Note: The answer below is adapted from a sermon preached at Christ Church on Sunday, April 26, 2026. Listen here.

QUESTION

What does it mean to share in the suffering of Christ in a country where we are not persecuted for our faith? (Online mockery or some sideways glances at restaurants is obviously not comparable.) We may suffer in other ways as a result of the fallen world, but that doesn’t seem like the same kind of suffering as Christ. Paul talks about “becoming like him in his death.” What does this mean for us?

ANSWER

Before we get into practical aspects of our own suffering as Christians, there’s something I want to make sure we review first.

The believer in Christ is someone who has already died with Christ.

Before a believer ever experiences any personal suffering for the sake of Christ, like persecution, he has already been made one with Jesus in His death. We become united with Christ in His death first and foremost not by personally experiencing that death, but simply on the basis of believing in Christ, that He died for us.

…all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death…

…we have died with Christ. … For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all… (Rom. 6:3, 8, 10)

Your question is not primarily about that, but we have to make sure we don’t pass over this essential foundation for understanding what it means to have union with Christ in His death. No amount of persecution, even in the name of Christ, can take the place of faith in His death for our sake. The Christian suffers as a Christian not in order to earn God’s favor. The Christian suffers because he knows he already has God’s favor because of the suffering of Christ.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Gal. 2:20)

Becoming like Christ in Our Death

As your question acknowledges, the reality that we have already died with Christ is to be lived out in our lives as we suffer with the One who suffered for us. As the Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 6, baptism declares that the believer has been spiritually buried with Jesus in His death, and that the believer has spiritually been raised from the dead with Jesus in His resurrection. But what has been declared to be true spiritually must come to pass in our bodies as well. All of us must still face our own death, and if we die in Christ, our bodies will then be raised from the dead on the last day. The things that are promised to us at our baptism—death and resurrection with Jesus—come to fruition when we personally experience them.

This is what the Apostle Paul is talking about in Philippians 3:10, when He talks about “being conformed to [Christ’s] death.” The one who has been joined to Christ suffers like Christ in their own life.

It is very helpful to look ahead to our own death. No matter what particular sufferings we experience in our lives, death is a suffering that each one of us must face, and those who have been crucified with Christ are called to be like Christ in their own deaths.

But what does that mean? Is it a matter of experiencing the exact same things Jesus experienced? Does the true believer need to be crucified in order to die in Christ? That can’t be the case when we understand that very few believers have been crucified just like Christ. In fact, the Apostle Peter considered himself unworthy to die exactly like his Lord, so he insisted on being crucified upside down.

Even if not crucified, must the true believer be martyred, like Peter, or Paul, or Stephen, in order to be like Christ in His death? Not necessarily, as there are plenty of believers in Scripture who experience ordinary deaths through ordinary means.

So what does it mean for us to be like Christ in our death?

Very simply, it means that we die, trusting in God, and hoping in the resurrection. This is how Jesus died. He died, trusting in the power of God, knowing that He would be raised from the dead.

In Acts 2, the Apostle Peter preaches the resurrection of Christ. He quotes Psalm 16 and says these words of David prophesied about Jesus:

I saw the Lord always in my presence;

For He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted;

Moreover my flesh also will live in hope;

Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades,

Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

You have made known to me the ways of life;

You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.

(Acts 2:25–28; cf. Ps. 16:8–11)

Jesus faced death knowing that “it was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:24). When we face death with faith in Christ, we know that death has no power over us either! Even though we go all the way into the grave, we need have no fear because Christ our Savior went there before us, and He promises to lead us out again.

Even if we don’t die as martyrs, strictly speaking, if we die in faith, proclaiming God’s power to raise us from the dead, we become like Christ in His death, following His example, and sharing in His sufferings.

More Than Death

It is not only in death itself that we are conformed to Christ’s death. Death stands in as a heading for a larger category of suffering in general. 2 Corinthians 4:10 talks about “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” There is a daily dying with Christ we get to do as we remember the fact that we have already been crucified with Him.

One of the clearest ways a Christian can and should suffer with Christ is through the suffering of persecution. This is plainly what was at the forefront of the Apostle Paul’s mind when he wrote that he aspired to share in the sufferings of Christ. And we remember that Jesus said to His apostles: “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).

Of course, it’s hard to look at the history of persecution, or to look at how Christians are persecuted right now around the world, and to not be embarrassed at how little most of us suffer for Jesus, comparatively speaking.

I think we can hear Hebrews 12:4 as directed at us:

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.

We see in this verse that there are, very simply, differing degrees of persecution for Christ. It was true in the first century, and it’s still true today. For most American Christians, it is true that we have “not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in our striving against sin.”

