Piper on Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ

But the most amazing thing about Colossians 1:24 is how Paul fills up Christ's afflictions. He says that it is his own sufferings that fill up Christ's afflictions. "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,and in my flash I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." That means then, that Paul exhibits the sufferings of Christ by suffering himself by those he is trying to win. In his sufferings they see Christ's sufferings.

Here is the astounding upshot: God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people. God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we proclaim the cross as the way to life, people will see the marks of the cross in us and feel the love of the cross from us. Our calling is to make the afflictions of Christ real for people by the afflictions we experience in bringing them the message of salvation.

This is why Paul spoke of his scars as the "marks of Jesus." In his wounds people could see Christ's wounds. "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" (Galatians 6:17). The point of bearing the marks of Jesus is that Jesus might be seen and that his love might work powerfully in those who see.

- taken from the book "Filling Up on the Afflictions of Christ" by John Piper, a book about the cost of bringing the gospel to the nations in the lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton.