Eternal glory is not our natural state
“It was only right that God, who creates and preserves all things, should make Jesus perfect through suffering, in order to bring many children to share his glory. For Jesus is the one who leads them to salvation.” Hebrews 2:10 (GNT).
It is blessed and comforting to know that Christ has had mercy on us, and that He now leads us to eternal glory with a mighty hand.
By nature, we have no glory in ourselves, so to come to a glorious life, both now and for eternity, we need to more and more become like Christ. If we want to receive His life and His nature, He needs to lead us through all kinds of circumstances. (2 Peter 1:4; 1 Peter 1:6-9.) He changes and purifies us through sufferings, and through all this we learn to know His good way and will for us, as we read in Psalm 119:67, “Before I suffered, I took the wrong way, but now I do what you say.”
If we know that we are under His good and mighty guidance on the way to glory in everything that meets us, the result will be that our troubles will be just for a short while and will work for us a glory much greater than these small troubles. “We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us gain an eternal glory that is much greater than the troubles.” 2 Corinthians 4:17 (NCV).
When Christ comes to lead His bride into glory, it will be a group of people who have already experienced His own life of glory in the midst of the world’s darkness and evil. In life’s many trials they were formed and changed through sufferings in the same way as Jesus Himself.
Each of these people will have many wonderful experiences from their journey through life - and they will be thankful for the different trials that God led them through on their way to eternal glory.
Those who were proud and stubborn will have stories of times where they were broken down and became humble and good. They will give praise and thanks to God for all eternity out of thankfulness for this great and blessed result. Imagine if they had only had easy circumstances and would have stayed stubborn and proud for the rest of their lives!
We can come to God’s eternal glory just as these heroes!
Joseph was thrown into a pit and into prison on the way to becoming a ruler. David was an exile, persecuted by jealous men on the way to his kingdom. His prophetic and blessed psalms were born in times of sufferings, troubles, battle, and opposition.
We need to have God’s wisdom so He can use us, and we can only receive it through sufferings and faithfulness in the trials of life.
Jesus was also tempted and tested just as we are because He had the same human nature that we have. He suffered when He was tempted and learned obedience by the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8); and in this way He grew in wisdom. He was made perfect through sufferings, as we read in Hebrews 2:10. No one has been as obedient and faithful as He. He endured all of life’s trials without sinning. He is truly a worthy Prince among His brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:10,14-18; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:7-9.)
Let us look forward to the joy that waits for us, as Jesus did, and praise God for everything that we go through on the way to glory!