Matthew Henry has some helpful comments on this verse:

He puts them in mind that they might have suffered more, that they had not suffered as much as others; for they had not yet resisted unto blood, they had not been called to martyrdom as yet, though they knew not how soon they might be. Learn here, (1.) Our Lord Jesus, the captain of our salvation, does not call his people out to the hardest trials at first, but wisely trains them up by less sufferings to be prepared for greater. He will not put new wine into weak vessels, he is the gentle shepherd, who will not overdrive the young ones of the flock. (2.) It becomes Christians to take notice of the gentleness of Christ in accommodating their trial to their strength. They should not magnify their afflictions, but should take notice of the mercy that is mixed with them, and should pity those who are called to the fiery trials to resist to blood; not to shed the blood of their enemies, but to seal their testimony with their own blood. (3.) Christians should be ashamed to faint under less trials, when they see others bear up under greater, and do not know how soon they may meet with greater themselves.

You and I have not been called to martyrdom, at least not yet, but that does not mean that it is impossible to suffer for Christ, even in our circumstances today.

Ordinary Suffering for Christ

It may be tempting to think that the ordinary sufferings of the fallen world—sickness, injury, death through ordinary means like sickness—can’t really be suffering for Christ. After all, many of the New Testament passages that teach on Christian suffering focus on persecution. But when we remember that Satan is at work through physical suffering, we should realize that what we might call “ordinary” suffering is an opportunity to suffer for Christ.

This quote from The View from a Hearse by Joe Bayly (Pastor Bayly’s grandfather) really opened up this truth for me. The context is he has just talked about the suffering of the Apostle Paul in prison and the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7.

These illustrations are … related to the imminent termination of life by violent means, through martyrdom. It may be objected by some that they do not apply to ordinary sickness and death. Yet if Satan attempts to thwart a ministry and shorten a life through sickness, his power and work are at least equally as evident as in martyrdom. Attitudes then become comparable.¹

One of the clearest scriptural examples of Satan wielding “ordinary” physical suffering as a spiritual weapon against the righteous is in the life of Job. Job was targeted because he feared God, and Satan persecuted him with a spiritual intent: to get him to curse God (Job 1:11). Job refused to curse God in the midst of his suffering, and he therefore stands as a lasting testimony to the blessings God pours out on those who persevere under trial (see James 5:7–11), even trials that don’t have anything to do with a human persecutor.

We have the same opportunity in our ordinary sufferings, because no suffering is purely physical; there’s always a spiritual side. That means God is pleased and honored when we trust Him through all kinds of trials; and our faith is proved to ourselves and to those around us as we endure:

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6–7)

When we maintain our faith through ordinary weakness and sickness and death, our faith is tested and proved, and so is the worthiness of Christ as the object of our faith.

Perhaps even more encouraging than the example of Job is remembering that Satan weaponized the natural physical weakness of hunger against Jesus when he tempted Him in the wilderness. And was it not a great spiritual triumph of faith for Jesus to refuse to let hunger drive away His trust in the Word of God?

When we think this way, our eyes should be open to the many ways we can persevere and exhibit joy, even in small things like being hungry (even if we haven’t fasted for forty days).

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Satan is very pleased to use whatever means he can to devour his prey. Let us be on the alert and not think that we don’t have real spiritual battles to fight when we are hungry, sick, injured, lost, fired…fill in the blank. If Satan could use that thing to get you to turn away from God, then you are being called to suffer for Christ by honoring Him in your suffering.

The following passage from Hebrews 2 sheds light on Christ suffering the effects of the Fall, most especially in His death:

For it was fitting for Him [God the Father], for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies [Christ] and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He [Christ] is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,

“I will proclaim Your name to My brethren,

In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”

And again,

“I will put My trust in Him.”

And again,

“Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.”

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. (Heb. 2:10–15)

Jesus came to suffer the effects of the Fall so that He, by triumphing over them, might finally save us from them. And when we suffer the effects of the Fall by faith, trusting in Christ, proclaiming that He will in the end deliver us from those things, we are suffering with Christ!

How can we ensure that we are indeed suffering in a way that brings glory to Christ? It’s very simple: Trust God, and praise Him in your suffering. And don’t just do so privately in your own heart. Praise the name of Christ to others, telling them how Christ suffered for you. In this way, ordinary earthly suffering can be suffering for Christ.

What about Persecution?

Nevertheless, we must not use the reality that ordinary suffering can be suffering for Christ to justify an unwillingness to suffer persecution, which is to say: being shamed, hated, attacked by others for the name of Christ. Scripture says, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). I believe this can be applied to Satan’s persecutions of us through ordinary means, but Jesus also says the world will hate His disciples.

This does not mean that all Christians will be persecuted in the same way.

When Jesus told Peter that he was going to be martyred, Peter looked at John and said, “What about him?” Jesus responded, “Don’t worry about him. You follow Me!” (John 21:18–23, paraphrased).

This should instruct us to be very cautious about comparing our suffering to others’. We don’t know what God is going to call our brother to suffer, nor what He is going to call us to suffer, and we should be content to follow Christ without getting caught up in comparisons.

