Question
Was Romans 8:18, more or less, pre-empted. In a sense Epaphroditus was “saved” from the sufferings of this present time? Well, he was not saved from the suffering but rather saved from the consequences of his infirmity; death. He definitely suffered being sick nigh unto death, but I guess there’s a point in time where God counted him worthy to die not by an infirmity but rather by “the sword” so to speak.
Response
There’s a better way of responding to your question than the way I am going to do so right now, but for the sake of brevity, as well as not having everything settled yet in my mind, this will have to do for now.
My understanding is that death as the result of “the sufferings of Christ” supersedes, (if I can put it that way), death when it is the result of “the sufferings of this present time.” And as such though the means of producing it, or bringing one nigh unto it, can involve the perils and causes that can produce death as a “suffering of this present time,” if the death is definitely linked to the issue of II Corinthians 4:7ff, then it is to be thought of and dealt with strictly in connection with that issue. And so even though Epaphroditus was “sick nigh unto death,” and sickness was the issue, it was not as the result of “the sufferings of this present time,” as Philippians 2:30 makes clear; (to me anyway).
So my understanding is that Epaphroditus’ situation is to be thought of and dealt with by us strictly in connection with “the sufferings of Christ,” and specifically in connection with the Corinthians :ff aspect of them. Hence I don’t see a ‘pre-empting,’ but a different category and situation, so to speak.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
20020303 A63 S