Chapter Twelve: The Grace of Adversity
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Grace of Adversity
You know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
JAMES 1:3-4
“The grace of adversity” sounds like an oxymoron — a contradiction in terms. If grace is God’s blessings through Christ, how can we say that adversity of any kind is a blessing? The answer is in the above passage of James, stating that trials ultimately produce maturity of character. Paul wrote similarly in Romans 5:3-4 that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character. The blessing then is not in the circumstance of adversity considered in itself but in the fact that the Holy Spirit is using that adversity to produce more Christlike character in our lives.
Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” This verse must be understood to say that God causes all things (that is, all events and circumstances in our lives) to work together for good, with the good clarified in verse 29 as conformity to the image of God’s Son. And one of the instruments of grace that the Holy Spirit uses is the instrument of adversity.
The fact that God uses all events and circumstances necessarily assumes that God controls and directs all the circumstances of our lives. Actually, God controls and directs all events and circumstances in His entire universe. This truth is known as the providence of God, and it assumes the sovereignty of God over everything in both the spiritual and physical realms. It also assumes His constant involvement in all circumstances and events. The proof of this is beyond the scope of this book, but consider just two Scriptures, Matthew 10:29-31 and Luke 12:6-7. God controls the destiny of a single sparrow and He never forgets one! If this is true of a sparrow, how much more is it true of us.
It is clear then that providential, or God-orchestrated, circumstances are some of the Holy Spirit’s instruments of our spiritual transformation. But how can they be disciplines we must practice? The answer is in our response to them. Remember, the spiritual disciplines are activities (or, in this case, quite often attitudinal responses) through which we train ourselves toward holiness. Therefore, we should work at training ourselves to respond to all circumstances and events in a biblical manner. What might this look like in everyday life? The most thorough and helpful treatment of this subject is Hebrews 12:4-11, and to this we will now turn:
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
The writer of Hebrews spoke of the discipline of the Lord. The word discipline as used here does not refer to punishment but rather to child training. Paul used the same word in Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” There is no indication in the book of Hebrews that the recipients of this letter were involved in some form of disobedience; rather, they were undergoing significant trials or adversity for being followers of Jesus (see, for example, Hebrews 10:32-34). So the particular expression of God’s discipline or child training in this passage is adversity, and the writer wanted his readers to understand both the purpose of the adversity and the biblical response to it.
THE FACT OF ADVERSITY
The first truth we see in the Hebrews passage is the fact of adversity: “The Lord disciplines the one he loves” (12:6). We should not be surprised at this. The psalmist experienced it (see Psalm 119:67,71), Jesus forewarned His disciples about it (see John 15:18-21; 16:1-4,33), Paul frequently spoke of it (see Romans 5:3-5; 8:18,31,37-39; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18), and it is a major subject in Peter’s first letter (see 1 Peter 1:6-7; 2:18-21; 3:14-17; 4:1-2,12-19).
The source of adversity in most of the passages cited above is the mistreatment by unbelievers of those who follow Christ, and of course this is a fact of life in many parts of the world today. Even in the West, where we have seldom suffered official persecution, many believers face discrimination or marginalization in the workplace or ridicule in the classroom or misunderstanding from family and friends.
But adversity comes in many forms. It can be a physical disability or chronic illness, the death of a loved one, the disappointing behavior of a spouse, the alienation of parents or children, or many other circumstances too numerous to list. To use a newspaper analogy, some of them make the headlines of our lives, while others lie buried in the inside pages of our hearts and are known only to ourselves. But whatever the nature and extent of the adversity, it is under the sovereign and loving control of our Father. In fact, the writer of Hebrews was quite clear that the Lord disciplines the one He loves, so adversity is not the mark of an uncaring or angry God; rather, it is one proof of His love for us.
THE PURPOSE OF ADVERSITY
The writer of Hebrews stated that God “disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (12:10). To share in His holiness is the same as being conformed to the image of Christ, so God disciplines us through adversity to make us more like Christ.
I have previously said that God’s Word is the primary instrument the Holy Spirit uses in our transformation process. But it is in the crucible of adversity that Christian character traits are most often developed. For example, the Bible teaches us that we are to love one another. But we actually learn more of what it means to love someone when that someone is difficult to love. There is an old saying, “To love the whole world for me is no chore. My only problem is my neighbor next door.” The “neighbor” may be anyone difficult to love whom God has placed in our lives, and in that situation we learn that we cannot just decide that we will love the person; we learn experientially that we are dependent on the Holy Spirit to change us and enable us to love.
