What Glory Awaits!
Annette Burkett
‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.’
‘For we are saved in this hope… we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.’ Romans 8:18, & 27-28
What is this ‘glory’ that we wait for and persevere towards through trials? We read in Scripture that this earth and heaven as it is now will burn up and no longer exist. So what is ahead if we continue to follow the Lord and eventually enter the new heavens and the new earth? It is tempting to think that we will be able to do whatever we want…forever. Surfing? Lying around in a hammock reading a good book? Whatever activity you enjoy most in this life might just become a bit boring if it was to last all of eternity! From what the Scriptures tell us, there is little chance we will ever be bored again! We will be doing things we never even dreamt about doing! Let us look in the scriptures and find out just what the Lord has in store for us.
Glory revealed
Romans 8:14-18 speaks of our adoption as sons and of a glory that shall be revealed in us. What is this glory? How and when is it revealed? This glory is our predestined identity; what God the Father planned for us (even before we were born) expressed fully and completely. This plan is not revealed fully in this life on earth; it is revealed when we are raised in the new heavens. David said in Psalms 17:15, ‘I will be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness’. He knew he would not be alive when the Lord came, but believed that he would be like the Lord. Is this your hope? Or, are you living for now, not thinking much about eternity at all?
Filled with fullness
Ephesians 3:16 says the He will ‘grant you’… ‘…that you may be filled with the fullness of God’. To receive the fullness of Christ actually means that we can receive the fullness of the Father, the fullness of the Son and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Think about this – everything that the Father is, everything that the Son is and everything that the Holy Spirit is, is our inheritance. We can actually be capable of living and doing what Christ can do.
We read in Scripture that Christ received the fullness of the Holy Spirit while He was on earth. We have only received a glimpse, or a very small portion in this life. However our inheritance is to receive the fullness just as Jesus did. Have you ever thought that this is what God has in mind for you? We are not talking about a creation from stem cell research here. We are talking about something far greater and ongoing than man has ever even heard about.
Perfect relationship
2 Pet 1:4 says that these are ‘exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature of God’. This does not just mean we can have a little bit of His love and a little of His mercy; it means that we can be filled with ‘the fullness of God’ Eph 3:19. That is everything, including the fullness of who He is (without presuming to be God ourselves) and the way the Three Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) live in perfect love and relationship together. His way of living and loving can be ours – the most amazing and loving relationship here on earth will pale into insignificance compared to the ‘oneness’ we will experience in relationship in the new heavens.
