Comfort in Christ

“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” .

It is only in Jesus Christ that we find true and eternal comfort (consolation). The way to this comfort is described in : “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” When Jesus was tried, He humbled Himself, and was thereby able to find His human nature and bring it into death on the cross.

In , Jesus spoke to the Jews who believed in Him about how the truth could make them free; however, they immediately began to justify themselves. If the truth that He came with meant that they had to humble themselves and acknowledge their own sin, they wanted nothing to do with it. As a result they remained in bondage.

When Jesus told His disciples about what He was about to suffer, Peter said to Him: “‘Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’” . The comfort Peter came with was comfort for the flesh, not the comfort that Jesus longed for by giving up His own will and doing His Father’s will.

We can come into situations where our human nature is awakened—our unthankfulness, envy, or bitterness, etc. Then we can tend to want this human comfort: “This should not happen to you.” “You should not be treated like that.” “I don’t understand how God could put you through something like that.” This type of comfort is only for the flesh and does not encourage us to follow Jesus in His humiliation and death.

Let us be among those who choose the comfort that is in Christ, who choose to follow Him in His humiliation. Then we will also partake of the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Stephen Janz