I will seek to clarify the role that suffering has in sanctification, in that its not punishment from God, but it is a tool that God uses to purify us, thus progressing our sanctification. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 gives a great example of a church that is facing severe persecution that God is using to grow them in their Christian sanctification. It is unclear who the offenders are in 2 Thessalonians, but it is clear that the church is undergoing some type of suffering and persecution (1:5-6). We can see that the Thessalonian Church is a model for other churches on how to persevere in the midst of suffering. Paul makes this clear in v. 4 when he says, “As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring.”[1] The Thessalonians did not react to their persecutions the way we are naturally prone. Instead of blaming God or blaming each other for their problems they sought to appropriately subdue the situation so that they could properly submit it to the glorious Lord.
I believe suffering to be one of the most powerful tools God uses to bring about Christ-likeness in our sanctificational process. Sanctification, says the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q.35), is “the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”[2] At our regeneration we were made positionally righteous before the Father due to the imputed righteousness of Christ that comes by faith. Though practically we come before God still raggedy and sinful. Thus the regenerational aspect of our righteousness is punctiliar, and the sanctificational aspect is progressive. In the same way that we are saved by faith, it is faith that allows for the process of being set apart unto holiness.
‘But without faith it is impossible to please God’ (Heb. 11:6). We are saved by faith (Luke 7:50). We are justified by faith (Rom. 5:1). We live by faith (Gal. 2:20). We stand by faith (2 Cor. 1:24). We walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7). We obey by faith (Rom. 1:5). Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:17). We overcame the world by faith (1 John 5:4). The heart is purified by faith (Acts 15:9). All duties, for their right motive and end, depend upon it. No trials and afflictions can be patiently or profitably borne unless faith be in exercise. Our whole warfare can only be carried on and finished victoriously by faith (1 Tim. 6:12). All the gifts and graces of God are presented in the promises, and they can only be received and enjoyed by us in a way of believing. It is high worship to be strong in faith giving glory to God. In view of all this, we need not be surprised to read that we are ‘sanctified by faith.’[3]
We know that it is not faith itself that sanctifies us but the object in which we put our faith. Paul applauds the Thessalonians in 2 Thess. 1:3-4 for their increasing faith in the midst of persecution, for he knows that suffering and persecution, if submitted to God in faith, develops and produces Christ-likeness. The theme of suffering as a proponent of sanctification is found throughout the Holy Scriptures. It is often referred to in the language of metal being refined through fire, “He will act like a refiner and purifier of silver and will cleanse the Levites and refine them like gold and silver”(Mal. 3:3). And again in Zach.13:9, “…I will refine them like silver is refined and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer; I will say, ‘These are my people, and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.” In the same way as precious medals such as gold and silver are purified from its impurities through the refiners fire, metaphorically we are being purified through the fire of suffering. This process is necessary for us to grow closer to Christ, for we cannot become vessels for his glory as long as we are living in the sinful impurities of the flesh.
[1]Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2006; 2006). 2 Th 1:4.
[2]J. I. Packer, Concise Theology : A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1995).
[3]Arthur Walkington Pink, The Doctrine of Sanctification. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2005). 174.
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