Section 15
primary purpose of suffering in this universe, particularly as it relates to the children of God, is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man. "Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16). Through a process of outward decay, an inward process is taking place that is adding a new constituent to our lives.
Beloved brothers and sisters, through hard ship and pressure a divine element is being wrought into the very fabric of our being so that we cease to be colorless Christians but instead have a heavenly hue imparted into our life that was lacking before. Whatever else suffering may effect in this universe is incidental; this is pri mary—to bring those whom the living God has made possessors of created life into the uncre ated life of the God of resurrection. It is in the death experiences, which come through suffer ing, that the life of the creature is blended with the life of the Creator. We may know the living God without such drastic experiences, but only through death can we come to an experiential knowledge of the God of resurrection.
Suffering is the God-appointed lot of the Christian. The Christian's happiness is not to be