Does God suffer when we suffer?

[JosephDColeman]

I’ve been thinking about the incarnation recently. While I understand that Christ experienced many of the things I have experienced, it doesn’t seem like He experienced all that I’ve experienced. For instance, He was tempted, but he didn’t have concupiscence, so He didn’t necessarily have that feeling of loss I get when I give up certain sins. However, I know that in the incarnation He truly felt what people feel, which is what made it even more amazing.

I know that we can offer up our suffering with Christ’s, but I’m wondering if He still feels what I feel in the sense that He felt what most people felt when He lived a normal life. Does His experience extend to my point of view? Does He experience things as I experience them when I suffer, or is it just more like He felt lonely so He understands loneliness in general and can therefore relate?

Now I know God wouldn’t and can’t sin, but in asking this I don’t want to be blasphemous…it just seems to me that He must see and feel things as I experience them since He knows all…but maybe feeling and seeing what I see wouldn’t be participating when it comes to sin.

I hope this makes sense.

 

[Gorgias]

While I understand that Christ experienced many of the things I have experienced, it doesn’t seem like He experienced all that I’ve experienced… Does He experience things as I experience them when I suffer

“[W]e do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

If He “sympathizes”, then he experiences along with us. Not in terms of sin, but in all else.

 

[Heaveniswaiting]

Yes, He feels everything that we feel and suffers WITH US. So you are really not alone in your sufferings…which should bring alot of comfort to us. God bless.

 

[Dan_Defender]

Each person, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ. That’s what matters.