Emily, a listener in England, writes and asks this.

Dear Pastor John, I'm confused about the role of suffering mentioned in Colossians 1-24-25,

where Paul says, I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ afflictions

for the sake of his body which is the Church.

How can there be anything lacking in Christ's afflictions?

Excellent. I love this question because I've wrestled with that text and I've had such a wonderful

experience with regard to missions because of what I think this text means. Let me read it one more

time. This Colossians 1-24, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. Paul is rejoicing,

this is crazy, right? In his sufferings for their sake, he was a means of gathering them into the

body. And in my flesh, that is in my suffering flesh, I'm filling up or completing what is lacking

in Christ afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the Church. So Christ died and suffered

for the sake of gathering his body and building his body, saving his body. So what in the world

does Paul mean here? Because it sounds heretical to say anything would be missing or deficient

or lacking from Christ's afflictions and surely it does not mean that anything is lacking in the

atoning effect, the atoning's efficiency of those afflictions. Jesus said it is finished,

John 1930, and he meant the atoning price is paid in full. When Paul said,

Christ died for our sins, he didn't mean for some of them or his death was partly a covering

or partly a curse or partly a ransom. The covering is complete, the curse that he bore is the

whole curse and the ransom that he paid is the whole ransom. So no, Paul is not saying

that the death of Christ is defective or deficient or lacking in any of its atoning accomplishments

for his his church. So what in the world then does he mean when he says I'm filling up what is

lacking in Christ's afflictions? And I found the key and you test now whether you think this is

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