Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Romans 8:17-39 | Date: January 1, 2023 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Doctrine of Glorification

This morning, we return once again to Romans chapter eight. I will begin reading with verse 16:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, what a marvelous passage of Scripture. This is one of the mountain peaks, line after line reminding us of the greatness of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We praise you for it. And as we come now to look at the overall subject in this—the goal of our salvation in our glorification and reaching glory and sharing in the glory of Jesus—we pray that you would give us minds and hearts to receive it, to understand it well. And we pray that you would use it to encourage the hearts of your people this morning. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Redemption Planned, Accomplished, and Applied

Well, we began this series long ago, it seems, and we have looked at the subject of salvation, the doctrine of salvation, under three broad topics: redemption planned, redemption accomplished, and redemption applied.

We saw under the first broad category, redemption planned, that God in eternity past determined to save a people for himself, for his own glory. He chose them, he established their destiny, and then determined to work out that salvation in time.

To accomplish that salvation, he sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate—God come as one of us to accomplish for us what God had determined for us. And we saw primarily in the life and the death and the resurrection of Christ how salvation is accomplished for us. Christ was sent on a saving mission. He came in the capacity of a substitute, standing in the place of his people, bearing their sin, and then God raised him from the dead in vindication.

Through all of that, we saw that God, then through the work of Christ, was propitiated. Through his sacrifice in our place, bearing our sin, God’s wrath against us was assuaged. It was set aside because it was satisfied in the death of Jesus Christ in our place, paying the penalty of our sin. We saw that he thereby was the ransom for our sins. He paid the ransom price to buy our freedom.

We saw that because we are ransomed and redeemed through the blood of Christ, God then justifies us. He declares us righteous. We saw the double imputation: that our sins were imputed to Christ, that his righteousness was imputed to us, and God declares us—sinners though we are—to be righteous. That declaration of righteousness is grounded in the work of Christ for us. It is not an imaginary righteousness; it is a real righteousness that is given to us in Jesus Christ, who has paid the penalty of our sin and made his righteousness ours. Because we are justified, we saw then that we are reconciled as well. All of this was accomplished through Christ and his saving death and resurrection.

Then we saw in his ascension that he took the throne of heaven, as per several of the prophecies in the Old Testament, particularly Psalm 110: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” And there, in Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Daniel 7, and other places, Christ takes the throne, ascending to the throne of heaven, having successfully completed his saving mission. He comes before the Father and claims the nations for his inheritance as they were promised to him. He asks for and he receives the Spirit from God, whom the Father and the Son then send out upon the world to establish this kingdom that was promised for the Son.

We read of that initially as we saw. He was vindicated in his resurrection. We are raised with him for our justification as well. He is God’s Son; by our union with him by the Spirit, we are sons in the Son. He was set apart to God in his saving work; we are in Christ set apart to God and sanctified and made holy and made his, particularly belonging to him.

Because we are in Christ, we have every assurance of salvation. Because of Christ’s work in us, because of our union with Christ—not only judicially in a legal sense where we are accepted, but also in a living and a vital sense united to Christ—we experience the life of the risen Christ in us by the Spirit of God and we are transformed. We live out the righteousness that is required of us. We persevere in all of it. We live for Christ and enjoy assurance as his people.

And today now we come to that final step of our salvation, and that is this doctrine of glorification. We who have been, in the words of verses 28 and following, foreknown, predestined, called, and justified, are also glorified.

Romans 8 highlights all of this for us in broad strokes. We’ve been here many times. I think I can make some broad references here and expect that most of you will be able to follow along. But it highlights this for us in broad strokes and in sweeping overview. In Romans 8, verse 11 and following, we have the experience of this salvation accomplished in us by the Spirit applying the work of Christ to us. He comes to us, verses one and following—that’s a new freedom from sin because of Christ in us, because of his working in us. The demands of the law are fulfilled in us because of the Spirit. We no longer live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit; he has come to us to take over.

Verses 14 and following, we have the status now and the experience of being sons of God by virtue of the Spirit uniting us to Christ. Not only being united to Christ by his Spirit, and not only being enabled to overcome sin, but by the Spirit of God, he has shed abroad in our hearts a sense of God’s love for us. And so we sense that we are God’s children. God’s Spirit has been sent to us with that great ministry—not only to tell us with black ink on a white page that we are God’s children, but to minister in our hearts such that we sense the love of God for us. He is our Father and we are his children.

And then verses 17 and following take up the subject of the entailments of our sonship. If we’re sons, then we’re heirs. And he kind of catches himself: no, not just heirs, fellow heirs with Christ. We share with him in his glory. That’s the glory that you’ll have. And then he draws this great contrast in verses 18 and following, contrasting the sufferings of this present world to the glory that will be revealed in us in Jesus.

