Kingdom Priority (4)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be comparedwith the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8.18

Glory now
The Christian life is, in many ways, just like the life of any other person. It’s not all fun and games. It’s not even all peace and joy and tramping around praising the Lord, come what may. A bumper sticker I saw not long ago speaks as well to the Christian life as to any other life: “Life’s a bitch, then you die.”

Just because those who have made the Kingdom turn stand in the hope of the glory and love of God doesn’t mean they are exempt from or immune to the hard knocks of life. Like our non-believing neighbors, we live in a fallen world. In that world are plenty of struggles, setbacks, disappointments, betrayals, injuries and sicknesses, failures and defeats, brushes with death and death itself.

The only difference between the Christian life and any other life is the matter of where we stand as we encounter the everyday trials and difficulties of life.

The glory and love of God are unchanging, as we have seen. Even though the circumstances of a Christian’s life change, and even become adverse and cumbersome at times, this does not alter the fact that the Christian stands in – has access to, come what may – the glory of God. Believers may, under all circumstances and in every situation, slump down into the loving arms of the Lord and find glory and strength to help them bear up with joy and peace through even the worst life can throw at them.

This is a very real and tangible difference between the Christian life and every other kind of life. We do not stand in the hope that our circumstances, status, or stuff will improve, so that we can get out of this funk we’re in and get on with enjoying life. We stand in hope of the glory of God, of knowing the presence and welcoming face of our Savior Jesus Christ, and this hope never changes. It is always present and palpable for those who know how to take refuge in it.

Only a glimpse
Those Christians who have learned how to do this will tell you it’s a wonderful mystery, that they are able to know peace and joy in every situation, because, while the circumstances of their lives may change, God does not, and they don’t trust in their circumstances, they hope in the glory of God.

But they will also tell you that they are fully aware that every such experience of the glory of God is not the ultimate end of their life in Christ. A “peak experience,” as Maslow would say, of the glory and love of God awaits those who believe in Jesus. A glory is waiting to be revealed that is so great, so far beyond any glimpse of it we might achieve in the here and now, that Scripture is at pains to employ language to explain it.

The “glory that is to be revealed to us” is reserved for the new heavens and new earth, where righteousness dwells. Not even heaven can fully measure up to this glory which is to be revealed. Saints who have departed this life are presently in heaven, fully delighting in doing whatever the Lord has for them there. But they are there in soul only; their bodies await the general resurrection of the dead. And they are there in a spiritual realm only; the new heavens and new earth will see a fusing of the seen and unseen worlds, releasing infinite and unending energies of spiritual beauty, goodness, truth, and love through creatures perfect in every way, into a world which increases in perfection and glory with each passing moment.

The glory which is to be revealed
Heaven, though not our ultimate destination, is pretty amazing in its own right, offering an even more focused and intensified experience of the glory that is to be revealed. So desirable was heaven to the Apostle Paul that he could say, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!” (Phil. 1.21) Paul would take that bumper sticker I mentioned earlier and change it to read, “Life’s a bitch full of glory, then you really begin to live!”

Beyond this world, beyond heaven, beyond anything we can imagine, and filling up eternally into all the fullness of God, a new world is being prepared, and we who stand in the hope of glory now stand also in the hope of glory then. Glory and now and then: This is why we are Christians. Our main priority is to live now so as to know, experience, and express a reality that is, but that is still in preparation – the eternal realm of God’s glory and love. We stand in the hope of this glory every day of our lives. We seek it in His Word, pray earnestly to enter into it, linger and lavish in it as we do, then go forth to live that glory and love in all our relationships, roles, and responsibilities (1 Cor. 10.31).

And as we do, we have one eye fixed on the horizon of time. For we know that time will one day run out. History and the world as we know it – full of its bustle, busyness, bitchiness, and brokenness – will one day come to an end, and with it all the circumstances and stuff to which people cling for happiness and hope. But when that happens, the glory that is to be revealed will shower upon and radiate through those who stand in the hope of that glory now, until they are transformed into that very glory and image of Jesus Christ, and dwell face-to-face with Him forever.

And even then, even amid all that brilliance of spiritual, personal, creational, and cultural glory, the glory that is to be revealed will increase in transforming love and power, without obstruction and without end.

Next steps: What role does “the glory that is to be revealed” play in your daily experience as a Christian? Talk about this with some fellow believers.

T. M. Moore

Additional Resources

This week’s study, Kingdom Priority, is the fourth of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.