For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [Romans 8:18]
Making mention of a few bodily aches and pains last week to someone and they rightly responded; “don’t worry you’ll get a new body one day.”
Though this advice is biblically correct, it did not help my immediate problem. But this ‘glorification’ - ‘new body one day’ is the big picture we are to always cling to - right? This is what Paul is speaking of in the above text. Trouble is, we often get so caught up in the immediate that we lose focus of the future.
This made me consider again God’s big plan, not only for me but for his bride, the church, made up of every born again believer. This plan, His remedy for the sin problem, makes the ‘aches and pains‘ of the present take a back seat where they belong.
I could not word this glorious plan better than what Jay Adams does:
“Salvation is complete; it involves justification, sanctification, and glorification. By grace, through faith, God justifies believers in an instantaneous act. That is to say, Christ died for His people in order that the penalty for their sins might be paid and His righteousness might be counted to them. They are declared just before God when they believe. Once justified, Christ saves them from the power of their sins through the lifelong process of sanctification. In sanctification, Christians are made more and more like Jesus Christ. But a lifelong process never ends, and the final goal is never reached until death. At death, Christians are glorified; they are then made completely perfect for the first time.” [Grace quotes]