Satan’s Strategy for Your Life #14: Salvation Without Suffering
“And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to You.’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."—Matthew 16:22-23
Suffering is the mortar of the church. The Bible is replete with the idea that we will suffer. There are some Christians who advocate a false and demonic belief that our faith should be devoid of suffering. Their understanding is that if we have any suffering whatsoever then something is wrong in our Christian walk. Such a belief is a perversion of Scripture and completely antithetical to what Christ taught.
In our passage for today, Jesus had just informed the disciples that He was going to Jerusalem and would suffer, and then die—but on the third day be raised. It was just after telling His disciples He was going to die that Peter pulled Him aside in order to rebuke Him. Peter said, “Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Peter didn’t want Jesus to suffer and die. The idea was abhorrent to him, but Peter didn’t understand that Jesus’ sufferings had been purposed since the beginning of time. It wasn’t Peter who was behind this rebuke, but Satan. Which is why Jesus responded so quickly by turning around saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” What was the reason for such a harsh rebuke? Peter was advocating Jesus NOT suffer. But Jesus had to suffer. It was essential to bring about our salvation. As Jesus taught the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?"—Luke 24:26. And again just several verses later:
“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”—Luke 24:45-47.
Jesus knew that in order to accomplish our redemption He had to suffer. He had to be beaten, slapped, hit with rods, and humiliated (Isaiah 53). He had to carry His cross to Calvary. He had to offer His hands and feet to the soldier’s hammer and nails (Psalm 22:16). He had to be held up for the entire world to see (John 3:14).
If Jesus suffered, so too must we. As Peter wrote, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps”—1 Peter 2:21.
Satan desires that we not suffer because he knows that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”—Romans 5:3-5.
God desires that we suffer because it is through suffering that God is magnified. Whenever we suffer and endure it, we are showing that God is worth more value to us than our very lives. People take notice when we endure that kind of suffering, which will result in many souls being saved.
We suffer because we are to follow Jesus’ example and because it is “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). We are to “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3) in order that Jesus may be more clearly seen through us. Which is why James could write:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”—James 1:3-4
Our suffering will result in the joy of knowing Christ. And it is through our suffering that many will be brought to glory. May we endure suffering with great joy knowing the truth found in Hebrews 2:10:
“For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”
May God use our suffering to bring many to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Suffering is the mortar of the church. The Bible is replete with the idea that we will suffer. There are some Christians who advocate a false and demonic belief that our faith should be devoid of suffering. Their understanding is that if we have any suffering whatsoever then something is wrong in our Christian walk. Such a belief is a perversion of Scripture and completely antithetical to what Christ taught.
In our passage for today, Jesus had just informed the disciples that He was going to Jerusalem and would suffer, and then die—but on the third day be raised. It was just after telling His disciples He was going to die that Peter pulled Him aside in order to rebuke Him. Peter said, “Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Peter didn’t want Jesus to suffer and die. The idea was abhorrent to him, but Peter didn’t understand that Jesus’ sufferings had been purposed since the beginning of time. It wasn’t Peter who was behind this rebuke, but Satan. Which is why Jesus responded so quickly by turning around saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” What was the reason for such a harsh rebuke? Peter was advocating Jesus NOT suffer. But Jesus had to suffer. It was essential to bring about our salvation. As Jesus taught the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?"—Luke 24:26. And again just several verses later:
“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”—Luke 24:45-47.
Jesus knew that in order to accomplish our redemption He had to suffer. He had to be beaten, slapped, hit with rods, and humiliated (Isaiah 53). He had to carry His cross to Calvary. He had to offer His hands and feet to the soldier’s hammer and nails (Psalm 22:16). He had to be held up for the entire world to see (John 3:14).
If Jesus suffered, so too must we. As Peter wrote, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps”—1 Peter 2:21.
Satan desires that we not suffer because he knows that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”—Romans 5:3-5.
God desires that we suffer because it is through suffering that God is magnified. Whenever we suffer and endure it, we are showing that God is worth more value to us than our very lives. People take notice when we endure that kind of suffering, which will result in many souls being saved.
We suffer because we are to follow Jesus’ example and because it is “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). We are to “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3) in order that Jesus may be more clearly seen through us. Which is why James could write:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”—James 1:3-4
Our suffering will result in the joy of knowing Christ. And it is through our suffering that many will be brought to glory. May we endure suffering with great joy knowing the truth found in Hebrews 2:10:
“For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”
May God use our suffering to bring many to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.
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