propitiated the wrath of God toward sinners through His suffering on the cross of Calvary.
Now again, while, no believer can add to what Christ accomplished through His sufferings on the cross in terms of redemption, salvation, reconciliation with God, and propitiation—he can “fill up what is lacking” in terms of the propagation of the Gospel, persecution for the sake of the Gospel, and the preaching and practice of the Gospel in every area of life. Whereas Jesus' sufferings provide for our propitiation before God in that Christ in His sufferings on the cross fully satisfied the wrath of God against us and our sin—the propagation of this glorious truth through the preaching and practicing of the Gospel in every area of life fills up or completes the sufferings of Christ by sharing this truth with those who need to hear it so as to be saved.
You see, in God's grand plan of filling the earth with His glory by saving sinners from their sins, He first sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth for the purpose of propitiation and now He is sending His other sons—those who have had their sin debt paid by the Savior—throughout the earth for the propagation of the Gospel. And it is in this propagation of the Gospel through the preaching, proclaiming, and practicing of the Gospel as well as in the persecution and pressure that comes from propagating the Gospel that believers 'fill up or complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ”. And in Colossians 1:24, Paul makes three points about the sufferings that believers face when they take the propagation of the Gospel so seriously that they intentionally make decisions that will result in inconvenience, discomfort, loss, and even suffering so as to fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.
Paul's first point in verse 24 is that he rejoiced in his sufferings for the sake of others. In other words, how he responded to his sufferings and afflictions for the sake of the Gospel and Christ mattered. Thus, he rejoiced in the fact that he was in prison for preaching and practicing the Gospel not only because this response benefited him in terms of eternal rewards, but because it benefited the believers who were watching him and being blessed by his willingness to suffer for the sake of preaching, proclaiming, and propagating the Gospel.
Now here is where it is very important to understand that no one ever gets over his need of having the Gospel preached to him. You see the Gospel is not just what unbelievers need to hear to be saved. It is that but it is also what believers need to keep hearing in order to enjoy their salvation so as to grow in it. Listen—the whole Book of Romans is Paul's explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the Good News of Jesus Christ and of the sixteen chapters in Romans only the first four have to do with unbelievers hearing and receiving the Gospel. The other 12 chapters have to do with believers appropriating the Gospel to their lives as saved people. Thus, the message of God's acceptance of a person on the merits of Jesus Christ alone is something we need to hear every day—at least I do!
And so Paul makes the point in Colossians 1:24 that his sufferings on account of his propagation of the Gospel—to believers and unbelievers alike are things he rejoices in not only because the sufferings mean something but because how he responds to these sufferings means something. And just as the sufferings and afflictions he is enduring for the sake of propagating the Gospel fills up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions—so do his positive response to his sufferings fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. In other words, God not only uses our sufferings to further His Gospel—He uses our responses to our sufferings to further propagate His Gospel as well. So, whereas your afflictions matter—your response to your afflictions do too.
We shouldn't underestimate the degree to which our positive response to life's difficulties can be used to further propagate the Gospel so as to further glorify Jesus and His work of propitiation. Our responses to suffering and affliction says volumes more to those who are watching about what we believe about God, His sovereignty, and His goodness than anything we could ever say, write, or do. When we rejoice in our sufferings before others we are making a profound statement about what we truly believe about God's sovereignty and goodness. And when unbelievers and believers alike see a Christian respond positively to his suffering so that he is in fact rejoicing in the difficulty rather than complaining about it—people will want to know why—and a door for the Gospel is opened so that it is propagated for the glory of God and the joy of God's people and those who will become God's people.
Now the second truth I see in this verse is that not only did Paul rejoice in his sufferings for the sake of others—he also did his share on behalf of the body of Christ, which is the church to fill up or complete the sufferings of Christ.
Now—what did he do his share of? Was it work? Or ministry? Or giving? Or what? What did he do his share of? Well, since the whole context of this verse from beginning to end is dealing with sufferings and afflictions—I think his point is that is that not only does he rejoice in his sufferings—he is doing his share of suffering for the sake of the church. More than that, I think he is saying that he is intentionally pursuing those activities that while necessary also are the most taxing and costly in terms of suffering for the sake of the church which is the Body of Christ.
Now can you imagine yourself saying this—that you have done and are doing your share of suffering for the sake of the church—which is the Body of Christ? Can you imagine yourself intentionally pursuing and involving yourself in activities that will place you in the direct line of fire of suffering? Now, most of us have experienced suffering in some way, shape, or form as a result of an accident, sickness, our own mistake or foolishness, or even as a victim of a crime or some sort of disaster. But these are not the kinds of things we purposely pursue in life. What Paul is talking about is intentionally making his share of decisions that put him in the position of having to suffer for the sake of the Gospel and its propagation.
