Gospel-Centered Self-Counsel for Suffering

Gospel-Centered Self-Counsel for Suffering 

Note from Bob: You’re reading Part One of a new Changing Lives blog mini-series on applying the gospel to yourself as you face suffering face-to-face with Christ. 

The Gospel for Sin and Suffering

The gospel of Christ’s grace deals thoroughly both with the sins we have committed and with the evils we have suffered. 

Unlike the Bible, we sometimes make Christ’ victory over sin predominantly individual and personal, rather than also corporate and cosmic. Christ died to dethrone sin and to defeat every vestige of sin. Christ died to obliterate every effect of sin—individual, personal, corporate, and cosmic—including death and suffering, tears and sorrows, mourning, crying, and pain. 

That’s why twice in Revelation, John shares the blessed culmination of the gospel narrative: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4; see also Rev. 17:7). 

The New City Catechism question 52 asks, “What hope does everlasting life hold for us?” John in Revelation answers, “All our greatest sorrows will be swallowed up!” 

Christ died to defeat every enemy, every evil, including the Devil who holds the power of death (Heb. 2:14-15), and the last enemy—suffering and death (1 Cor. 15:25; Is. 53:4). 

Absolutely the gospel is about the payment for and forgiveness of personal sin—which chapters 8 and 9 highlight in detail. Equally absolute is the gospel’s eternal overthrow of the curse of sin including suffering. That overthrow has already begun! Christ invites us to share with ourselves and with one another His healing hope in the midst of suffering today. 

It is only through the hope of the gospel that we can truly face suffering and ultimately find hope in suffering. Vanhoozer, in pondering the drama of redemption, explains that tragedies deal with catastrophes. The gospel, while never denying the catastrophe of sin, deals with eucatastrophe—Christ has done something extraordinarily amazing out of something horribly evil. 

Building on this perspective, in this blog mini-series, we’ll follow Paul’s development of a biblical sufferology—a gospel-centered theology of suffering. In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul preaches the gospel to himself by relating the gospel not to his personal sin, but to his personal suffering. Paul’s gospel way to address suffering follows the twin paths of: 

• Brutal Honesty: It’s Normal to Hurt

• Radical Reliance: It’s Possible to Hope 

The Rest of the Story 

In Part Two, we’ll explore the gospel reality that The Pathway to Hope Often Straddles the Precipice of Despair. 

Join the Conversation 

Why do you think we sometimes fail to apply the gospel to our suffering? 

What gospel-centered self-counsel do you apply to your life in your suffering? 

RPM Ministries: Changing Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth