"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."(Romans 8:29-30 ESV)
What does your life look like right now? If most of us were to map out the route our lives are taking it would likely be full of valleys and peaks, twists and turns. Perhaps you are in the valley right now and you feel stuck. Perhaps you are going around a twist or turn and you do not know what is around the other side. Yet while our lives seem unsteady and topsy turvy, God's plan is not.
Near the end of this great chapter of Romans (a chapter the Puritans referred to as the "great eight"), Paul provides us with a chain of redemption that begins with God in eternity past and ends with believers coram deo, before the face of God and bearing his image. For Paul, the salvific chain is an unbroken one so much so that he can speak of the final stage of our salvation in the past tense ("he also glorified"). Though our lives may resemble a zig zagging line, God's plan for us is a straight line from election to glorification.
This truth has been a helpful one for me as I have wrestled with despair in the recent months. No matter what my life may look like and no matter how screwed up it may be, God's plan is unfailing. The same is true for you if you believe in Christ. Are you depressed? God means it for your glorification? Are you mourning? God means it for you to be conformed to the image of his Son. Are you without? God means it so that you will long for the fullness of being perfected in his sight.
But you may say, "I have denied him." And I will say look at all the disciples on the night of Jesus' arrest. Your denial of him cannot be worse than theirs and yet their faith was preserved. Even Peter who explicitly and verbally denies Jesus cannot be said to have been lost for Jesus said to the disciple upon whom he built the church, "But I prayed for you that your faith may not fail." We know that no prayer of Jesus' can ever be denied. Thus, even when Peter was denying Christ his faith was not failing, however faltering and weak it was.
Therefore, though we may lose our grip on God at times, he never loses his grip on us. Jesus says in John 10:27-28,"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." For what purpose does the Son guard us in his hand? Peter tells us plainly in his first epistle, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:3-5 ESV) The reason we "by God's power are being guarded through faith" is "for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." This salvation ready to be revealed in the last time is none other than glorification. What is glorification? Well, we receive a clue earlier in the passage that it is related to "the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Simply put, glorification is our firm hope when every believer will be made perfect in holiness at the final resurrection. In other words, our lowly bodies will be transformed to resemble the man of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been secured to us by the death of Christ and it is as certain a reality for the believer as is death itself.
Doug Wilson mentions that we might think it odd that God would raise the dead. However, he rightly and poignantly points out that everything is odd. Existence itself is odd. If we were to somehow communicate to an unborn human what the created order is like, it would sound incomprehensible. Thus, why is it so strange that God raises the dead?
Such a truth as glorification is the bullseye for which we are aimed at. We each have different trajectories to hitting that bullseye but the one pulling the string has perfect accuracy. This truth is not a quick fix it for your suffering but it is the global perspective that we need to recognize that we are being fitted for eternity.