It is also important to see that in using the expression “doing my share” that Paul is not talking about a one-time decision to take a risk for the cause of Christ. No, he is talking about a lifestyle of intentionally living his life on the edge so to speak for the sake of Christ and the Gospel. Thus, when a Christian intentionally lives his life choosing to make life, family, business, career, financial, ministry, and other decisions that make much of Christ and His Gospel as well as also put him in the position of experiencing potential personal loss, suffering, tribulation, affliction, sickness, persecution, and possibly even death—this believer is doing his share on behalf of the body of Christ in completing the afflictions of Christ on behalf of the church. This was the norm for the Apostle Paul and lest you think God expects something different of us don't forget that the Scripture commands us in 1 Cor. 4:16 to be imitators of Paul.
In other words, we also ought to be able to say with Paul that we are making our share of decisions to make much of Christ and His Gospel even though these decisions may potentially result in personal suffering of some sort. And we should be able to say, with Paul, that when the suffering does come as a direct result of our intentional decision to go out on a limb for the sake of the Gospel that we find that a cause for rejoicing.
Now, my guess is that these may not be the aspects of Paul's life and ministry we are all imitating on a consistent basis. But, knowing this church and the kind of love and commitment you all have for our Lord—my bet is that these are the very aspects of Paul's life you do want to imitate and would like to be challenged to imitate in 2010. And the reason you would want to be challenged in this way is because you all along with me do want to make much of Christ by making much of His Gospel by being involved in the propagation of the Gospel to all peoples—including our own people here in the East Mountains—so that we fill up and complete the sufferings of Christ not by adding anything to them but by extending them to the people they were meant to save. Again—it is not that Christ's sufferings are deficient and insufficient to save and that somehow we can add something to them by our sufferings—No Way!
As John Piper puts it so well: “What is lacking is that the infinite value of Christ's afflictions is not known and trusted in the world. These afflictions and what they mean are still hidden to most peoples. And God's intention is that the mystery be revealed to all the nations. So the afflictions of Christ are 'lacking' in the sense that they are not seen and known and loved among the nations.” (pg. 22/Filling Up The Afflictions of Christ)
Thus, when we purposely and intentionally make the tough and from our perspective “risky” decisions to take or even send the Gospel of Jesus Christ across the street, to the mall, to your work place, school, or friend's house, or to an unreached people group somewhere on another continent at potentially great cost to us—we are filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.
There is a third truth I want us to see from this verse and it is simply that whereas, we speak of potential sufferings for the sake of the Gospel—Paul actually suffered for the sake of making much of Christ by sharing His Gospel. There was nothing “potential” about Paul's sufferings or his pain. Make no mistake about it—he suffered for the propagation of the Gospel and the fact of the matter is—the vast majority of those in Scripture and in Church History who made much of Christ by making much of His Gospel suffered too. And I think the reason why is because when we suffer for the sake of sharing the Gospel—we are imitating One Who is greater than Paul—we are imitating our Savior Who suffered for those He came to save.
You see, whereas we think that suffering is the result of sharing the Gospel—it is better to understand suffering as being an essential aspect of God's strategy and methodology in effectively sharing and propagating the Gospel. Thus, rather than seeing suffering as purely optional and reserved for the “super-rhino Christian types”, we probably should view suffering as an essential aspect of effectively sharing the Gospel.
In other words, I believe that God's intention in much if not the majority of our suffering is for “the afflictions of Christ to be illustrated to the world through the afflictions of His people”. (Piper, p. 24) To take it a step further, I think Christ intends that His spiritual body the church be crushed and mangled for the sake of His Father's glory and the eternal joy of the nations—just as His physical body was. Therefore, whether your sufferings are the result of purposely choosing to do hard things and be in hard places working with hard people for the sake of the Gospel or are the result of some other kinds of decisions you have made or did not make--Don't waste them. Use them to make much of Christ by rejoicing in them rather than complaining about them. Use them to show the excellencies of Christ by continuing to pursue hard things rather than allowing them to persuade you to choose a trouble free, convenient, and comfortable lifestyle.
You know, I doubt many of us will ever be called by God to do something as radical and outrageous as selling ourselves into slavery so as to deliver the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others so as to “fill up what is lacking in Christ's suffering.” But I think we should be willing to—if that is what He were to call us to do. At the very least, I think we should resolve to do whatever God would have us to do, irregardless of the cost, so as to see Christ receive the reward of His suffering.
When all is said and done—here is a worthy new year's resolution for 2010 and the rest of our lives.
Resolved: To fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions by rejoicing in my sufferings that are the result of my intentional decision to do my share of making sure the Gospel is shared with all peoples for the glory of Christ and the eternal joy of His Body—the church and those who will become part of His church as a result of hearing and believing the Gospel.
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