Suffering: Christ’s pathway to exaltation was suffering and death. While there are clear differences between our suffering and the sufferings of Christ[1], the Bible still teaches that believers suffer in the likeness to Christ in some way.[2] This is by the Lord’s own design. Christ brought a sword (Matt. 10:34), and His disciples face some form of persecution. Moreover, Scripture teaches that our pathway to glory is suffering.[3] We endure the sufferings of this life with our hope squarely fixed on the future promises of Christ (1:13). Our affliction is for “an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17).

Conversion: We don’t make suffering an excuse to compromise. We were converted to be “obedient from the heart” to the Word of God (Rom. 6:17). Peter reminds us of this conversion to Christ expressed at our baptism. We expressed to God a pledge to live with a good conscience before Him. All who are biblically baptized share in this fundamental commitment to the Lord.[4] Even as Christ died and rose,[5] so our old self died and the new creature in Christ sprang into existence (2 Cor. 5:17). Thus, we press on in the paths of righteousness, even in the face of suffering. By divine regeneration (1:3, 23), we have put our “hand to the plow” and we do not look back (Luke 9:62). Mr. Pliable is the woeful exception. “No turning back…” is our marching song.

[1] Peter carefully makes this distinction. Christ’s death was “for sins once for all,” “the just for the unjust,” and it was to “bring you to God.” Our suffering atones for no sin, we are not just, and we cannot bring anyone into peace with God through our suffering. But as Christ suffered while doing right before God, so we do also.

[2] Cf. Matt. 10:25; 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27; John 15:18, 20, 17:14; Rom. 8:17; Phil. 3:10.

[3] Cf. Acts 14:22; Rom. 8:17-18; 2 Tim. 2:11; 1 Pet. 4:13.

[4] Cf. Rom. 6:3-5. This is the most basic and fundamental commitment of the disciples of Christ (Matt. 28:20; John 14:15, 21; 15:10, 14; 1 Cor. 7:19; Rom. 1:5; 6:17; 15:18; Phil. 2:12; Heb. 5:9; 1 Pet. 1:2, 14, 22).

[5] Our rising out of water in baptism is a picture of our rising from death with Christ (Rom. 6:3-5; Eph. 2:5).