The same principle applies in such godly traits as meekness and patience. We learn from the Bible that we are to “put them on” (see Colossians 3:12). But then the Holy Spirit brings into our lives people who will mistreat us or try our patience. Once again we are driven to the Spirit to work in our hearts to change us and enable us to respond with meekness to mistreatment or exercise patience toward someone whose actions arouse feelings of impatience in our hearts.
The purpose of adversity is often illustrated by a caterpillar struggling to break out of its cocoon into a beautiful butterfly. Watching such a struggle, we might want to help the butterfly by snipping open the cocoon. But the struggle to emerge is necessary for developing the muscle system and pushing the body fluids into the wings to expand them. And it is the trials of various kinds that produce the fruit of Christlike character. So much of the time, however, we pray that God will snip open the “cocoon” of our adversity, but God will not do it because He loves us and aims for the result the adversity will produce.
OUR RESPONSE TO ADVERSITY
Given the fact of adversity in our lives and God’s purpose for it, how should we respond to it? The writer of Hebrews said we should submit to it, knowing that our Father disciplines us for our good that we may share His holiness (see 12:9-10). Peter wrote that we should humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, looking to Him for the grace — that is, the divine enablement — to do it (see 1 Peter 5:5-6). We can either chafe under adversity or submit to it. And even in submission, we can do so reluctantly because we have no choice or we can accept it, believing that our infinitely wise and loving heavenly Father has a good and beneficial purpose for it. Therefore, we should pray for the enabling grace to trust in the goodness and wisdom of God, and we should store up Scripture in our hearts to help us do this.
The prophet Jeremiah exercised his ministry during the most difficult and tragic days in Judah’s history: the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of most of its people to faraway Babylon. At some point in this terrible time, Jeremiah wrote Lamentations. Consider his words:
Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.” (3:19-24)
Notice the change from his attitude of despondency in the first two sentences to one of hope and trust. What caused the change? It was calling to mind the steadfast love and never-ending mercies of the Lord. We need to be like Jeremiah. We need to believe that the discipline of the Father’s “mighty hand” is exercised by the One whose love is steadfast and whose mercies never come to an end. In order to believe these truths, however, we need to store up such Scriptures as 1 Peter 5:5-6 and Lamentations 3:22-23 and then ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to believe them.
Some years ago, my wife and I found ourselves in a difficult predicament. As I tried several ways to get out of the situation, the Spirit of God brought to my mind the words of Ecclesiastes 7:13, “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?” It seemed as if God was saying to me, “This is My doing. You cannot make straight what I have made crooked.” But at the same time, the Spirit brought to my mind the words “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). God did deliver us in that situation, and since then, Hebrews 13:5 has been a rock of confidence for me.
My wife’s and my experience was certainly minor compared to Jeremiah’s, but in both cases the Word of God was brought to bear on the difficult circumstance. This is another way we should respond to adversity; we should always bring Scripture to bear on it.
On another occasion when I was still a young Christian, I felt that God had not come through for me as I expected Him to. I did not have much Scripture stored up at that time, so the Spirit providentially directed my attention to Job 34:18-19 in the King James Version (the only version you will find this rendering in): “Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands.”
The message of rebuke was clear. If we should not accuse a king of wickedness, how much less should we accuse God of being unfaithful. I was stunned. I was deeply convicted of my arrogance of accusing God of not being fair to me. I fell on my knees and confessed my sin to God.
I learned a valuable lesson that day. The providentially ordained adversity combined with the providential direction of me to Job 34:18-19 had a twofold effect. It convicted me of my sinful, arrogant accusatory attitude toward God, and it also taught me the importance of having the Word of God stored up in my heart so that I (or the Holy Spirit) could bring it to mind at a needful time.
Some years later, the Holy Spirit used another verse from Job to deal with a very painful circumstance, but this time the verse was stored up in my mind. The painful event occurred on a Thursday afternoon and I was scheduled to speak at a local conference beginning Friday evening. How could I do that when I had been totally devastated? Friday morning I awakened with Job 1:21 going through my mind: “He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’”
I knelt at our living room couch and said, “Father, You gave and You have taken away. Blessed be Your name.” With that my turbulent emotions were stilled and I went to the conference that evening as if nothing had happened.
