But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. (Hebrews 10:32-34, NKJV).
First illumination, then struggle, sufferings, humiliation, reproaches, tribulations, and being plundered - the life of a Christian on earth while he or she awaits the redemption of the purchased possession. If anyone promises you something different, they are trying to sell you something. Don't buy it. You already have an enduring possession beyond price.
Illumination is literally given light. The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. (Isaiah 9:2, NKJV). It is no accident that the Lord Christ is repeatedly associated with light. Among His many evocative titles is the Light of the World. He is that which obliterates darkness, especially the darkness of sin and death, the very things He came to destroy and conquer.
Struggle is the same Greek word from which we get athlete, and means, simply, fight. And it is characterized purposely as a great struggle. Again, as believers we are in a war declared by the world upon God. As His, we are enemy combatants, and our battlefield is everywhere, even inside us.
There is no shelter, except in Him, and there is no place to retreat, since we are already behind enemy lines. Indeed, that is where we were recruited in this ubiquitous battle between light and dark. He provides full armor and weaponry, but we must purpose in our hearts to use it and stand firm, not to obtain that better and enduring possession, but because we know, deep down in our renewed hearts, we already have it.
Sufferings, another word precisely chosen by the divinely inspired writer of Hebrews, derived from the same root from which we get pathology - having to do with fighting disease. We live in a world that, if we pay any attention at all, often makes us sick. We suffer over sin in the same way that Christ did, in the same way that Paul writes of in Romans. Having been given deep and intimate knowledge of the true goodness of Christ, the contrast with its opposite in the world is literally, sickening.
Spectacle is theatrizo (theh-at-rid'-zo), an action involving being put on a stage as a laughingstock, for conspicuous and public derision and contempt. By far, the worst of this is when it is done within one's own family and household, but it is also a common and prevalent practice in the world at large. Mockery is an ancient and effective strategy to undermine an enemy's cause, if not in the enemy himself, at least in those who are part of the audience.
Today, the more despicably Christians are portrayed in popular cultural media, the more "edgy" and avant grade the "artists" involved. In reality, they are participants of one of the oldest strategies in existence - a tactic that plays upon the unthinking and naturally twisted human tendency to rebel against its Creator by calling good evil and evil good. You see and hear it everywhere, and the goal is to make you SHUT UP! But don't listen, for you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. The world is neither your friend, nor your home. If you are Christ's, you can do nothing to earn its lasting regard.
Reproaches are acts of contemptuous dismissal, symbolized primally by being spit upon. It is what happened to Christ as He was forced to carry the means of His own murder through the streets of Jerusalem. It involves a sneering, and hostile devaluation of you as a person, and is routinely accompanied by a crowing sense of superiority from the one who spews the contempt boldly in your face. It hurts the worst when it comes from so-called loved ones (a typical Satanic maneuver), when the deceptive mask of condescending tolerance is ripped away to reveal the seething hatred just beneath the surface.
It happened to Jesus within His own town and family. Do not be surprised when it happens to you. It is part of what you signed up for when you put your trust in Christ, but it is OK, because you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.
Finally, we come to tribulations. Appropriately enough, this is the same thing that happens to olives in a stone press which, through the application of intense pressure, causes the oil to be expelled from the husk so that it can be purified through repeated straining. It is the oppression at all levels of existence and sensation that the Christian experiences in the hands of the enemies of God, including his own fleshly nature. It is never fun, but it is always purposeful.
And therein lies the core of the matter: the purposes of the Father in allowing His children to remain in, and be transformed by, this life. His purposes are good. Our lives have meaning that the world can NEVER take away. It is why a Christian in the throes of these things can joyfully accept the pressings and plunderings that come our way because we know - we KNOW - that He works all things together for good.
What the world means for evil, God allows for our good and His glory. It may not seem that way in the midst, but that is precisely when the eyes of faith must be opened so that we can see that enduring possession.
And what is it that we already own by inheritance? What is it that can never be taken away? What is it that rust cannot destroy, or that thieves can not break in and steal?
It is our life in Christ - eternity in the Presence of God, not as amorphous, undifferentiated spiritual energy, but as solid, thinking, emoting, unique individuals knit together in our mother's wombs by the hand of God Himself, and transformed into the Son's masterpieces by faith, forever being transformed into His image.
Ultimately, it is God Himself that we possess. As He promised to an old man so long ago:
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” (Genesis 15:1, NKJV).