Then we come again now to verses 28 and following, where we have another sweeping overview of the entire plan of redemption. “We know,” verse 28, “that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” A couple of things here to remind you of: first of all, that word “called.” That’s the first step of our experience of salvation. That’s the first step of the application of redemption to us. We are called into the fellowship of his Son. But notice we are called “according to his purpose.” That takes us back to redemption planned. All that we have in redemption applied is an outworking of redemption planned. We’re called according to his purpose. And so it reminds us of the big picture that we’ve been trying to look at through here in some detail.

And then notice in verse 28, the word “good.” “All things, for those who love God, all things work together for good.” Now what’s the good? I think this poor verse has been misunderstood in a lot of different ways. The “good” in view here is that final outcome of our salvation. His saving purpose with all that it entails will be realized, and God will take every experience in our lives and work it out toward that final realization of this goal for us. That’s verse 28.

Now verse 29 gives us the big picture again. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” And we saw that that word “foreknew” has predestinarian overtones to it, but with connotations of love. He set his affection ahead of time, looked ahead and saw us rebel sinners, set his affections on us, foreknew us, and so predestined us. Just like the word sounds, he established our destiny beforehand. Those whom he foreknew, he decreed to save, but notice how he says it: he predestined them “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” That’s the goal. Not just rescue, but restoration—to conform these sinners to the image of his Son. And that is the “good” to which God works all things that was mentioned in verse 28.

So that’s verse 29. Big picture. Now verse 30 highlights the major steps in the outworking of that purpose. “Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” In broad steps, he traces out the application of salvation to each of us. Those whom he foreknew, he predestined, and then what did he do for them? In time, he called them. That’s the initial step of our salvation experience, calling us into the fellowship of Christ. Those whom he called, he justified. That’s the basic blessing of our salvation: declared righteous by virtue of our union with Christ, his righteousness ours, our sin made his. Those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he glorified—the final crowning blessing of our experience of salvation.

Those whom he justified, he glorified. That has been Paul’s subject since verse 18: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” Reasons there, verses 17 and 18: if we’re children, then we’re heirs, joint heirs with Christ. We’ll share in Christ’s glory.

So verse 30 now: “Those whom he justified, he glorified.” We have the passage defining for us what “glorified” means. It defines it for us in various terms. Verse 29: it’s “conformed to the image of his Son.” That’s what glorification is. Verse 28: it’s the “good” to which God is working all things for us. Verse 18: it’s the “glory to be revealed in us.” All of these are pointers to what glorification is and what it will be like to be glorified. Glorification, then, is the final stage and the final goal of our salvation. It is the glory that will be ours, sharing with Christ in his glory and made like him.

All right, there’s the whole thing in a nutshell. But now let’s work out the particulars. There are basically two aspects or two dimensions to the doctrine of glorification.

The Physical Dimension

Number one is the physical—the physical dimension of our glorification. And that focuses, of course, on the doctrine of resurrection. In chapter 8 here, verses 17 and following, as I mentioned, Paul gives us this sustained contrast here between glorification on the one hand—the glory—and then on the other hand, the fallenness of this present order. Verse 18: “the sufferings of this present time.” And in that quick phrase, he gives a brief summary of what life in this cursed world is, marked by suffering: “the sufferings of this present time.”

Then verses 19 and following, he gives a wide purview of it all. Creation waits with eager longing for the freedom and the glory of the sons of God. Verse 22: the creation is groaning in anticipation. So in all of these verses here, as we’ve seen, the whole created order is caught up in the fall of humanity and in our sin. Caught up with us in our fall, creation itself is groaning. The created order is out of whack. And I think we are to see behind this, in all of this, the upheavals of nature—whether it’s hurricanes or floods or tornadoes or whatever—the created order itself is out of sorts. It’s not what it was created to be. It’s caught up in the curse that was brought against humanity because of Adam’s sin.

We have this reflected, by the way, in the Old Testament prophets when they speak not only of the suffering that marks this world, but the highlight of the prophets is when they speak of this coming new heaven and new earth, this new creation that will be. It contrasts this present order and its fallenness, even in what we would call the natural world itself groaning, and yet then in the new heaven and the new earth being renewed, marked for humanity by the resurrection of the body—the new heaven and the new earth and a whole restoration of creation. We find passages like Isaiah chapter 35: “the desert shall blossom like a rose.” Language like that describes what the new heaven and the new earth will be like. All of that is implied here in these verses up to verse 22.