In that instance, the Holy Spirit brought to my mind the appropriate Scripture, one that I had stored up years before. The principle of storing up God’s Word in our hearts applies not only as a defense against temptation but also as a means of responding to any life situation and, in the context of this chapter, particularly as a means of coping with adversity.
But I must hasten to add that it is not just memorizing certain verses that will enable us to cope; those Scriptures must be applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He will bring them to our minds and enable us to apply them, as He did for me with Job 1:21. At other times, we may have to comb through our mental file of stored-up verses to find an appropriate Scripture. And when we find one, we must ask the Spirit to apply it to our situation. The bare Scripture by itself is of no avail apart from the Spirit’s applying it to our hearts.
THE FRUIT OF ADVERSITY
We should keep in mind that the primary purpose of adversity is growth in our character. This is expressed in Hebrews 12:10-11 as sharing God’s holiness and experiencing the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Paul said that our adversity produces character (see Romans 5:3-4), and James said the trials of adversity ultimately produce mature character (see 1:3). It is important that we realize that God’s primary objective in the adversities we face is growth in our character — that is, in increased conformity to the likeness of Christ. It may and often does result in some increase or more fruitfulness in ministry, but this is a by-product of our maturing in character.
One of the areas most of us need to grow in is an increasing sense of our dependence on God. Our culture worships self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Speakers at motivational seminars will tell us, “You can do anything you want if you just believe in yourself.” Teachers and coaches will say something such as, “You can do it if you just set your mind to it and work at it.”
But consider the apostle Paul. Concerning a particular experience, he wrote,
We do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)
Note that Paul said that experience was to make him rely not on himself but on God. Paul was undoubtedly the most gifted and capable of all the apostles, yet God brought such adversity into his life that he was forced to rely entirely on God. God will often do the same for us. In fact, He will sometimes blight the area we feel most confident in so that we will learn to depend on Him, not on ourselves.
Several years prior to his near-death experience, Paul had an altogether different experience: He was caught up into paradise, into the very presence of God, and heard things that could not be repeated (see 2 Corinthians 12:1-10). To curb any temptation to pride over this experience, God gave Paul what he called “a thorn in the flesh.” Paul does not tell us the nature of this “thorn,” and it is vain to speculate as to what it was, but whatever the nature of this thorn, Paul pleaded with God three times for its removal. God’s answer to Paul was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (verse 9).
Though this promise was given to Paul, it is a universal truth that should be appropriated by all of us. The grace of God’s power is displayed most in our own weakness. The problem is that we don’t like weakness. We want to be strong, and we want to be in control. Paul, however, gloried in his weakness, because as he said, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (verse 10).
The question we must answer for ourselves then is this: Am I willing to be weak in myself in order that I might experience the power of God in my life? I was born with a body that is less than normal, and advancing years have only made those abnormalities more pronounced. Almost daily I think of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” And I think to myself, My jar is becoming gradually more chipped and cracked.
Then I go back to God and say, “Father, I am Your servant. My body belongs to You. If You want it to be ‘chipped and cracked,’ that is Your business. But by Your grace, would You display Your power in my weakness?” I have had the privilege of writing over a period of some thirty years about a dozen books, and God has graciously blessed the ministry of all of them. But the three or four that have been most blessed by God in the lives of readers have all been born out of adversity and struggle. God has displayed His power in my weakness.
So “the grace of adversity” is not an oxymoron; it is a biblical principle. Adversity is always a blessing, though it usually comes disguised. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” How can I possibly give thanks in all circumstances? How can I thank God that my eyesight and hearing, both of which have been subnormal all my life, are now deteriorating even further? The answer is that God is causing all these circumstances to work together for my good, to conform me to the image of His Son. All the adversity we encounter in life is directed to that end, and so adversity truly is an expression of His grace.
FOR GROUP DISCUSSION
1. What can we learn from Jeremiah’s response to adversity in Lamentations 3:19-24?
2. Is harboring or expressing anger toward God a biblical response to our adversity? Why or why not?
3. What is the fruit (benefit) of adversity? Will we bear or receive it if we do not respond in a biblical manner to the grace of adversity?