FIRST THE SUFFERINGS THEN THE GLORY

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? – Luke 24:26

The Lord Jesus Christ lived in time with eternity in mind. While on earth, He was hated, persecuted, betrayed, falsely accused, whipped, beaten, mocked and killed. Afterward, He entered His Glory, God exalted Him to the highest place.

This is the example He left us. If we share in His Sufferings in time, we’ll also share in His Glory in Eternity (Romans 8:17). First the Sufferings and then the Glory. The Sufferings of Christ are the Christian rite of passage. They’re the fiery crucible upon which true Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ are forged.

True Christians get treated like the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re hated by the world. But we suffer it gladly because we know the Glory that awaits us in Eternity. Like Him, because of the Joy set before us, we endure the cross in this life, despising its shame, and then enter into His eternal Glory when He returns.

CONFESSION

I want to know Christ, and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His Sufferings, being like Him in His Death, that I may also share in His Resurrection when He returns.