In His work in the new dispensation God also glorifies the believers. Romans 8:30 says, “Whom He predestinated, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Since glorification will occur in the future, why does Paul use the past tense and say “glorified”? Have you been glorified? Although in our experience we have not been glorified, the Bible says that we have been glorified already. Everything mentioned in verse 30 is an accomplished fact-predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. The reason Paul speaks this way here is that although we are subject to time, God is not. He is the God of eternity. With Him, as the eternal God, there is no time. Therefore, in the sight of God, we have already been glorified. According to His concept, this has already been accomplished. Our glorification is secured and ensured in the eternal God Himself. According to our experience, glorification will take place in the future. But according to God’s view, it has already occurred. With God everything is timeless. In His sight, our predestination, calling, justification, and glorification are eternal matters.
According to Romans 5:2, we “boast in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 9:23 says that we are “vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory.” This glory will be in the revelation of the coming kingdom in which we, as sons of God, shall participate (Rom. 8:21). God has called us into this glory (1 Thes. 2:12; 2 Thes. 2:14; 1 Pet. 5:10), and Christ Himself is the hope of this glory (Col. 1:27) which we are expecting and for which we are waiting. We shall share this glory at the day of our glorification.
Romans 8:30 does not say that we shall be put into glory; rather, this verse indicates that we shall be glorified. As we have pointed out, glory is the expression of God. Christ, the hope of glory, has been sown into us as the seed of glory, and this seed will grow until it reaches the stage of blossoming, at which time the glory will come out. For God to glorify us means that the glory that has been sown into us, saturates our whole being, and is expressed through us. When our whole being has been permeated and saturated with the element of glory, that glory will come out of us. This is what it means for God to glorify us. When we experience this glorification, we shall be in the expression of God.
We have considered nine aspects of God’s work in relation to the believers: calling, forgiving, justifying, reconciling, receiving, regenerating, washing, sanctifying, and glorifying. We have been called, forgiven, justified, reconciled, received, regenerated, and washed. We are being sanctified, and we shall be glorified. All these matters are related to God’s dispensing. God’s calling, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, receiving, regeneration, washing, and sanctifying are for His dispensing of Himself into us. The final step-glorification-is for the dispensing of God in full. We need to see that all these aspects of God’s work with respect to the believers are for the goal of His dispensing of Himself into us.
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