The sufferings of the church present the sufferings of Christ

In one of the more confusing statements in the New Testament, Paul says, “Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24). Now that is a weird verse. What in the world is lacking in Christ’s afflictions?

Paul does not mean that he somehow improves upon what Christ has done on the cross. After all, Paul is zealous to tell us that all he preaches is “Christ and him crucified.” That’s it. Christ’s work on the cross is complete in the sense that his suffering and death pays the penalty for our sin, once and for all. And we need only come to him in repentance and faith in order to be saved.

So what could possibly be “lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions”? Nothing is lacking at all, in terms of the merit and completeness of Christ’s work. But what is lacking is the presentation of those sufferings to a lost world.

It’s like if you and I were separated, continents away, let’s say. And I want to make up what is lacking in my love for you by presenting to you a gift. Well, what’s lacking in my love for you? Nothing at all in the sense that I love you whether I am near or far. But what is lacking is my expression of that love for you. And so I might a send a messenger to bring you a gift, in order to make up what is lacking – namely, the presentation of my love.

This is analogous to what Paul is trying to say in Colossians 1:24. Listen to how John Piper explains it.

Christ has prepared a love offering for the world by suffering and dying for sinners. It is full and lacking in nothing – except one thing, a personal presentation by Christ himself to the nations of the world. God’s answer to this lack is to call the people of Christ (people like Paul) to make a personal presentation of the afflictions of Christ to the world.

In doing this we “complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” We finish what they are designed for, namely, a personal presentation to the people who do not know about their infinite worth.

Here is the astounding upshot: God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people. God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we proclaim the cross as the way to life, people will see the marks of the cross in us and feel the love of the cross from us. Our calling is to make Christ real for people by the afflictions we experience in bringing them the message of salvation. (John Piper, Desiring God, 225)

One example: J. Oswald Sanders tells the story of an indigenous missionary in India who walked barefoot from village to village preaching the gospel. After a long day and many miles and much discouragement, he tried to speak up for the gospel in a particular village. They shouted him down and ran him out. Dejected and exhausted, he slouched down under a tree and fell asleep.

When he awoke the whole town was gathered to hear him. The head man of the village explained that they came to look him over while he was sleeping. When they saw his blistered feet they concluded that this must be a holy man, and that they had been evil to reject him. And according to Sanders, the whole village believed (Story told in John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, 94-95).

This is the way the Great Commission is going to get done – through the presentation of the sufferings of Christ in the sufferings of his people.