HoHum:
There is a woman who is buried under a 175 year old oak tree in a cemetery of a church in rural Louisiana. According to this woman’s instructions, only one word is carved on the tombstone, “Waiting.”
John Mark Hicks is a Church of Christ guy and he has been through loss- his first wife died (since remarried) and his only son had a debilitating condition that lead to his death at a young age. Mr. Hicks wrote a book that helped him in his grief called, “Yet Will I Trust Him: Understanding God in a Suffering World”- recommend it but it is lengthy- best section here
WBTU:
We are caught between the “not yet” of fallenness and the “already” of the end of the world. This tension means that Christians live in 2 worlds. We live in the futility of suffering, death, mourning, and pain, but we also live in the Spirit who gives hope, peace, and comfort. We are oppressed by the world’s fallenness, but we are liberated and renewed by the indwelling Spirit of God. This tension creates the situation where Christians must wait for something they already partially possess. Christians wait for the end of the this world with a hope that overcomes the futility of fallenness. This is an important idea for Paul.
“Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.” 1 Corinthians 1:7. “But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.” Galatians 5:5. “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,” Philippians 3:20. “while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:13.
Thesis: We are waiting with, in and through
For instances:
1. Waiting with confidence
Romans 8:28-30
We are confident because God has loved us in Jesus. Fallenness creates doubt about God’s love. Suffering causes us to question God’s intent, motive, rationale, and power. A demonstration of God’s love in Jesus Christ dispels our doubts even if it does not answer all our questions.
We are confident because God works in all things for our good. The promise of Romans 8:28 is significant not only because of its meaning but also because of its context. Trapped in fallenness, yet given hope by the Spirit, Christians are caught in uncertainty about the present. The present is filled with suffering though the future is filled with hope. The constant promise of God which answers this uncertainty is that God is at work in all things for good.
God is active. He is active in everything. He has a good intention in everything he does. God is not distant or uninvolved. There is nothing outside of his activity. In everything he seeks to accomplish good, and, given that it is God, he will achieve good in every situation.
The “good” here does not refer to a human definition of happiness. It does not mean that nothing bad will happen, but that in everything that happens God intends something good for God’s will is actively accomplishing something good. The “good” here refers to God’s ultimate intent. The good that God works is the highest good- it is the good of fellowship with him. It is the good of conformity to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29-30). This is the purpose of God in the world.
2. Waiting in hope
Romans 8:30-34
Our hope is the experience of glorious redemption. We wait for freedom from the bondage of corruption and mortality. We wait for the redemption of our bodies. God’s glorious intent is to conform us to the image of his Son, both in body and soul.
Our hope is grounded in the work of God in Jesus Christ. Just as God subjected the world to fallenness, so God redeems the world through Jesus Christ. God gave his Son for the work of redemption. God is for us even though fallenness sometimes distorts our perception of God’s redemptive intent. God is not against us Vs. 31. The evidence of God’s redemptive love is that he gave us his Son, and if he gives us his Son, then “how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32, NIV. On the contrary, through Jesus Christ, God justified us- vs. 33
Our hope is established through the intercession of Jesus Christ. We do not fear condemnation even when fallenness may distort our perception of how God feels about us. Nothing condemns us because God in Christ has justified us, and Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God to intercede for us- vs. 34. God has already made his judgment in our favor through the intercession of Jesus Christ.
Our hope is produced by the presence of God’s Spirit in our hearts-“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13, NIV. The first fruits of the Spirit bear witness to our relationship with God. We are his children and through the Spirit we cry, “Abba, Father.” “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”” Romans 8:15, NIV. Hope produces joy and peace in our lives by the power of the Spirit whom he has poured into our hearts. The love of God fills our hearts, and our hearts are comforted in the midst of fallenness.
3. Waiting through the suffering
Romans 8:35-39
There are many obstacles in the way of God’s people. Some of these are given in 2 lists in Romans 8:35,38-39, but Paul intends these lists as all encompassing. He is not simply talking about persecution or human hostility toward the gospel. Rather, he is talking about every form of suffering which appears in this futile world. These tribulations form the fundamental obstacles of endurance and create despair within the people of God.
We must be willing to suffer for God’s sake (Romans 8:36). Paul quotes Psalm 44:22 to make this point. Psalm 44 is a lament that raises the issue of whether God has forgotten his people (44:20) and rejected them (44:9). God has crushed his people (44:19) and made them a reproach (44:13). The psalmist raises the “Why?” questions. “Why do you sleep?” (44:23). “Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?” (44:24). He petitions God to wake up and act on behalf of his people. “Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love” (44:26).
Paul quotes from the end of the psalm where the psalmist expresses the attitude of God’s suffering people. God’s people face death for God’s sake, and indeed they are slaughtered as sheep. God’s people do not escape fallenness, but God’s people remain faithful and endure suffering. Their petition, however, is for redemption, and their confidence is, as the last line of the psalm expresses, in God’s unfailing love (44:26). The unfailing love of God to which the psalmist clung is also the same thing to which Paul appeals. God’s unfailing love has been demonstrated in Jesus Christ.
Endurance produces hope because the love of God is in our hearts-“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:5, NIV. Paul believes we ought to “boast” or “rejoice” in our sufferings because those sufferings produce perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:2-4). When Christians persevere through suffering, God refines and builds a character out of which hope arises by the power of the Holy Spirit. The perseverance of faith through a tribulation is the means by which God makes us worthy of his kingdom. “Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.” 2 Thessalonians 1:4, 5, NIV. This is the only time Paul uses the verb “to count as worthy.” It is used in an end of time sense. This is another way of expressing the more typical understanding of “first suffering, then glory.” The suffering refines and perfects the character of God’s people. It prepares them for glory. Endurance, then, has a goal in mind. We endure in view of the prize that is set before us. We endure suffering, as Jesus did, for the sake of the joy set before us (Hebrews 12:2).
Now suffering is not meaningless. It is purposeful. Keep using futility and it appears that way but for the child of God there is a purpose. God uses it to “make us worthy,” of his kingdom. Just as the suffering of Jesus was meaningful in the accomplishment of redemption, so our suffering is meaningful as it perfects us for the glory God will give at the end of this world.
Even more, our suffering is also redemptive. We seek to introduce the kingdom of God into the world through our words and actions. This means that we act sacrificially for the sake of the world. We approach suffering within a redemptive framework. The church, as God’s redemptive instrument in the world, must be willing to suffer for the redemption of the world and thus share in the suffering of Christ so that they might also share in his glory. Doug Bannister- The essential character trait I find in those who suffer redemptively is a humble willingness to leave some questions unanswered and a quiet decision to believe that God is good even when the evidence says otherwise
So what?
Because we groan “here” under the oppression of fallenness, we yearn for the “there” where that fallenness is destroyed. We yearn for a day without tears, without pain, without mourning and without death. We yearn for God’s light which will dispel all darkness. Consequently, we pray, “Maranatha,” or, “Come, O Lord” 1 Corinthians 16:22
