James Jack

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Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh was is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions. I read this verse differently from you. I read it like this: "...and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking (in my flesh) in regard to Christ''s (complete) afflictions. In other words, Paul''s participation in the afflictions of Christ was not yet complete. I don''t like the idea that Christ didn''t suffer everything and that we have to suffer things He didn''t suffer to "top up" salvation. I believe if we suffer, we suffer with Christ, not in addition to Christ. Otherwise there would be sufferings that Christ hadn''t undergone. We would be on our own. Against this view you could say: Christ didn''t know what it was to die as an 18 year old of a brain tumour, or be shot in the back while escaping a man with a gun. So we ''fill up what is lacking in regard to Christ''s afflictions'' by suffering in our own ways. I don''t know. My instinct tells me to read that verse as I have indicated.