Look Beyond Part 3 – Looking to our future glory

So far – looking to Jesus; looking to the unseen.

What was your favourite fairy tale as a child?

How do most fairy tales tend to end? And they all lived…

I don’t think many people living in the world today really believe in a “happily ever after” life for themselves. The world really doesn’t point to that becoming a reality.

Yet, fairy tales continue to be popular with young children. Could it be that as God has placed eternity in the hearts of people, and that as we are to receive the kingdom with the innocence and trust of a child, that kids who still believe in a fairy tale ending are actually on to something?

Romans 8:18-21

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Yep, there are present sufferings. Anyone who tells you that Christians don’t suffer is lying or deluded. And there is a lot of groaning in this passage in general.

Creation is groaning, as in the pains of childbirth in verse 22.

We groan as we wait for our bodies to be redeemed (verse 23).

And the Spirit groans wordlessly as he intercedes for us in verse 26.

But all this suffering and groaning is put in context because it’s all part of an instruction to look beyond the suffering.

Paul says in verse 18 that compared to the future glory we will experience, the present suffering is as good as nothing. That’s how glorious our future is! They don’t even compare.

Even as creation groans, and we see this in verse 19, it is waiting in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. There is groaning, but there is also eager expectation too! Imagine how awful it must feel to have something to groan about with no hope at all. No light at the end of the tunnel, no future glory. If there is joy set before us, then there is a chance we can, with God’s help, endure the cross he calls us to bear.

But let’s focus on this idea that creation is both groaning and waiting eagerly.

In Genesis 3 God subjects creation to frustration, or a sense of emptiness and lack of purpose. We see this in verse 20 of Romans 8. This is a result of Adam’s sin. But we now live in an intermediary, overlapping age. We are not exclusively in the age of Adam anymore because Christ has come. We are in the age of Christ, and we are in Christ. However, we’re also still in the world where the creation suffers the effects of Adam’s sin and mankind’s sin in general.

And all creation waits for God to restore all things to the way he intended. And how does our verse today describe that? For the children of God to be revealed!

That’s us!

Creation is waiting for the bride of Christ to be revealed. When Jesus comes back, the rest of the world will finally make sense of our identity in Him. We will be presented as a spotless bride at a wedding to the prince of peace and he will make a new heaven and a new earth.

Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God (verse 21) and we get to be a central part of that picture.

2 Peter 3 says,

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹² as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³ But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

I believe Joel was looking forward to that day when he wrote,

‘In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
    and the hills will flow with milk;
    all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
    and will water the valley of acacias. (Joel 3:18)

And of course, in Revelation 21 we see a beautiful picture of what we, the children of God are looking forward to:

Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’

So we look beyond our present suffering, we look beyond the state of the world. We fix our eyes on Jesus and on the things unseen, and we look beyond this age to the next one where we will live with him literally “happily ever after.”

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