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By the time of the Reformation, Luther comments, “This grief shall last but a little while; afterward ye shall be exceeding glad, for this salvation is already prepared for you” (Comm. on Peter and Jude, 1990: 42). He also emphasizes the role of suffering as necessary for the purification process:

The fire does not take away from the gold, but it makes it pure and bright, so that all dross is removed. So God has imposed the cross upon all Christians, that they might thereby be purified. (Comm.: ccel.org)

Calvin elaborates on the metaphor of gold as a refining process involving two phases:

Gold is, indeed, tried twice over by fire; first when it is separated from its dross, and then, when a judgment is to be formed of its purity. Both of these processes are suitably applied to faith … so that it becomes pure and clean before God. (Calvin, Comm., 1963: 235)