In our previous Note we considered how “Christ in you, the hope of glory” is really the central point of the entire Bible. (Col. 1:25-27; if you missed that it is on our “Brief Notes” page).

More broadly, our theme in recent Notes has been how God is uplifting our human nature with His divine nature; this is the “Christ in you” aspect of the statement above. Christ living in us by His divine life and nature, once we are born anew in Christ, makes us God’s children, and eventually His many sons, with a human nature that has been uplifted by the divine nature. The shining out of this new nature from within us as the many sons of God is the glory for which we now hope in Christ.

This is why the Bible consistently links sonship with glory. Hebrews 2:10 tells us that God is “bringing many sons into glory.” We especially see this connection, however, in Romans 8. Here Paul tells us that we have received “a spirit of sonship” (Rom. 8:15), and then speaks of our being glorified together with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Later in this chapter he speaks of our being the many brothers of Christ, the Firstborn Son, and then tells us that we will be glorified:

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.
— Romans 8:29-30

When we realize this connection between sonship and glory, it should impress us with a very crucial point of the truth. That is, while in the future we surely will exist in a realm of glory, the glory we experience then will not only be something outward; rather, it will also be something that comes from within us!

This is why the Bible tells us that at Christ’s return, not only will we be glorified in Him, but He will also be:

…glorified in his saints, and…marveled at in all who have believed.
— 2 Thessalonians 1:10; cf. Colossians 1:27

Today the fact that we have this glory within us truly is a mystery; it is something hidden, just as the glory was hidden within Christ when He was on the earth. When the Lord returns, however, it will be fully manifested, and so many of those who knew you and me as common, even lowly human beings in our life on the earth, will be completely astonished when they see God’s own glory shining out from within us! (cf. Col. 3:3-4).

And if this glory will come out from us then, we must not wait to enter into it; rather, we should allow God to work something of His glory into us even today, to prepare for “the revealing of the sons of God” in that day (Rom. 8:19).

And that is what we will consider in our next Note, which will deal with the connection between glory and suffering.

Your brother….

— Up Next —
“Glory & Suffering”

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— 29 September 2021 —