Romans 8:18 – For I calculate that this which befalls us now for a season is not worthy of the glory that is about to be revealed in us.
Part 2 ~ The Glory To Be Revealed
Jesus endured the sufferings of the cross with joy realizing it would result in our salvation and His exaltation (Hebrews 12:2). We are also called to share in the same sufferings of Christ, which are all about advancing the Gospel – but it must be kept in the same perspective (Philippians 3:10; 2 Timothy 2:12). However, many of the things we go through are simply Father’s desire to give us something far better than what we have now (1 Peter 1:6-7; James 1:2-3).
One Christmas morning I had given one of my sons, who was about three at the time, one of his gifts. It was a very small toy that he immediately thought was the greatest thing ever. I had something far better for him that I wanted him to have, but he was so distracted with his new little toy he would not come over and unwrap his bigger present. Of course, I was very excited about the gift I had for him, so in order to redirect his attention, I took the little toy away from him after some struggle. It ended up in a disaster because he thought I was punishing him when all I wanted him to do was to set his little eyes on the main event of that Christmas morning. We must realize that no matter what we are enduring, Father has a bigger blessing awaiting us. We must not allow ourselves to sink into the despair of what we may have lost, but keep our eyes set on what we are to gain.
The glory that is about to be revealed in us is the glory of the resurrected body. We know we are now the sons of God, but the resurrected body has not come into being yet; and so as John puts it, “does not yet appear”. However, the magnitude of the glory that shall be revealed in the resurrected body is on the scale of seeing God as He is because we shall be like Him (1 John 3:2).
Blessings,
Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
