Suffering for Greater Glory

• Jonathan Dodson
• Jan 14, 2010
• Categories: Gospel

When we see people suffering in death, we typically pity them. A cancer patient physically dismantled by radiation, a person on their death bed heaving out their last breaths. Our first impulse is to pity those who suffer in their death, which is appropriate, but there is another more appropriate response for some who suffer in death. Consider Jesus:

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Heb 2:9

In this suffering of death, flogged by glass and nailed to wood, Jesus isn’t pitiable; he is glorious. This is not what we expect in suffering. With Jesus we encounter an awkward, almost unnatural juxtaposition of images—suffering and glory, death and honor? Aren’t we supposed to avoid suffering to grasp glory, delay death to obtain honor? Not so with Jesus. His “suffering of death” is his path to glory. What sets Jesus’ suffering death apart from the cancer patient and the car wreck victim? Why is Jesus “crowned with glory and honor” for his suffering?

Suffering for a Greater Glory

The suffering of Jesus is less like the hospital patient and more like the wounded soldier. Tortured in combat, the soldier suffers, not merely to save his own life, but to save the lives of his countrymen and fellow soldiers. At his death, the soldier is crowned with glory and honor with three volley rifle shots and a folded flag at his funeral. Glory and honor. Why? Because he tastes death so that others might live.

Jesus “suffering of death” is: “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” The English meaning of the word “taste” can be misleading. We imagine a nibble, a non-committal bite. But when you bite death; you swallow it whole. Like a sip from a poison cup, it’s deadly. Tasting death is deadly, no matter how little we taste. The Greek word here means “to partake, to experience.” Jesus fully experiences death for us. The Son of God willingly embraces suffering, death, and decay in a tomb. Why?

Jesus suffers for glory and Jesus suffers for grace. He tastes death so that he can be decorated at his resurrection with glory and honor. But he also tastes death so that we can taste life. This is grace. Grace comes to us through the jarring, cruciform “suffering of death”, shards and nails and decay. Jesus dies for glory, and Jesus dies for grace. He gets the glory; we get the grace. He dies for his fellow countrymen (Heb 2:11-12) who seek a lasting city (Heb 13:14), to create a new family gathered around himself. He tastes death so we don’t have to. And this is his glory, a glory of grace.

Death is Just a Door

But do we really receive life? After all, Christians are dying all around us, some faster than others. They possess no superpower to defy the clutches of death. Did Christ then die in vain? Is his glory of grace a sham? We will die, but we will not “surely die” (Gen 3:4). We will not die the death of Adam and Eve, a spiritual death, a banishment from the Garden of God’s glorious presence. No, we have escaped that death through the life and death of the second Adam. Because of him, we will walk back into the Garden, right out into the new creation where we run with new bodies (1 Cor 15), respond to new names (Isa 65:15), and a new song (Rev 14:3).

Poet and artist William Blake said “Death is just a door.” Although he may have differed with us about what was on the other side, he is correct to a point. M. Ward sings: “Death is just a door, Blake said it first. It’s just another room we enter, it’s a threshold that hurts. Birth is just a chorus, death is just a verse.” For those who cling to Christ, death is a threshold that leads to “life after life after death”, as N.T Wright puts it.

The suffering of his death purchases life, not just for the soul, but for the body and all creation (Rev 21:1). When Jesus takes the cup, he secures the promise of a whole new world for those who hope in him. The pain of death brings the joy of new life, not in a rescue from this world but a renewal of it. Ultimately, the Christian hopes in Christ, not just because he tastes death but because he swallows it up in victory (Isa 25:8)! Death loses its sting, the grave loses its victory, when Jesus arises with new life in his fists (1 Cor 15:55-57).

Your Own Personal Suffering

What will your death be like? What about your suffering? Is it for your own personal survival, a grappling for life this side of death? Or will you so suffer and die that a greater glory will be discerned? Will we suffer in a way that leads, not to pity but to glory, the glory of the grace of God in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19; Col 1:20)? Will you suffer and die for yourself or for the good of your countrymen, your fellow soldiers? Jesus has paved the way for a suffering and death that leads to glory and honor. His life and death and life make our life, suffering, death, and honor possible.

In a debate with some Jews, Jesus said: “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death” (Jn 8:58). By coming back to the words of Christ, relying on them, trusting them, we can bank on the promise of never tasting death, of walking our new bodies right out into the new creation with a new song in our mouth. Let’s keep his word close, to our hearts, in our suffering, and walk through the doorway of death that leads to life. Let us suffer, not for pity, but for glory—the glory of his inestimable grace.

Jonathan Dodson is planter of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. Get this article as a PDF.