Verse 23 now: “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” The redemption of our bodies—bodily resurrection. That is to say, the salvation that we have in Christ right now is not complete. God intends to save the whole man, body and soul, and to restore us wholly to what he created us to be. Death is the result of a curse, but he tells us here in verse 23, death will not have the final answer.

And then verse 24: “For in this hope we were saved.” This is the object of our hope. God saves us in the midst of this fallen and cursed world with all of the groanings that mark it. And for all of the joys that we have right now by the first fruits of the Spirit, it’s just a foretaste. The object of our hope is still to come, and it’s caught up with the redemption of the body. Body and soul restored to the image of Christ.

So this is the doctrine of glorification, or the final goal, or the final step of our salvation: made like Christ, sharing in his resurrection glory. There are other passages that speak of this. I would love to take the time to go through all of them. This would be a great time to do that. We don’t have time for it this morning. You might jot down 1 Corinthians 15, verses 35 and following. There the apostle Paul highlights for us what the resurrection body will be like. It will be a body that is fitted for the day of glory in the presence of God. The body that we have now is a fallen body, a body made for this order and a body that fails and falls; it’s just not suited for that world. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But we will have a body then, and he describes it in wonderful terms there in 1 Corinthians 15.

We get to verse 49 in 1 Corinthians 15. Look at verse 49. I’ll start with verse 47:

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Here’s the punchline: just as we have borne the image of the man of dust—that’s this fallen body that we have with all of its joint pains and cancers and neurological diseases—we also shall bear the image of the man of heaven. Here’s Christ in his resurrection glory, and our bodies will be made like his in resurrection glory.

You might want to jot down Philippians chapter three, verses 20 and 21. Paul says the same thing: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.” The term Paul uses there, “our lowly bodies,” pushing the translation very literally, would be something like “the bodies of our humiliation.” Some of us have bodies that are more humiliating than others. But it’s speaking of the weakness of this body that we have and the fallenness of it. And he says it’ll be exchanged to be made to have a body like his glorious body. So whatever Christ’s body was like in his resurrection, Paul says that’s what body we will have in resurrection also.

We’re here in 1 Corinthians 15. Let’s look at verse 50:

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

So we have this happy prospect of this glorious moment when Christ returns and there’s this transformation. Those who are dead in Christ, they’ll be raised, given an imperishable, immortal body. We who are alive at the time, given without having to pass through the process of death and resurrection, will be given an immortal and an imperishable body as well.

We probably should, while we’re at it, look at 1 Thessalonians 4, beginning with verse 13:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Now this is interesting. We who are alive and remain at the coming of Christ won’t precede those who have slept. That is, those who have died in Christ won’t have lost anything. In fact, we won’t get any advantage over them because first they will be raised. See that again in verse 15: “we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” Verse 16: “the dead in Christ will rise first.” Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up—there’s our word “rapture,” by the way; that’s simply the Latin term, rapturo, which means to catch up. So we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

But you put these passages together and they’re pretty clearly telling us that whether we have died in Christ or whether we are one of the ones who are remaining when Christ comes—whether by resurrection or by rapture—there’ll be this moment of ultimate transformation and the change will be instantaneous. The change will be complete. One moment dead, next moment living with a glorified body. Or for those living, one moment mortal—joints that are achy, bodies riddled with disease, weakness—and the next moment, all that is gone, transformed to a glorious body. This, then, is the physical dimension of glorification or the physical dimension of our hope. I have more to say about that in a few minutes.

The Moral Aspect

Let’s look at the second broad dimension, then, of the doctrine of glorification, and that is the moral aspect—the moral aspect of glorification. And I think we should look back again at Romans 8, verse 29: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Notice the expression: “he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

We have seen already that that entails the physical aspect, the physical dimension. It is impossible that it does not also entail a moral aspect as well. This is what it means in verse 30 to be glorified. And here we tie into a huge developing theme through the Bible. In Genesis chapter one, Adam and Eve are created in God’s image. In Genesis chapter three, that image becomes effaced because of sin. It’s not lost, but it is effaced. We come to the epistles and we find two things: we find Christ as the image of God par excellence, and then we also find that by his saving work, we are restored to his image through his death and resurrection. So now, united to Christ, that image of God is restored in us in Christ, and we are made like him.

I suppose the clearest of all of these verses is 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” I was struck this week while thinking through all of this by a related passage, not dealing with the individual, but dealing with the broader scene in Revelation chapter 18, where we read that Babylon is destroyed and fallen, and it will be no more—thrown down with violence, the wicked city Babylon thrown down.

