What is Suffering?

After man fell by reason of Adam partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the soul of man began to depreciate in quality because of the presence of sin; the soul began to die. The death in the soul is as a result of the gradual working of the nature of sin (Rom. 6:23).

The wisdom of sin is to make its nature (flesh) one with the soul, where sin becomes the life of man or the default manual for living (Rom. 7:15-21).

This nature is skillfully woven by a being (Satan) who is full of wisdom (Ezek. 28:12). It would take the unveiling of a wiser being (Jesus Christ) to free man from this nature (Eph. 4:20-24).

The gospel, according to scriptures, is the preaching of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose nature is totally against that which is in man.

The preaching of Christ and Him crucified comes to rid us of sin which has over time become our life (1 Cor. 1:23, 1 Cor. 2:2, Gal. 2:20). Hence, the Holy Ghost begins to instruct us against this life (flesh); this is what is called Suffering or the Leading of the Spirit (Rom. 8:14, 1 Pet. 4:1-3). 

It is called ‘suffering’ because it is neither comfortable nor conducive for flesh/us. Jesus speaking to His disciples in Mark 8:34 said, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself…” showing that denying the flesh is denying oneself.

The cross is the instrument through which every believer must crucify or utterly separate himself from the world (Gal. 6:14). The process of crucifixion is a deliberate obedience to the Holy Ghost for the removal of wrong natures such as pride, envy, jealousy, strife etc.

Obedience to the commandments of the New Testament is in turn, disobedience to sin and death. The hope of the New Testament is to give the very nature that is in Jesus Christ to man.

As we obey and deny ourselves, we die to or become unresponsive to sin until Christ fully becomes our life (Col. 3:3).