blessings of pleasure and blessings of pain
[Unless otherwise noted, all quotes are from Bullinger’s Decades and have been lightly adapted.]
Since many men either lose their earthly goods, or they can’t by any means gain what earthly goods they actually need (which is then the cause for their being oppressed by poverty), it is profitable and necessary for every good man to know from God’s word the very reason and ground of his consolation in the midst of misery. Otherwise, being swallowed up by great sorrow, and entangled in complete desperation, he will give himself over as Satan’s slave.
We saw last sermon Bullinger’s encouragement to enjoy the earthly riches that God gives to his people. Blessings of pleasure are easy to enjoy, though they’re difficult to enjoy as God’s gift. But what about God’s blessing when it comes through need and pain? How are we to appreciate God’s hand when it falls on us heavily?
But before answering that question, we need to understand the context in which Bullinger lived. If his sermon is based on God’s word it’s true regardless of his content, but I think that we as modern readers – especially those who live in the west – would do well to understand the background for what he says.
The evils which daily fall upon our necks are truly innumerable. Those which happen most often are plague and pestilence, infinite diseases, death, the fear of death – which is to some a terror more grievous than death itself. Add to these the death and destruction of those whom we consider important, robberies, oppressions, endless bad fortune, poverty, beggary, lack of friends, bad reputations, banishment, persecution, imprisonment, torture, exquisite punishments of various sorts which are too terrible to think about, unseasonable and tempestuous weather, barrenness, depravation, frost, hail, floods, earthquakes, the sinking of cities, the spoiling of fields, the burning of houses, the ruin of buildings, hatred, factions, private grudges, treasons, rebellions, wars, slaughter, captivity, cruelty of enemies, and tyranny; also the lack of children, troubles, cares, and miserable lives by unsuitable marriages, by children badly disposed, maliciously bent, disobedient and unthankful to father and mother; and finally, care and continual grief in many situations for many things, which never cease to trouble our minds. For no man can ever fully catalogue all the evils by which miserable mankind is woefully endangered and every moment tormented.
These are the troubles we face, as Christians. While it seems the wicked enjoy peace and prosperity. Think the Psalms, Psalm 2 – why do the nations rage, Psalm 73 – the wicked enjoy the fulness of life while the righteous suffer. Bullinger’s list seems horrific, especially to Christians in the English-speaking world, but for many believers throughout the history of Christianity and even in many parts of the world today, this list is simply the reality of daily life. This is the background for Bullinger’s understanding of the sufferings we face. This is what he’s talking about when he is thinking about misery.
Why do we face these sorrows? Because of sin. Sin is the ultimate source of human misery. We’re reminded of John’s story about the man born blind…it’s not necessarily specific sin that results in specific misery, but sin in macro stands behind all the suffering that we face in this sin-cursed and broken world. And sometimes our own sin and foolishness does stand directly behind our misery. But why is the world the way it is? Because sin has corrupted everyone and everything. The very created order itself groans under the weight of the curse.
Bullinger’s sermon reminds us to take these miseries seriously. Why is so much music in the church so banally happy? Why are sermons so peppy? Why are even the sermons that do attempt to engage with the reality of the human condition so weightless, so flighty? Why is the church today so shallow?
And contrast that with what we have received from the past. Why are the books we have from the Reformation or Puritan times so much deeper than most of what passes for Christian reflection today? Maybe it’s because those Christians suffered. We talk about suffering, we write about suffering, we complain about suffering, but few of us could name more than a handful of the events Bullinger listed above across the whole of our lives, when in the 16th and 17th centuries these things were commonplace.
Yet we must not miss that there is real suffering in the church today. Many Christians are truly miserable. Yes, our misery often stems from internal battles, battles that rage within our own minds. Or we’re miserable because of troubled relationships. Or we have genuine and seemingly unending needs. Real needs. We in the west rarely face war, plague, and complete depravation like some of our brothers and sisters around the globe are facing (even at this moment), but whether our suffering is imagined or real, external or internal, we are profoundly unhappy.
Maybe at least part of the problem is we don’t understand the purpose of suffering. Bullinger understood something of this:
The Lord tries those that are his by laying the cross on their necks; he purges them like gold in the fire. He cuts us off from many occasions of evil, that he may bring us to the bearing of greater and more abundant fruit. The wisdom of the Lord follows the work of a goldsmith, who puts his gold into the fire to purge it, not to ruin it; like a good farmer who mows down his grain when it is spoiled or prunes his trees, not to destroy them, but to make them bear more abundant fruit.
We long for blessings of pleasure, but our souls need blessings of pain.
Our flesh, when we enjoy peace and quiet, is lazy, drowsy, and slow to good and honest exercises. When we’re content and we seek no higher than earthly things, when we’re wholly given over to earthly pleasures, then we utterly forget God and godly things. Therefore it is not only useful, it’s also absolutely necessary to have this dull and sluggish lump of our flesh stirred up and exercised with troubles, afflictions, and sharp persecutions. The saints are rather like iron, which is somewhat worn and diminished by use, but by lying still or unoccupied is eaten even more with rust and rot.
Bullinger points to our need for patience when we’re under affliction. He quotes a lengthy section from the church father Cyprian to this effect, but here is the summary: ‘this is what makes us continue as sons of God, that we imitate the patience of our Father.’ God is patient, therefore we as his children are to suffer patiently. Jesus our Savior suffered patiently; we must follow his example.
But not only does Bullinger call us to think, to choose, and to feel differently about our sufferings, he also reminds us that God himself is producing this patience and perseverance in us. God is giving us what we need to obey his command.
And as faith is the gift of God’s grace and not the power or work of our own nature, so also hope is given to us from above; it’s confirmed in us by the Spirit of God. For in our looking after these things, there are both groanings and longings for them…. When the Lord defers his promises and seems to wait too long to answer us or neglects to help us in our distresses, or else he even lays more troubles on our backs when we were already greatly afflicted, then comes hope, which doing her duty, bids us pluck up our hearts and wait for the Lord’s timing. For he cannot possibly hate those who worship him, and he never fails nor in the least point deceives them; for he himself is the eternal truth and everlasting goodness.
Our hope is God’s word and God’s character. We so quickly adjust our perspective of God based on our circumstances, but God is unchanging. That means that even our sufferings, whether small or significant, are given to us directly by the hand of a wise and loving Creator God. He wants to create something in our souls that blessings of pleasure simply won’t accomplish. Our sufferings aren’t meaningless, they’re not senseless, they’re not purposeless, they’re not a waste. As John Piper said years ago, our sufferings are doing something in us.
So then, my brethren, let us, I pray you, patiently suffer the hand of the Lord our God, as often as we are touched by any calamity or are tempted in any way by the Lord our God; knowing this, that the Lord strikes us that he may heal us, and he troubles us that he may comfort us and receive us to himself into everlasting joys.
Only a little longer dear brothers and sisters, only a little longer.
Next, on bearing false witness and coveting
