What’s implied Here? The suffering that Christ would go through in order to crush the head of Satan. All who choose willingly by inspiration of revelation to be united with Jesus Christ, that is to be a true follower of Christ a disciple, again, will also suffer in many ways, for the proofing of their commitment and their learning of obedience as the Lord did as our captain, through a wholehearted surrender. So we have this concept all the way up through Scripture that the righteous are going to suffer for their trusting and for the perfecting of true humility of heart. Paul epitomizes that with the suffering that he went through in order to get the Gospel, (of God's Grace and the New Covenant of Grace, the resurrection is woven deeply into the fabric of living by Grace, in the faith of Christ) of redemption and salvation to the ends of the Roman Empire. Now back to Romans chapter 8. Paul writes:
Romans 8: 18 "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Now what is he talking about? Oh, we will suffer in this earthly sojourn, much as the Lord was tempted in the wilderness by Satan in the same three areas, in fact this is why we're told to be clothed with the full armor of God, and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is nothing compared to the glory that is awaiting to be revealed in us. It is also why we're to study the word to have the spirit of our minds renewed to the mind of Christ, to be empowered as He was through humility of soul, that is to say to have a contrite heart, and over came the temptations. “It is written.”
But, we do have to constantly be reminded that we suffer for our trusting in His faith. We in the Western world in the last couple of hundred years have known almost nothing of suffering for our faith. There are places in Africa, and in Indonesia, China etc. where they are. They are suffering inexorably for their faith. But we have it so good that we really don’t know what it is to suffer. Oh, we may have somebody make a snide remark once in a while, but that’s not suffering. That’s something that just rolls off like water off of a ducks back. Nevertheless, it has been part and parcel of the saints experience down through the history of Christendom that people have had to suffer for their taking God at His word.
Even the Disciples, they all suffered a martyr’s death but none of them suffered as much as the Apostle Paul. He really knew what he was talking about. Let’s look at that verse once more before we go back to Hebrews. So he says:
Romans 8: 18 "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." So the suffering of this present time was precipitated by the curse. Since we are living under the curse, we can certainly expect to have a certain amount of suffering. Because our bodies have not been redeemed and still carry the penalty of the curse as does nature and the world. All is out of sorts from its first estate.
Always remember, God has His own purposes. The suffering we sometimes endure, we don’t understand at the time. But God has a reason and a purpose for it. We’re not to shrink from them. Remember that before we entered the first estate or were placed into the first covenant and under the ordinances and statutes of the Law we had almost no suffering. So the sufferings are to bring us to Christ's birthing, the very place which the nation of Israel rejected for they did not want to be under His divine rule. They said NO to Him and are so resisting His internal kingdom still, as is the church as we know it. Both of them and those of other religions make up the spirit of this world are the images of Revelation in the false prophet, beast, dragon, scarlet or great whore. Repeating verse 10:
Hebrews 2:10b "…bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Here is revealed part of the season for our sufferings, to bring us to the place of perfection or maturity in the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, in those who willfully with child-like trust and a broken contrite heart and here's the key, in humility surrender to God's Will.
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