Even the most afflicted martyrs can look to the martyr who came before them and say, “I didn’t really suffer that much; look at that guy…” And the godliest martyrs do look at what Christ suffered and say, “What is it to suffer shame, even death, for Christ when He was crucified for me?” Even the Apostle Paul, whom we know suffered greatly, said, “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). Even the greatest sufferings can feel small and bearable to the saint who has his hope fixed on Christ. In fact, the hope-filled believer is actually delighted to suffer for Christ, because it is a sign of God’s approval of him: “They rejoiced because they were considered worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ” (Acts 5:41).

Now, it can be helpful to look at those who suffer more than we do, but only if we take the right lessons from it.

If we’re comparing just because we want to feel like we’re persecuted, or even worse, just because we want to look in the eyes of others as if we’re persecuted, whether or not we are, then comparing ourselves to our more-persecuted brethren won’t do any good.

Here’s what looking at our more-persecuted brethren should do:

• It should point us to Christ’s suffering and remind us how worthy He is.
• It should inspire us to be willing to suffer more for Christ’s sake.
• It should lead us to pray earnestly for our suffering brethren.
• It should encourage us to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share with those who are suffering more than we are.
• It should cause us to thank God for His kindness and gentleness towards us.

As we compare, it is also important to remember that we don’t know when God is going to call us to suffer, nor how much.

Before there were seven years of famine in Egypt, there were seven years of plenty.

Ecclesiastes reminds us there is “a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccles. 3:4b).

Even for those who suffer, it’s not as if every moment is filled with suffering, at least not to the same degree. The Apostle Paul wasn’t always in prison; even he experienced times of “prosperity” along the way (Phil. 4:12).

No Christian experiences a constant level of continual persecution, nor do all churches in all places at all times experience the same amount of persecution. That is not in itself a problem.

It is by God’s will that Christians in America can lead relatively peaceful lives. We might need to be ashamed of our unwillingness to suffer for Christ, but we don’t need to be ashamed of God’s blessing of peace on His people in our country and in our time in history. That’s actually something Christians are supposed to pray for:

I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. (1 Tim. 2:1–2)

American Christians have been able to lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity for many years now. That’s a blessing from God we should give thanks for. It may not always be that way. There are signs that it won’t be.

The question is: What are we going to do with that blessing? Are we going to forget about God and trust in our riches? Are we going to let a love of comfort and ease keep us from speaking the truth boldly to our neighbors? Or are we going to use God’s blessing of peace to pursue godliness, no matter the cost, even if it means giving up everything we have?

As we thank God for His gentleness, it is right to ask if we are simply blessed, or if we have in some way shielded ourselves from suffering for Christ. We should ask: Is there more the Lord might be calling us to suffer for His name’s sake?

Here are a few suggestions for how to pray to that end:

1. Seek God’s will to know if you should be speaking more boldly about Christ, and ask Him for opportunities to do so, even if it means being hated like He was hated.

2. Seek God’s will to know what you and your family might be able to give up for the kingdom of Christ.

As one example, I know affluent American Christians who have suffered for Christ by giving up their children for the sake of the Gospel. By which I mean they hardly ever get to see their children, because they live in faraway places building Christ’s kingdom. Of course, these godly people would hardly count this as a loss as it brings them great joy to see their children serving the Lord in this way. But from a worldly perspective, it is a great sacrifice to rarely get to see your children or grandchildren, and to have them vulnerable to toils and dangers that you can’t do anything about.

Are we raising our children to love Christ so much that they want to give their entire lives for building His kingdom? Or are we training our children to store up earthly treasure and build our own name and legacy?

3. Seek God’s will to know if there’s some way you can bear the burdens of those who are suffering.

Sometimes suffering is forced upon us.

At other times we are called to willingly share in the sufferings of others.

It’s not inherently wrong to be the less-persecuted, but here’s a question for us: Are we bearing the afflictions of our persecuted brethren in our hearts and praying for them, fasting for them, supporting them?

Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. (Heb. 13:3)

Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. (Acts 12:5)

If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (1 Cor. 12:26)

Even if we aren’t suffering very much, we can bear the sufferings of our persecuted brethren in other places as our own burdens in our hearts. If you feel that you don’t suffer much, don’t get wrapped up in self-loathing; pray for those who are suffering! Weep with those who weep; mourn with those who mourn. It’s okay that it’s not you right now to the same degree. Are you willing to choose to bear their burdens with them by praying for them and supporting them with your strength and abundance? Bearing the suffering of other parts of Christ’s body is one way of truly sharing in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. And doing so will help prepare your heart for suffering God might have in store for you down the road.

I was convicted in studying this topic that I need to be more aware of and more engaged in prayer for our persecuted brethren around the world. A great place to start for anyone feeling the same way is The Voice of the Martyrs Global Prayer Guide. It is an interactive map that summarizes the situation for Christians in countries around the world and provides specific ways to pray. I also recommend that families subscribe to and read the free magazine put out monthly by The Voice of the Martyrs. It’s been a great blessing to our family.

1. Joe Bayly, The View from a Hearse (1992; Warhorn Media, 2014), 66. ↩︎