For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8.18-21).
Just as “it doth not yet appear what we shall be (1John 3:2),” we, having never experienced anything like this “glorious liberty,” can only wonder at it. I do not say that we have not experienced something just as wonderful, though different; because we have. Paul speaks here of liberty from any and all presence of sin and its temporal consequences. We still endure this bondage of corruption, but we have already been delivered from the terrible penalty, the eternal consequences and true punishment of sin. This is how Paul began this chapter. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus . . .”
Yes, there are present-time sufferings, but they are not worth talking about compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
Yes, there is vanity, but even as we are steeped in the vanity of our own hearts and surrounded by the vanity of this world and its religious madness, we are rejoicing in hope and earnest expectation that “when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1John 3:2).”
Yes, there is bondage, but not the bondage of the law. We are yet in the bondage of corruption, not yet delivered from the body of this death (Romans 7:24), but we are delivered from that hopeless yoke, that bondage of despair that had us laboring without rest and without reward. That endless heavy burden of trying to satisfy the holy God by the performance of our unholy flesh. Bless God, to be unburdened of that yoke! Free from the law, O happy condition!!!!
And though now, there is yet this bondage of corruption, though this child of God is chained within the corruptible that must yet be put off (1Corinthians 15), we rejoice right now in the glorious liberty that is ours in Christ. He Who has begun this good work in us, shall perform it. He Who has purchased us and finished the work of redemption, shall possess us, and finish the work of salvation, the completion of which is described in this chapter in these various forms of this one beautiful word: glory, glorious, glorified.
I don’t know much about glory except that it is not a place, but a Person. The glory of God is Christ. And my glory, is Christ.
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