A biblical approach to understanding how God transforms our sorrows

CCEF DVD Curriculum: Topical Studies for Individuals or Groups

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Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation

In a moment everything can change. Everything.

Has God taken something precious from you? Do the storms in your life leave you breathless? Has your faith been shaken? Does trusting God with your situation feel careless? In your suffering are you overwhelmed by grief? Are you stunned by the cross you have been called to bear?

Or perhaps you haven’t experienced much loss in your life so far. Do you long for and think about heaven? Are you unsure of how to walk with someone buried in a sea of sorrows? Do you find yourself offering pat answers to those who are suffering?

These are important questions, because the inescapable reality is that we all must face loss in this life. Although there will be varying degrees of loss, a result of this broken world is that no one can escape them. Through our suffering God pours out his love in Christ Jesus. And in his timing, he intends that love to overflow and spill into the lives of others. God uses the comfort we receive to help us comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3–7).

Loss is not a topic. And the most significant losses in life have no solutions short of the resurrection. As Christians we know our sorrows are to be transformed into something more than our own experiences. But sometimes our loss is so great that our experience drowns out all truth, all hope.

We are always in the dual role of sufferer and comforter. With that in mind, this workbook incorporates reflection and biblical study that will help you grow in wisdom—both for facing your own losses and in tenderly caring for those you love who are facing a loss.

This study is not designed to be a comprehensive methodology for how to counsel someone through a loss. It is an introductory study that provides a biblical framework for understanding loss. Though those in the throes of grief may find encouragement here, this resource may be more helpful after the initial shock of a loss has passed in time. This study is designed to be used individually or in a group setting.

978-1-938294-17-4

LOSS

with David Powlison,

Edward T. Welch,

Winston T. Smith,

Michael Emlet,

Alasdair Groves

and Aaron Sironi

LOSSC C E F D V D C u r r i c u l u m : To p i c a l S t u d i e s f o r I n d i v i d u a l s o r G r o u p s

A biblical approach to understanding how God transforms our sorrows

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Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway and The Holy Bible: New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International

Bible Society. All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the curriculum developers.

ISBN: 978-1-938294-17-4

The Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) is a non-profit ministry founded in 1968. CCEF exists to restore Christ to counseling and counseling to the church by thinking biblically about the issues of

living. We accomplish this mission through our teaching, writing, and counseling ministries. We are located in Glenside, PA. To learn more about our ministry, visit us at www.ccef.org.

Loss—A biblical approach to understanding how God transforms our sorrows

Copyright © 2016, by Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation.All rights reserved.

Speakers

David Powlison, MDiv, PhDAlasdair Groves, MDiv

Michael Emlet, MD, MDivWinston T. Smith, MDivAaron Sironi, MS, LCPC

Edward T. Welch, MDiv, PhD

Curriculum Development

Bruce E. Eaton, MDivRebecca Eaton, MA

A biblical approach to understanding how God transforms our sorrows

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Getting Started 2

All is Lost 4 David Powlison

Speaking Our Losses and Finding Refuge 23 Alasdair Groves

Partners in Suffering and Comfort 41 Michael Emlet

Loss—The Only Door to God 57 Winston T. Smith

Thomas Boston—Opening Death’s Hard Cold Hands 72 Aaron Sironi

The Apostle Paul’s Odd Balance Sheet 90 Edward T. Welch

Curriculum Conclusion 106

Group Handouts 107

Recommended Resources 113

About the Speakers 115

Copyright © 2016, by the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation.All rights reserved.

LOSS

2

In a moment everything can change. Everything.

Has God taken something precious from you? Do the storms in your life leave you breathless? Has your faith been shaken? Does trusting God with your situation seem too hard? Does it feel precarious? In your suffering are you overwhelmed by grief? Are you stunned by the cross you have been called to bear?

Or perhaps you haven’t experienced much loss in your life so far. Are you unsure how you will respond when suffering comes? Are you unsure how to walk with someone buried in a sea of sorrows? Do you find yourself offering pat answers—or rubbing salt on an open wound—to those who are suffering?

These are important questions. The inescapable reality is that we all must face loss in this life. Although there will be varying degrees of loss, living in this broken world means that no one can escape. But through our suffering God pours out his love in Christ Jesus. And in his timing, he intends his love to overflow and spill into the lives of others through us. The comfort we receive from God helps us comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3–7).

Loss is not just a “topic.” And the most significant losses in life have no “solution” short of the resurrec-tion. As Christians we know our sorrows are to be transformed into something deeply good. But some-times our loss is so great that our experience drowns out all truth, all hope.

With that in mind, this Workbook incorporates reflection and biblical study that will help you grow in wisdom—both in facing your own losses and in tenderly caring for those you love who are facing a loss.

This study is not designed to provide a comprehensive method for counseling someone through a loss. It is a study that provides a biblical framework for facing and understanding loss. We hope that people in the immediate experience of grief will find encouragement here. But this resource may be even more helpful after the initial shock of a loss has passed. This study is designed to be used individually or in a group setting.

About the WorkbookEach section of the Workbook includes a Before You Begin activity. Immediately following is the Intro-duction which corresponds to the beginning of a video. Talks conclude with a Reflection Activity followed by Study Questions.

Getting Started

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A Note For GroupsThis curriculum can be used at two different levels for group study. For an in-depth study, both leader and participants will purchase and use the Workbook. Participants will have the time (2 hours per week) and interest (study and reflection outside the group) for in-depth study.

For an introductory study, the group leader can purchase and use the Workbook as preparation for facilitating group discussion. The group leader will provide participants with copies of the Group Hand-outs (pg 107). In this setting, we recommend selecting a few study questions or activities that can be discussed in your allotted time-frame that meet the particular interests of the group.

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Loss —The Only Door to GodWinston T. Smith

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Take a moment and reflect honestly on these questions. You will revisit these answers at the end of the les-son. Emotions are part of our everyday experience. Some of us are tempted to be stoics, in our pride we want to appear untouched by the cares that surround us (James 4:10). Some of us are tempted to dwell and swim in our sorrows, to wail and moan (Hosea 7:14).

1. How do you think Christians should respond to loss? What should it look and sound like?

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2. How can crying out and groaning be expressions of faith?

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INTRODUCTION

Let’s reflect on what we have heard so far in this study. Alasdair spoke about how in the Psalms God encourages us to speak our losses to him. In response, God listens to us and holds us. Mike spoke about how God “recycles” and uses our losses—the comfort we have received is used to comfort others. These are powerful and rich truths.

Some of you will hear these biblical truths and be happy to believe them for someone else. You believe other people can find hope and comfort in their losses, but you haven’t found that to be true in your own experience. You feel separated from God’s love. This lesson is for you.

TWO CHRISTIANS WHO STRUGGLE DEEPLY1

A woman feels deeply ashamed and angry

A man having suicidal thoughts

Our understanding of the gospel can make the experience of loss worse

Here is the logic: we know that because Jesus has come everything is different. We have heard the greatest news in the world. Sin and death are overcome. We have a love that cannot be lost. We are members of God’s family. We walk and live in the Kingdom of Light. Our future is certain. We are loved, and we are safe.

It can be hard to know those things and make a case that we really have anything to feel bad about, right?

But what if you know these things about the gospel and you still feel bad about your losses? Ev-ery day you experience the pain of what happened last week, last month, or five years ago—and it still hurts.

But you don’t experience hurt just because of your loss; now you also feel ashamed that the

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gospel’s truths aren’t touching you. You feel different from all the Christians around you, who by all appearances seem to have grasped this in a way that you don’t. Do you ever feel that way? Somehow, you aren’t just grieving and suffering the loss of something that has happened to you, but you are also suffering because you feel like a spiritual failure.2 Because you hurt so badly, you must somehow have failed to really get the gospel. If you’ve ever felt that way, for even a moment, then your heart breaks for people who feel that way most of the time. Sometimes, for Christians, there is a loss beneath our losses that makes our suffering much worse. Ultimately, it’s the loss of our sense of being God’s children.

Know this: these moments of pain are not moments of spiritual failure, because loss and grief are part of the very definition of what it means to be a child of God. When we honestly engage our losses, as painful as this may be, we are walking in step with the spirit of Christ.

