Hungarian Church Press, 1949 (1. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)
1949-07-26 / 9. szám
No 9. But let us not blame Peter too much, for he merely gave voice to human nature and its dread in face of suffering .'Although all of us are acquainted with suffering, yet all of us, more or loss recoil from it when regarding it purely from a human plpint of view. According to the answer of Jesus His suffering and that of all of us, cannot merely "be understood out of human points of view, otherwise fear would get hold of us. According to the general teaching of the Bible including the portion just read, all our sufferings can be traced back to the things of God. Even after reading all the Bible verses refering to suffering, there still remains a deep secret of the question unveiled, which at its final point is only known to God. We well understand thatf we all get into the fire of suffering as sinful men. It was Jesus alone Who endured suffering yet without sin. But then we can understand that He took upon Himself our sins, as the lamb of the Old Testament, to be sacrificed for sin. The suffering and death of Jesus makes it quite plain that the merit of our own suffering cannot be transferred to any of our fellowmen, even the suffering of a lifetime would prove but insufficient to expiate our own sins Without the sufferings of that sinless life of Jesus, without the shading of His Blood, there would be no deliverance from our sins, not even at the price of any of our own physical or spiritual sufferings. Our rightly endured sufferings are by no means atoning, bringing salvation, though they are not without fruit. No life can be lived without smaller or greater physical or mental sufferings be it the life of a believer or of an infidel. The practical question is, ahd remains how to endure our sufferings victoriously. Once the apostle put the question to one of his churches: ’'Have ye suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain.” Prom that we can sec that the school of suffering may end in failure for us, which is in no wise desirable. It is God alone, Mho sees the purpose of our sufferings. It is He Who sees the success or failure of His knife and through the apostles He points at Jesus saying in tho^ midst of our struggles: ”This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him. In peace or suffering in joy or sorrow, may He stand before us, may He stand by us when Satan is claiming us for the last time, at the lour of our death. 10-
