The Christian life is a suffering life because we must do the will of God. On the one hand, to do the will of God concerning our relationship with God is food to us. In John 4:34 the Lord Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work." On the other hand, to do the will of God is a suffering.

The second reason for Christ's death is that He had to deny His human life in order to live by the Father's life. Like us, the Lord Jesus had a human life. When He was on the earth He did not live by His human life; rather, He denied His human life to live by the Father's divine life. First, we are people who do God's will. Second, like the Lord Jesus, we are people who do not live by our own life but by God's life. This too is a real suffering.

In every situation related to our daily living, we need to ask ourselves whether we are living by the divine life or by our natural life. If we do this, quite often we will realize that we are living by our natural life, our self. At such times we need to go to the cross (Luke 9:23). To go to the cross is to be conformed to the death of Christ. Even while eating our meals we need to be conformed to the death of Christ. At times we may be tempted to complain about the kind or quantity of food that we are given to eat. However, to complain is to live by the self, not by God's life. We are those who have been chosen, called, and sanctified by God to do His will. Doing the will of God is altogether a suffering to our natural life. Moreover, we are those who have been saved, regenerated, and separated to live not by our natural life but by the divine life. It is not a matter of whether we are doing something right or wrong; that is not the issue. The issue is, by what life are we doing it, by our natural life or by the divine life? To deny our natural life is a suffering to us. Every day and in every matter we struggle and fight with others to get what we desire. We like to do things by ourselves. To do something not by our life but by the life of another is a suffering. This is the Christian life.