“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying… ‘Behold, I and the children God has given me.’” – Hebrews 2:10-11, 13, ESV
Recently, I heard a comment from Carl Trueman on Mortification of Spin that caught my attention because it captured in a few words a thought that has been in my mind for a few years. Paraphrasing a book by Philip Rieff, Dr. Trueman said that sixty years ago, people did not go to church to be made happy; they went to church to have their misery explained to them. But something changed. The American churches of the 1940’s and 50’s shifted toward the now pervasive theology of Norman Vincent Peale. By becoming enslaved to man’s “power of positive thinking,” God was made small enough to fit, like a genie in a lamp, into the new religion of American prosperity. This “god” could be invoked when our happiness or prosperous condition was threatened and put safely back on the shelf when the ship was righted.
But is this the God of the Bible? Is this Christianity?
The above passage from Hebrews seems to paint a different picture. Having broken in, like a firefighter into a burning home, and suffering the very fires that would consume us, Christ proudly presents Himself to the Father with those whom He has rescued. But Christ does not present us to the Father with the smell of the smoke and death on us, but as clothed with His own beauty. But this beauty looks different than what the world expects. It is a beauty of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Our union to the suffering Savior does not end suffering in this life, but suffering now has a purpose. Our suffering consumes the bonds that held us when we were put into the fire (Daniel 3:25). These sufferings are a part of our transformation into the image of the One who suffered for us. And He is not ashamed to call us brothers.