LOSS AND SUFFERING ARE CENTRAL TO OUR IDENTITY AS GOD’S CHILDREN

Romans 8:15–17

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Paul provides us with an image of what it means to be a Christian—a child crying out in distress. This is a passage that shows us that our experiences of loss and suffering are central to our iden-tity as God’s children.

• As a beloved child of God, you have the freedom to cry out to God.

• To be free from slavery to the fear of death does not mean that you are to become a stoic, to never feel pain.

• To be a child of God doesn’t mean that you should pretend that life doesn’t hurt and then

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call that faith. Faith doesn’t mean that you don’t feel pain; it means that in our distress we can turn to God with whatever we feel and cry out.

Jesus gives us an example of turning to God in our distress

We are reminded about Jesus’ own wrestling in the garden of Gethsemane.3 Jesus is facing the ultimate loss.

• He is facing the loss of his own life.

• He is facing the experience of carrying the weight of all loss and all guilt and all defile-ment to the cross.

The gospels tell us that as Jesus faced the prospect of this tremendous loss he was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death .4 And he poured out his heart to his heavenly Father to see if there was any other way to accomplish God’s will, crying Abba, Father.

The gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus prayed so earnestly that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.5 That is heartache, and that is agony. Jesus faced profound loss and Jesus felt profound loss.

It is remarkable that Jesus faced his death with so much suffering and heartache, because he had known from the beginning—from eternity past—that this was his Father’s plan. Jesus came to suffer and to die. Jesus knows that this will result in the salvation of his people.

Yet, as Jesus faces the certainty of his own suffering and death, he is in anguish and he cries out in his distress. Jesus knows God’s goodness and his plans, yet he still agonizes over his loss in prayer.

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As Christians we can take these exact same truths and use them to silence ourselves. We can use them to shame ourselves in our suffering and grief. We say things to ourselves and others that distance us from Jesus’ example in the face of loss.

• This is God’s will, so there is no use being upset over it.

• God is in this, so I just need to get on with it.

• It’s all going to work out in the end.

Christians can think that to live any other way is a lack of faith, but this isn’t a lack of faith. Jesus in faith cries out to his Heavenly Father.

• He doesn’t give himself a pep talk in the face of his loss.

• He turns to his Father and he speaks.

• Jesus asks for help.

• Jesus tells his Father, I don’t want to have to do this. Is there any other way?6 This isn’t a lack of faith. This isn’t sin.

• Christians often confuse faith with an emotion.

• Faith means we are at peace.

• Faith means having no worries.

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• Faith means happiness.

• Trusting in God’s love and control means that we won’t let things bother us.

When we are honest with ourselves about our heartache and our suffering, when we turn to God and we pour out our hearts to him, we are expressing faith. In that moment, we are truly being God’s children. We are, with Christ and with the aid of his Holy Spirit, giving voice to the bro-kenness of life in this world, and we are turning to the only one who can fix it.

To be joined to Jesus is to be united to him in his suffering

Paul writes in Romans 8:17, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. This second part of the passage tells us that to be joined to Jesus as a child and heir means to be united to him in his suffering.

While it is comforting to know that Jesus draws near to us in our suffering, at an even more fun-damental level our comfort is to be found in the fact that Jesus’ own sufferings and loss are being expressed through our suffering and loss.

When we are joined to Christ—our lives become an expression of Jesus’ life. His losses and his sufferings are expressed through ours. And the same faithfulness and love that Jesus experienced from the Father—the same sustaining grace and help is ours to experience. And the same tri-umph of love that is seen in the life of Christ is also seen in us. But, we don’t participate only in Jesus’ victory and resurrection; we also have to experience his losses and his suffering.

Part of the problem is that we tend to keep Jesus’ losses and suffering in a completely different category than our own. While Jesus’ losses and suffering may be different in terms of magnitude, the same basic categories of loss that he experienced are the categories of loss that we experience.

