I don’t like pain. I don’t think any normal person does, either. But during this time of celebrating the resurrection of Christ, I began to think about His suffering and sacrifice for our sins. I know we say He was “Fully God and Fully Man” and we think the God-part superseded the Man-part and enabled Him to do everything else with ease. While I believe there is some truth in this, today I realized something else. The God part did not anesthetize Him to the pain He felt in His very-human body. It enabled Him to endure it. 
 

He felt the broken heartedness of rejection, and endured it. He felt the agony of the anticipation of suffering, and accepted it. He felt every degrading insult, and did not reject it. He heard every harsh untruth and did not correct it. He felt every barb that shredded His body, and did not turn away from it. He felt every thorn as it pierced His scalp, and did not recoil from it. He felt every weight added to His cross and did not resist it. He felt the pain of every nail as it pierced hands and feet and did not fight it. He endured the humiliation of the cross and did not get down from it.
 

I am not Christ. And I know I would not have been able to endure what He did for the sake of those I love, let alone for the possibility of others to come. But as I accept his suffering for my sins, I also become a partaker of it with Him. “I am crucified with Christ” according to Galatians 2:20, “nevertheless, I live”. And in this living, I have my own cross to bear, my own weights to carry, and my own nails to endure. And though my pain is nothing compared to His pain, it is still painful nonetheless. When I endure it in my flesh, I resist it. The very anticipation of pain makes me shy away from it - makes me want to lie in order to avoid it. Makes me want to point the finger at someone else and say he did it or he made me do it, or it’s all his fault. When the truth is that the enduring of whatever the test is makes me stronger. Not by my own power, but by the power of “Christ who lives in me”. He enables me to endure it. He enables me tobear up under the burden and come out on top. He enables me to resist the temptation, endure the suffering and pass the test. “And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.”  It’s not just faith in the Son, but the faith of the Son. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, He imparts His faith to me. My own faith is weak, and cannot endure. But His faith is strong and never falters.  

I cannot always see the bigger picture. When I’m in a trial, oftentimes all I can do is feel the pain and inequity of it. But as I continue to go through it, my mindset changes and I take on the mind of Christ. I suddenly began to understand what Paul meant when he said that this temporary light affliction works for us a far better weight of glory. So while I in my flesh might resist the nails that pierce, the Christ in me, for the glory that shall be revealed, enables me to endure it.