Finishing Touches #1

Here the Apostle is giving a passage chock full of assurances for us the believers– assurances given under the backdrop of suffering in this life. We live in a sinful world, opposed to God, where the creation and we with it groan, even the Holy Spirit within us groans, as we await the final revealing of the glorified community. For this is not our home. We will be with God in the renewed creation, glorified like the Son. What is the way to glorification, it is suffering. As those who are joined to the Son, Jesus, we will all suffer too. And God will work all things out for good for those who love Him, a passage we know well and often quote. But do things always work out for "the best"? We know that they don't and know great pain in the midst of trial. To quote Ray "So what is the good that all things are working towards?" It is the being conformed to the image of the radiant Son of God, being prepared for an eternal weight of glory, of a type and manner that we cannot imagine. Is suffering the cost of glorification? No, but it is way.