It is helpful to think of Jesus’ entire life in terms of loss, and as a series of losses. In the very act of entering into our world Jesus endured a constant state of loss and suffering. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5–8 that Jesus didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped, but that Jesus had to empty himself and take the form of a servant, even being willing to suffer death on a

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cross. For Jesus to enter into our broken world, he had to lose things.

• He had to lose his heavenly status

• To lose comfort and enter discomfort

• To lose purity and enter filth

• To lose perfect peace and enter into turmoil and chaos

• To lose perfect love and embrace those who would ultimately betray him and harm him

When God joined you to Jesus, he intended for Jesus’ life to be expressed through your life and become visible in you—not just his resurrection and joys, but his losses also.

HOW JESUS’ LOSSES AND HOPES ARE EXPRESSED THROUGH US

Endurance and long-suffering in the midst of loss is evidence that God is at work in you

You may have suffered horrible losses—losing loved ones, spouses, parents, and children. Sometimes your grief is so blindingly painful that it is difficult to get out of bed in the morning. But you do, you persevere and are long-suffering—even though you don’t know how you do it. You keep living.

You may have experienced betrayals in the past from people who are supposed to love and care for you. You’ve been wounded so deeply that you’ve sworn to never open yourself up to that kind of pain and betrayal again. You would rather do anything than be hurt like that again and feel that loss, pain, and shame. Yet, you persevere and carry on, and you offer love to people and risk letting others love you.

You may have experienced the loss of health, and for you every day is a reminder of the pain

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and brokenness of your body. You may have lost peace of mind—your mind often races with thoughts, is clogged with anxiety, or is darkened by hopelessness. But in all of these losses, even though your emotions aren’t helping you to do it, you hold onto Christ because Christ is holding onto you.

Survival doesn’t make you feel like you are accomplishing much. But long-suffering and endur-ance are fruits of the Spirit.7 As you survive and persevere, God is alive and at work in you. And at different times in your day, when you care about what is going on around you, or you care about other people, this is because the spirit of Christ is alive in you. In this way both Christ’s losses and his life become visible in you, extended through your life into the world. This is part of the confirmation that you are a child of God.

When we cry out to God in our hurt and loss, we are not failing but acting as God’s children, and we are living in Christ.

Romans 8:22–23 captures how loss and hope fit together when we are living in Christ

There is something qualitatively different in the grief and distress we experience as God’s children. We do experience real loss and real pain, but deep down we know that our loss and pain must be going somewhere. Paul captures pain and hope using the image of childbirth in Romans 8:22–23.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Consider what the birth process is like. The assistance midwives (or husbands) give in childbirth helps to illustrate Paul’s image of the pains of childbirth as it relates to loss. We also can be so con-sumed with the suffering and pain of loss that we don’t even know how to pray—we can’t find the words in ourselves to even cry out to God. Sometimes our loss and suffering silences us because we are so overwhelmed by our experience.

This passage says, I’m still involved. The Spirit knows how to ‘reach out’ and call to God for us; the

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Spirit knows how to ask for what we really need. This means that we don’t even need to have “the right words” to pray to be a child of God because the Holy Spirit is calling out on our behalf.8

The picture of childbirth keeps us anchored in two realities. It doesn’t diminish the fact of the pain of loss, but the pain is also taking us somewhere wonderful. Having Christ born in us is a painful process, both Christ’s losses and his suffering are coming to us and through us. Jesus is being born into our lives and his kingdom is extended into the world through us. These losses are real.

But the Spirit says that this pain is going somewhere. These groans aren’t the throes of death, they are the groans of childbirth. These losses are going somewhere, and even when you can’t find the words for yourself, the Spirit groans for you. To be a child of God means that we are in touch with both realities—loss and hope fit together. As children of God we are not escapists, we are realists.

A question that is always in the background as we wrestle with loss—God, do you really care?

In Romans 8:35–36 Paul asks a question:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”9

Paul continues with the answer in verses 37–39:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Can you hear the question that is behind all of the assurances that Paul gives in these verses? There is one question, one groan, which is the most important of all and is reflected in the words

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of Psalm 44:22–24. God, do you really care?

