Gospel-Centered Suffering: Trusting the God Who Continually Raises the Dead 

Note from Bob: You’re reading Part Five of a Changing Lives blog mini-series on Gospel-Centered Self-Counsel for Suffering. Read Part One. Read Part Two. Read Part Three. Read Part Four.  

The World Is Fallen and It Often Falls one Us! 

The Apostle Paul didn’t pretend that he was above despair. Listen to his words in 2 Corinthians 1. 

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.” 

I developed a paraphrase of all these words that Paul piles on top of one another. When you read my paraphrase, ask yourself what you would think of your pastor if he admitted to this. What would you think of your Sunday school teacher, Christian school teacher, deacon, women’s ministry director, or counselor if any of them admitted to this? 

“I want you to know about the pressure/affliction/squeezing I was under: My soul-squashing was excessively beyond my capacity to endure so that I despaired even of life. I was utterly at a loss, beyond the end of my rope! Indeed, in addition, in my heart, with eyeballs only, from a human perspective, in myself, in my soul—I felt the sentence of death. I felt like a man condemned to death and told by the Supreme Court that there would be no stay of execution. I had given up and was ready to die!” 

Could your pastor get away with admitting that without being fired? Could you if you are a pastor or counselor? 

Now remember something about Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. Many of the Corinthians despised Paul. They wanted him fired. Replaced. So, is this the sort of confession that you would put in your cover letter to your résumé to the Corinthian church? Even given these circumstances, Paul did not want the Corinthians to be ignorant of what he was going through and of what it was doing to him.

Martin Luther wrote about two levels of suffering. Level one suffering was what happened to us—the external events. When I think of level one suffering I often say, “The world is fallen and it often falls on us.” 

Level two suffering was what happened in us—the internal reaction. When I think of level two suffering, I often say, “The world is a mess and it messes with our minds.” 

We don’t know for sure what external, level one suffering Paul was referencing. But we sure know about the level two internal suffering he was experiencing. Whatever it was externally, he felt internally like it was beyond his ability to handle. 

Ever felt like that? He saw no human possibility of survival. Ever been there? He was under such weight that he felt like there was no way he had the power to lift it off. Plummer summarizes it well in his commentary, “St. Paul has many moods, and he has no wish to conceal from the Corinthians how this profoundly great trouble had depressed him.” 

In his despair, the great Apostle of hope was surrendering hope. As in Psalm 88, the Psalm of the Dark Night of the Soul, Paul was brought low and into the pit of despair. In Paul’s thinking, it was a done deal. “I’m as good as dead. I’m giving up. Bury me. Put me in a tomb.” 

We would be so ashamed to be so brutally honest about such deep despair and depression. But that’s because we glory in our strength. Paul glories in his weakness. Paul wanted to be real and raw so that his followers could be real and raw. He wanted them to have an opportunity to minister to him. 

He wanted them to understand God’s power that could raise him victoriously from those tomb-like feelings. He wanted them to know that we don’t experience radical reliance on the God who raises the dead until we are brutally honest about our casket experiences. 

Trusting in the God-Who-Continually-Raises-the-Dead: Radical Reliance 

In the middle of verse 9 we read one of the most important words in the Bible. “But.” What a word! “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” 

Why does God allow any Christian to get to the breaking point? So that we will surrender to Christ’s comfort. Paul’s despair, our crashing into the breakers of life—it all comes for the express purpose that we might not trust in ourselves, but in Christ’s resurrection power. 

Suffering happens so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God. 

This word for “trust” is not the Greek word for “faith” but a different word that always contrasts trust in God with trust in human resources. For instance, in Philippians 3:4, it compares radical self-confidence with radical God-confidence. In Ephesians 3:12, Paul says that such radical reliance results in boldness, daring, courage, freedom, and zest for life! 

Think about that. How in the world did Paul go from abject despair of life to daring zest for life? What in the world could cause us to transport from the tomb to the mountaintop? Actually—nothing in this world has anything to do with it. 

Paul moved from death to life through radical reliance upon God who continually raises the dead. Do you detect how vital Paul’s image of God was? Paul maintains a very specific image of God and he uses very precise wording to convey that image: God-the-continuous-raiser-of-the-Dead. God-the-One-continually-raising-the-dead. God’s resurrection power is timeless and permanent. 

The Rest of the Story 

Join us for Part Six when we learn about Being Raised Out of a Pit. 

Join the Conversation 

What mini-resurrection, what daily-resurrection power do you need today as you face the casket experiences of life? 

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth