Such marks, or scars, for Christ the Lord, Paul admonishes all
Christians to exhibit. Thus he encourages them not to be terrified
though they suffer every conceivable wrong, such as our brethren here
and there have suffered now for several years. But brighter days are
in store for us when once the hour of our enemies and the power of
darkness shall come. Our adversaries annoy us now with malignant
words and slanderous writings, and indeed they may take our lives. So
be it. We must in any event suffer if we are ever to attain true
glory. But what they will secure by putting us to death they
certainly shall experience.
11. In Paul's reference to the glory that shall be revealed in us
there is a hint as to the cause of man's unwillingness to suffer:
faith is yet weak and fails to descry the hidden glory; that glory is
yet to be revealed in us. Could we but behold it with mortal vision,
what noble, patient martyrs we should be! Suppose one stood on yonder
side of the Elbe with a chest full of gold, offering it to him who
should venture to swim across for it. What an effort would be made
for the sake of that tangible wealth!
12. Take the case of the adventurous officer. For a few dollars per
month he defies spears and guns, exposing himself to almost certain
death. The merchant hurries to and fro in the world in a frenzied
effort to amass riches, hazarding life and limb, apparently careless
of physical cost so long as God's mercy preserves to him but the
shattered hulk of a body. And what must not one endure at court
before he realizes, if he ever does, the fulfilment of his ambition?
In temporal things man can do and suffer everything for the sake of
honor, wealth and power, because these are manifest to earthly
vision. But in the spiritual conflict, because the reward is not
discernible to the senses it is very difficult for the old man in us
to believe that God will finally grant us glorious bodies, pure souls
and hearts of gladness, and make us superior to any earthly king.
Indeed, the very reverse of this condition obtains now. Here is one
condemned as a heretic; there one is burned or in some other way put
to death. Glory, wealth and honor are not in evidence now. So it
seems hard for us to resign ourselves to suffering and wait for the
redemption and glory yet unrevealed.
Again, no hardship is too great for the world to undergo for the sake
of sordid gain; it willingly suffers whatever comes for that which
moth and rust consume and thieves steal.
13. Paul means to say: "I am certain there is reserved for us
exceeding glory, in comparison wherewith all earthly suffering is
actually of no consideration; only it is not yet manifest." If we
have to face the slightest gale of adversity, or if a trifling
misfortune befalls us, we begin to make outcry, filling the heavens
with our false complaint of a terrible calamity. Were our faith
triumphant, we would regard it but as a small inconvenience to
suffer, even for thirty or forty years or longer; indeed, we should
think our sufferings too trifling to be taken into account. May the
Lord our God only forbear to reckon with us for the sins we have
committed! Why will we have so much to say about great sufferings and
their merits? How utterly unworthy we are of the free grace and
ineffable glory which are ours in the fact that through Christ we
become children and heirs of God, brethren and joint-heirs with
Christ!
Well may we resolve: "I will maintain a cheerful silence about my
sufferings, boasting not of them nor complaining about them. I will
patiently endure all my merciful God sends upon me, meanwhile
rendering him my heartfelt gratitude for calling me to such
surpassing grace and blessing." But, as I said, the vision of glory
will not enter our hearts because of our weak and miserable flesh,
which allows itself to be more influenced by the present than by the
future. So the Holy Spirit must be our schoolmaster to bring the
matter home to our hearts.
14. Note particularly how Paul expressly states that the glory is to
be revealed in us. He would remind us that not only such as Peter or
Paul are to participate in the blessing, as we are prone to believe,
but that we and all Christians are included in the word "us." Indeed,
even the merest babe obtains at death, wherein it is a joint-sufferer
with mankind, this unspeakable glory, which the Lord Jesus into whose
death it was baptized has purchased and bestowed upon it. Though in
the life beyond one saint may have more glory than another, yet all
will have the same eternal life. Here on earth men differ in point of
strength, comeliness, intellect, yet all enjoy the same animal life.
So in the other life there will be degrees of radiance or glory, as
Paul teaches (1 Cor 15, 41), yet all will share the same eternal
happiness and joy; there will be one glory for all, for we shall all
be the children of God.
15. Now the first point of consolation is that we turn our backs upon
all suffering, saying: "What is all my pain, though it were tenfold
greater, compared to the eternal life unto which I am baptized, to
which I am called? My sufferings are not worthy to be so termed in
connection with the exceeding glory to be revealed in me." Paul
magnifies the future glory to make the temporal sufferings the more
insignificant. Then follows:
"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
revealing [manifestation] of the sons of God. For the creation was
subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who
subjected it, in hope: [For the creature was made subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in
hope;]"
16. Here is the second point of consolation. Paul holds up as an
example to us the condition of the whole creation. He exhorts us to
endure patiently, as the creature does, all the violence and
injustice we suffer from the devil and the world, and to comfort
ourselves with the hope of future redemption. Remarkable doctrine
this, unlike anything elsewhere found in the Scriptures, that heaven
and earth, sun, moon and stars, leaf and blade, every living thing,
waits with sighing and groaning for the revelation of our glory.