God, do you really care? is a profound and amazing question. It is a question that echoes a particular groan of the Spirit as recorded in the Psalms.10 Only a child expects a father to care, so only a child bothers to cry out and groan when it appears even for a second that a father doesn’t care.

God has answered this question (at least in part) in Romans 8. He tells us that our suffer-ing and loss really are hard, and they really are worthy of tears. It is right to cry out, and God has even said, Trust me, this pain is going somewhere. Loss is like childbirth—your suffering matters and it won’t be wasted.

But there is one more thing that a loving parent must say in response to this question, I love you and nothing can make me stop loving you.

CONCLUSION

Paul uses a phrase in Romans 8:37—we are more than conquerors. What does this mean? The mysteri-ous reality is that as God’s children we are being caught up into something bigger than our own lives. We are actually caught up into the very life of God.

Through our losses we are drawn into the communion and love of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Loss is a door we must walk through if we are going to know God.

We can’t know the communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit if we aren’t willing to join the conversation that is always going on. This is the conversation of the Son who enters into the losses of this world, and the Son cries out Abba! Father! This is the conversation of the Spirit who aches and groans about those losses; and those groans prompt the Father to say, Nothing can separate you from my love.

CLOSING PRAYER

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REFLECTION ACTIVITY

Take a moment and reflect back on your answers to the questions on page 57.

1. How do you think Christians should respond to loss? What should it look and sound like?

2. How can crying out and groaning be expressions of faith?

How do your answers hinder or help ministry to others?

Has the Spirit impressed new truths on your heart? Do you answer these questions differently now? Or perhaps, do you want to answer these questions differently now?

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STUDY QUESTIONS

The following study questions are divided into three sections. Section 1 questions are introductory and allow for an opportunity to reflect on the lecture. Section 2 questions focus on the content of the lec-ture. Section 3 questions help you apply the material you have learned. Feel free to select a couple of questions from each section for your reflection. If you have the time, answer each question.

Section 1: Introduction Questions

In the beginning of this talk Winston summarizes two biblical truths addressed in this study. He says, Alasdair spoke about how in the Psalms God encourages us to speak our losses to him. In response, God listens to us and holds us. Mike shared about how God, in a sense, “recycles” and uses our losses—the comfort we have received is used to comfort others. These are powerful and rich truths. Some of you will hear these biblical truths and be happy to believe them for someone else. You believe other people can find hope and comfort in their losses, but you haven’t found that to be true in your own experience.

1. Do you struggle to believe these rich biblical truths for yourself? Do you feel separated from God’s love?

2. Is your understanding or the experience of your loss changing through this study? How spe-cifically has the Spirit been encouraging you?

Winston identifies how remarkable it is that Jesus faced his death with so much suffering and heartache. Why is this remarkable? Because Jesus knew from the beginning what his Father’s plan involved. Jesus came to suffer and to die. Jesus knows that his death will result in the salvation of his people. Yet, as Jesus faces the certainty of his own suffering and death, he is in anguish and he cries out in his distress.

1. How does Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane teach us what true humanity is?

2. Does knowing Jesus faced his death with significant sorrow—he was sorrowful to the point of death—help you acknowledge uncertainty or even doubt as you face the death of a loved one?

3. What does it mean for you to doubt? Have you ever said this: God, do you even care about me? Are you listening? Does this sound like a cry of faith? Read Psalm 22:2 and Habakkuk 1:2. In what way is it a cry of faith?

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4. Can you trust God’s answer in Romans 8:37–39 to your cry?

Section 2: Interacting with the Material

In Romans 8:15–17 Paul provides us with an image of what it means to be a Christian—a child cry-ing out in distress. This is a passage that shows us that our experiences of loss and suffering are central to our identity as God’s children. Here Winston highlights the importance of wrestling honestly rather than choosing to face our losses and suffering with stoicism. Jesus is an example of a man who lives life emotionally, not stoically.

1. In addition to Gethsemane, what other places can you find in Scripture where Jesus mourns? Read John 11:1–44. What are the reasons for his mourning there?

2. What emotions do you see Jesus express after the death of Lazarus?

3. How do you respond to similar losses, such as the death of a loved one? Do you try to push away your sorrow? Do you feel ashamed that you still grieve? Do you think you lack faith because you are still struggling?

