Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. I. WHAT CONSTITUTES THAT GLORY IN THE HOPE OF WHICH THE APOSTLE REJOICED? The word "glory" applied to God sometimes denotes that splendour with which He often clothed Himself when He made His appearance to the ancient saints; sometimes that sublime display of God's natural attributes, which He has made in the creation; sometimes a particular attribute of the Deity. It is in general used, however, to denote any signal or triumphant display of the Divine attributes as made towards men. In its primary and highest sense it is the full, cloudless, and combined display of the perfections of the Godhead, as in the text. 1. The display of this glory is reserved for the future world. But it is not to be imagined that any change is to pass upon the essential divinity of the Godhead. Jehovah is the perfection of beauty, yesterday, today, and forever; only interposing mediums will be removed, and the capacity of the creature elevated. This is accomplished for the soul at death; for the body at the resurrection. Think not, therefore, that God is to reveal His glory by descending to us. The revelation will be made by elevating us to Himself. If we are to behold this glory with a seraph's ecstasy, we shall gaze upon it with a seraph's eye. 2. It is to consist in the displays which God will make of Himself. The company of saints and angels may indeed increase immensely the bliss of heaven. But what are they without God? The glory in which they will shine is but a reflection from that embodied effulgence which emanates from the perfections of the Eternal Three. It is chiefly to be disclosed through the Church, and Jesus Christ is its Head and Redeemer. He has received this appointment; and, from the Father, glory has been given Him, which, in answer to His own prayer, His saints shall behold. But in what way will He execute it? The manifold wisdom of God is to be exhibited through the Church, unto principalities and powers in the heavenly places. The absolute riches of His glory He has determined to display through the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory. Where in the universe besides could He have found materials for erecting a monument so splendid, durable, and great, to His matchless love and mercy, as in these poor guilty beings which He thus redeems and exalts. Having gathered His saints into their everlasting rest, and secured a complete triumph over the last enemy, the Redeemer will now sit down in the midst of the throne, encircled with a bow of glory, in sight like unto an emerald. Then the sound of innumerable voices will break upon the ear of heaven, "Worthy is the Lamb to receive glory." II. WHAT IS THE HOPE OF GLORY AND HOW DOES IT BECOME A FOUNDATION OF JOY TO THE BELIEVER? It is the hope of a sinner founded in the atonement of it, and it gives to the believer a prospective possession of the glory that is to be revealed. 1. There is, however, a hope that fastens upon the same blessed inheritance which yet is not the Christian's. Of this kind the world is full. How are they to be distinguished from each other? (1) Look at their origin. The rock of ages, Jesus Christ, is here placed as a broad and deep substratum on which the hope of glory is built. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid," and safely build upon it this animating hope. It is the immediate result of justification by faith. The impenitent sinner's hope, on the contrary, is built upon the sand. (2) But these hopes differ not less in their legitimate effects upon the heart. That of the Christian is, in its very nature, purifying (1 John 3:3). It is a hope, too, through which the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. In this way it transforms the soul into the very image of its Maker, and thus prepares it for the inheritance of the saints in light. The hope of the sinner, however, is not only incompatible with the undisturbed repose of every sin, but it is the very aliment on which these plants of death are nourished. (3) As to the different results of these hopes, I need only say the one is like the giving up of the ghost when God takes away the soul — while the other, on the same event, wilt be like the breaking of a summer's morning. The one terminates in endless day, the other in eternal night; the one in heaven, the other in hell. 2. The hope renders the possession prospective. But what is intended by possession? The glory of God's kingdom is to be ours in a sense vastly higher than anything we are said to possess in the present life. In the terrestrial sense nothing becomes completely ours till every foreign claim is extinguished. In the heavenly, everything becomes ours by extinguishing our own. In the present world our right to possession is founded in the sacrifice we have made or the equivalent we have rendered. In the other, the blood of the Cross will seal it to us entire, with no sacrifice of our own, no equivalent given. Here we struggle for possession that we may not be dependent. There we shall surrender all, that our dependence may be complete. Conclusion: 1. The saints have ample occasion to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Are you at present the subjects of affliction? I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in you. 2. God forbid that in the animating prospect which the heavenly inheritance presents, any of you should be disposed at present to glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. (J. W. Adams, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. |
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