“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:16-18 NASB1995)

The Sufferings of Christ Jesus

We are children of God, this says, and heirs of God, and heirs with Christ, this proclaims, IF indeed we suffer with Christ Jesus. And in what ways did Jesus Christ suffer? He was not believed by most people that he was indeed who he claimed to be, doing the will of God the Father in heaven. So, he was mocked, made fun of, ridiculed, harassed, called crazy, accused falsely of being of the devil, rejected by his people and by his brothers, and called a liar and a blasphemer because he claimed to be who he was. He was/is God.

He was hated and hounded continuously by the rulers and teachers of the law and the people of power and influence within the temple of God who were jealous of him because of his temporary popularity among the people. So they frequently laid mind traps for him to fall into as they tried continuously to trip him up with his words in order to have cause to accuse him of wrongdoing. But Jesus knew what they were doing, and he never fell into their traps, which probably just made them hate him even more.

And so they eventually had him falsely arrested on the charges of wrong he did not commit. And they held a mock trial in order to accuse him of wrong so that they could convince the authorities that he needed to be put to death on a cross. And they accomplished their goal. And Jesus suffered much physically through it all, beaten beyond recognition, spat upon, and then hung on a cross to die as though he was a common criminal among thieves. For they nailed his hands and his feet to that cross where he bled to death.

But this really wasn’t the worst of it all, which is hard to believe, but in Jesus’ death on that cross he took upon himself the sins of the entire world. He became sin for us that he might put our sins to death with him so that, by God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in him we will now die with him to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God and to his righteousness, in walks of surrender to God in obedience to his commands, by God’s grace.

If We Suffer With Him

Now, none of us can do what Jesus did, for we are not God. But we are called to suffer in most of the same ways in which he suffered, and as part of what it means to be a child of God and an heir of God. And it really begins with the cross of Christ. By faith in Jesus Christ, if our faith is genuine biblical faith, our old self is put to death with Christ. We are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as servants of our Lord and of his righteousness, in obedience to our Lord’s commands, empowered by God.

But that is just the beginning. Now Jesus is our Lord (Owner-Master) and our lives come under his control, and our lives are to be in submission to him as Lord of our lives and in doing the will of God which God has for us to do, as those who profess him to be our Lord. So we now have put sin to death, by the Spirit, and we are putting sin to death daily, by the Spirit. And in God’s power and strength and wisdom we are walking the walk of faith which he has for us, in surrender to his will, in obedience to his commands.

And if we are serious about our walks of faith, and if we are living the life God has for us to live, and if our lives are being modeled after Jesus’ walk of faith, and we are doing and saying the kinds of things he did and said, and so we are speaking the truth of the gospel, and we are refuting the lies of the enemy, and we are calling out the false teachers who are teaching lies to the people, then we, too, may be mocked, made fun of, ridiculed, harassed, called crazy, accused falsely of being of the devil, and rejected by those who we love, even by friends and family, and “church family,” too.

And we may be hated and rejected and mistreated by others who call themselves “Christians,” and even by “pastors of churches” who are being “warned about people like us, i.e. people with strong convictions,” and so they are being trained to encourage us strongly to “go someplace else where you will be a better fit.” Or they may trump up false charges against us as a way to get rid of us because we don’t fit “the model” of who they are looking for to “fill their churches,” which are being led by marketing schemes.

And we may suffer physically, too, not because of wrong we have done, but as part of God’s loving discipline of his children in order to make us more like Jesus and to prepare us for what he has for us to do as his calling upon our individual lives. For the purpose of our suffering is to produce in us godly character, endurance, steadfastness, maturity, increased faith, compassion, and dependence on God, and not on ourselves. So there is a reason for it. But some of this may be at the hands of our enemies who hate us, too, because of our obedience to God and our refusal to disobey our Lord.

But through the things that we suffer, if we grow closer to our Lord in walks of obedience to him, and if we answer to his call upon each of our lives to do his will, and to obey his commands, and to no longer make sin our practice, then we are the children of God, and heirs of God who will be glorified with him and will have eternal life with him. But, if we refuse to bow to the Lord and to do his will, and we hold on to our sinful practices, and we live in disobedience to God, instead, then we do not have eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

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We Suffer With Him
An Original Work / December 20, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love