Regardless of Circumstances, Our Identity in Christ Remains

Opposition, overwhelming circumstances, and suffering remove from us all the things we might be tempted to count on. We find ourselves stripped of those things that we think make us who we are. But in these moments, when we feel so naked, Jesus is willing to step in and remind us that no matter what else happens, we are His followers. We are His disciples...and His brothers and sisters.

--Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, and Philip Nation, Transformational Discipleship: How People Really Grow (Nashville: B&H, 2012), 150.

Sharing in Christ's Suffering and His Comfort

Paul contends that what Christ experienced in His suffering spills over, now, into His people. What Christ experienced in His comfort spills over, now, into His people. We suffer and we're comforted because we are united with Christ, such that His life of suffering and comfort is completed in us.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 131.