I think we do well to think on that and imagine what that day will be like when the opposition of the world is gone. All that would pressure us to conform to all of the evil that’s being pressed on us today is destroyed and it’s gone. Never again will we be tempted, never again under assault from the world, never again failing. We each have our own besetting sins. Not then. We each have our own areas of weakness where sometimes so quickly we give in—too quick with the tongue to say something that ought not to be said, too easily entertaining thoughts that ought not to be entertained. Not then. Made like Christ, glorified body and soul, restored to his image.

Our time is running. I want you to notice here several aspects about this passage, Romans 8, that I think should be pointed out. I’ll just have to mention them quickly. Romans 8:28 and following.

Notice, first of all, the comprehensiveness of this passage. As we’ve just observed, on the one hand, it is from eternity to eternity. All of time, all of history, is shaped by God’s saving purpose. In eternity past: foreknown, predestined; and for eternity future: glorified. All of history and all of time is shaped by God’s saving purpose. But not only universal in that sense of eternal, but universal in that it entails the entire created order. That’s the point of verses 18 through 22. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” And he points us ahead to the new heaven and the new earth, when all that marks fallenness of this created world will be gone. The comprehensiveness of it—it is eternal, it is universal.

Secondly, notice the certainty of it. Verse 28: “We know.” That’s a great expression for our postmodern world, isn’t it? We know. God has revealed it. We know that God will work all things together for good to those who love God. And that certainty is accented in verses 29 and 30, where the same people are in view throughout. Those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he glorified. And there’s that chain, and the same people are in view all throughout.

I’ve told you this before: you can actually work the verse either direction. You can start at the end and say, “Who are these who are glorified?” The answer is those who are justified. “Well, who are these who are justified?” Well, it’s the ones God called. “And who are the ones he called?” Well, it’s the ones he predestined. “Who did he predestine?” It’s the ones whom he foreknew. Emphasizing throughout the certainty of all of this, and the whole point of it is to encourage God’s people with assurance that we will reach this final goal. We find ourselves in this chain, having been called and justified. We have every reason to look back and say, “God predestined us to this.” And we have every reason to look ahead and say, “I will reach the final goal.” Those whom he calls, he justifies; and those whom he justifies, he glorifies.

And that brings up another interesting aspect of this passage, and that’s the timing of it. I’m sure you’ve noticed it: it’s past tense. Even that last one—glorified. He’s speaking of glorification as though it’s already experienced. The final step: glorified. Trick question: have you been glorified yet? Yes? No? I’m not voting.

I think what Paul is doing here is bringing to bear the whole idea of the “now and the not yet”—that God’s work in us has been begun. Even this word “glory” and “glorifying” is a term that Paul uses to describe us in Christ now, being transformed from one level of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3). We have here “the first fruits of the Spirit,” he mentions—the initial installment of what he plans for us, just the first fruits. And that expression, “the first fruits of the Spirit,” the initial blessings of the Spirit, just bristles with implications. What are the final fruits? That’s what he’s talking about here. All of it will come.

The present realization of our blessings in Christ with every believer is an initial installment of what will come in full. One of the words that Paul uses to describe the great change that has come to every believer in this life—one of the words he uses to describe it is the change to glory. Clearly we haven’t reached it in its fullness, but that glory, having already begun—and this is the logic of it—having already begun, will surely come in full. Paul would never, never minimize the full expression of glory that will come in the resurrection. But he wants very much for us to know that we have already begun to experience what he has promised for us. And it will come in full.

So What?

Now finally, let’s just ask the question: so what? What difference should all of this make to all of us now? What use does this have for every one of us? And of course, the answer has to be: this points us toward and nudges us to persevering faithfulness, borne up by hope. Persevering faithfulness, borne up by hope.

That, by the way, is the context—it is how Paul applies it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, after describing the resurrection body that we’ve just read. The very next verse is verse 58: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” Therefore—that is, because of all this that is coming—therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And everywhere this is used to encourage us to shore up a sense of hope and to nudge us to continued faithfulness. Steadfastness borne up by hope.

That is Romans chapter eight. And yet in all of this, he is giving us this hope that is to bear us through all of the suffering, to live today in light of tomorrow. So here’s reason for our faithfulness in serving Christ. Here’s reason for our giving. Here’s reason for our sacrifice. Here’s reason for faithfulness: Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, and he will raise us with him. This world, this life, is not all there is; it is not all there will be. And to live as though this world is all there is or will be would be the height of foolishness. We live today in anticipation of a coming glory, sharing with Christ in his inheritance.