4. Do you identify faith as a particular emotion, or set of emotions? Is your tendency to be too emotionless or too expressive? How does your tendency influence what you consider good emotions to be?

Winston says Romans 8:17 tells us that in a very real way—when we are joined to Christ—our lives become an expression of Jesus’ life. His losses and his sufferings are expressed through ours. Part of the problem is that we tend to keep Jesus’ losses and suffering in a completely different category than our own. While Jesus’ losses and suffering may be different in terms of magnitude, the same basic categories of loss that he experienced are the categories of loss that we experience.

1. How does this statement help you better understand the humanity of Christ in his sufferings?11

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2. Can you think of ways that your suffering and your response to suffering help others to know Jesus and respond differently to their own sufferings?

Winston says about Romans 8:22 and 23 that there is something qualitatively different in the grief and distress we experience as God’s children. For God’s children, the pain of real loss and real hope fit together in a way similar to Paul’s image of childbirth. Paul makes it clear to us that loss and suffering are central to our identity as children of God.

1. Winston says that the picture of childbirth keeps us anchored in two realities. What are those two realities? How do these realities help us when we struggle to believe in God’s promises?12

2. Read Hebrews 4:14–5:9. What does this passage say about being a child of God? What con-nection is drawn between Jesus’ obedience through suffering and him being made perfect?13

3. Building on what has been said in Winston’s talk and previous talks, what does it mean that Christians, as children of God, are not escapists but realists?

Section 3: Application Questions

In Mark 13:36 Jesus pleads with the Father and says, all things are possible for you, remove this cup from me. When we know God can change something but doesn’t, in some ways it makes our grief even harder to bear.

1. Reflect on this plea. Jesus knew the Father could have delivered him. Jesus pleads for the cup to pass. Yet it does not. What do you think Jesus experienced as a man as he prayed this prayer?

2. Have you thought about these words as an expression of faith, one that knows God is both Sovereign and Father? How can this prayer become a way to entrust your life—and the lives of those you love—into your Heavenly Father’s hands even as you plead for relief?

3. When you are facing a trial (great or small) do you find yourself being quick to jump to re-membering the promises of God? Almost as a way to quiet the sorrow? How does Jesus show us how to embrace the promises of God even as we express our desire for deliverance?

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Sometimes we think that suffering only occurs as it relates to suffering for the gospel. But what if we think about Jesus’ many sufferings as a man—including his many losses—and consider that our suffer-ings are truly like his?

1. Jesus had authority and glory in heaven and willingly laid it aside to take on flesh and enter the brokenness of this world. Jesus had all comfort in heaven and willingly laid it aside to enter a life of poverty. What other losses did Jesus experience before his arrest, trial, and crucifixion?

2. Jesus not only bore the curse of our sin as our perfect substitute, he also bore the curse of the fall as a man. Read Hebrews 4:14–15. Do you believe Jesus is able to sympathize with you in your weakness?

_________________1 All personal details in these stories have been changed to protect anonymity. 2 For more on the subject of shame, read Edward T. Welch’s book Shame Interrupted: How God lifts the pain of worthlessness and rejection, published by New Growth Press in 2012.3 Matthew 26:36–46; Mark 14:32–42; Luke 22:39–46 4 Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:345 Luke 22:446 Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:427 In Galatians 5:22–23 patience, goodness, and faithfulness are expressions of long-suffering and endurance. Also read Romans 5:3–5 and Hebrews 2:5–19. 8 Romans 8:26–279 See also Psalm 44:22.10 See Psalms 10:1, 13:1, and 79:5.11 See also Hebrews 2:17. Jesus had to become fully man in order to represent us as our high priest. 12 For further study: One foundation of the Christian faith is the already but not yet reality of having life in Christ and life in a fallen world at the same time. See for example Philippians 3:12–16, 1 Corinthians 13:9–12 and 1 John 3:1–3.13 See Hebrews 5:9. Jesus was sinless at birth but had not yet lived a perfect life. Through his suffering he learned obedience and was made (or proven) to be perfect.