God gives us, even in this fallen and cursed world, so many tokens of grace, so many moments of happiness. It can blind us. We become accustomed to it, we come to expect it, we feel entitled—all kinds of things can come with that. But God in common grace even showers the world with so much goodness, so much so that we sing songs about it: “What a Wonderful World,” “I see skies of blue, red roses too.” I don’t want to mock that; that’s good. There’s a sense, of course, in which that’s true. God in common grace has blessed us in wonderful ways.

Yet the realities of our fallenness, the realities of God’s curse on this world, remain. And we have, to one degree or another, a life that is marked by struggle, turmoil, pain, loss, broken relationships, bereavements. All of us, to one degree or another, have it and will experience it. Even the high points of life, those moments of happiness—thank God for them. But every one of them, every last one of them, is stamped “temporary.” Death still comes. Relationships are broken, loved ones lost, sickness, disease—worse yet, the suffering of a child.

Many people make the mistake of citing 1 Corinthians 15, verses 54 and 55, which we just read, a little bit mistakenly. It’s that passage on, “O death, where is your victory? O grave, where is your sting?” And you’ll hear them say, in brief, “For the Christian, death has lost its sting.” Well, there’s something to that, and it’s in a prospective sense—but only in a prospective sense. Any of you who have endured bereavement know that there’s still a stinger there. What Paul says is not that death has lost its sting for all of us now. What Paul says is that when this perishable puts on the imperishable, when this mortal puts on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying, “O death, where is your victory?” The reality is death is still very active and it still very much stings. One day, that’ll be over.

Now I’ve heard others say when they come to subjects like this—I’ve heard some preachers say it—”You shouldn’t view the end times selfishly. When you view the end times, the real glory of it is not the end of your suffering and the end of your pain. The real glory is seeing Christ and being with him.” Of course, there’s a point to be made with that. I don’t want to quibble too much, but I do want to point out: when you say it that way, you’re just a little more pious than the biblical writers are. Biblical writers don’t shy away at all from rejoicing in this happy prospect of relief—relief from suffering.

Romans chapter eight here, the whole notion of hope is set against the backdrop of the sufferings of this present world. Verse 24: that’s the object of our hope—that it will be gone. “In this hope,” he says, “in this hope.” In this hope of the relief from sufferings, we were saved. John does the same thing in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. In that new heaven and new earth, there’ll be no more sea—no more turbulence, turmoil, or upset—no more pain, no more mourning, no more crying, no more death. The former things have passed away. Or as he says in Revelation chapter 14, in a brief, crisp way: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord… that they may rest from their labors.”

Many a saint has reached the latter part of life saying, “I’m just tired. I’m not going to quit; I’m just tired.” For many, it’s been prolonged sickness, disappointments, opposition, deprivation, various things. “I’m just tired.” Physically, emotionally—Romans chapter eight, verses 17 to 39 were written for them. This was written to give them hope. Paul cites the psalm to enforce that for us, to say one day our salvation will be complete.

Live today in light of tomorrow. Verse 18. I’ve often said that Christians just might be a little bit too quick at times when talking to people who are suffering; they might be a little bit too quick to rush in and quote Romans 8:28: “All things work together for good to those who love God.” At some point that’s got to come in; that’s great. But I’ve often thought it would be better to start with verse 18: “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that shall be revealed in us.” Even in the deepest suffering, we’re shored up by the assurance of a coming glory.

One of the saddest things to witness is someone who is suffering without hope. Once in a while, we’ll get a glimpse of it—people in a communist country like North Korea, beaten down and suffering their whole life without any reason to hope. Sometimes you see it with people who are suffering some physical malady, lifelong illness, or handicap. They’re lost; no hope. No sense of hope bearing them up. That, by the way, is the way John describes the lost in the eternal state: tormented and no rest day and night forever. Horrible.

By contrast, a great part of what fuels Christian joy is this certain anticipation of glory. This life is not the whole of our salvation experience, and the sin and the sickness that marks this world won’t last forever. It won’t last indefinitely. And in fact, the joys that we have today associated with the first fruits of the Spirit—that’s just the foretaste. That’s just the first installment of what we’ll have in full when Christ returns.

And so this work that God has planned for us in eternity past, this work that he accomplished for us in Jesus Christ, and this work that he has now applied to each of us individually, one by one by his Spirit—all of that has just begun in our experience. Paul writes to the Roman Christians to encourage them. He says, “Brothers, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” He wrote to the Philippians: “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” As that hymn says: “Then we shall be where we would be, then we shall be what we should be; things that are not now, nor could be, soon shall be our own.” And the glory that we have begun to experience in Jesus Christ will then be exchanged for a new level of glory entirely—body and soul conformed to the image of our forerunner, the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.