What Did God Have in Mind?

Dearly beloved of God, what did God have in mind when He called us? Our experience begins when we are born again of God’s spirit and we enter the Kingdom of God, but was that the goal God had in mind when He called us?

In the Bible we read about some wonderful people that He called before us. Then, we read in Hebrews 11 that “These all died in faith, not having received the promises….”

In the next chapter we read, “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

Jesus Christ is the only one to receive the promise thus far; all the others died not having received the promises. The chief priest and the Sanhedrin had Jesus killed, he was buried for three days and three nights, but God raised him from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and God set him at His right hand. We will receive the promise also at some point.

God did not call us only to be born again and to enter the Kingdom of God. No, He called us by the gospel “to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” II Thessalonians reveals. He called us to the acquisition of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, dearly beloved.

“Moreover, those for whom He determined things beforehand He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified, those He also glorified.” Romans 8:30, Working Translation

We have not yet received the glory Jesus Christ received, but it is so certain that we will receive it that God speaks of it in the past tense, even though it is a yet future event! We will obtain, we will acquire the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Today we have Christ in you, the hope of glory. The new birth is not the end, it is only the beginning of things to come. God declares in Ephesians 1 that He wants us to have the eyes of our understanding enlightened, “that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” He is talking about us!

Our calling begins with the new birth, but the goal is to obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we have the promise of salvation, but the day is coming that we will actually obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

God will send His Son to gather us up to him. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” I Thessalonians 4:16 and 17

This is the opening event of the acquisition of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Philippians 3:20 and 21

This is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, dearly beloved. The Lord will transform our bodies to be like his glorious body, but that’s not all.

“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:7

That is a long time, dearly beloved; that’s eternal life, and it will take the Father the entire period of the coming ages to display these exceeding riches of His divine favor to us, and He will demonstrate them to us with His loving kindness and tender mercies, those of a Father to His children. But, that is not all!

He has only pulled back the curtain of eternity and given us a peek of the glory to come to His dearly beloved children. We will witness Jesus Christ’s 1,000 year rule on earth, and his subduing of every enemy.

We will live in the glory of God and His Son in the new heaven and new earth. What an environment that will be!

Dearly beloved, it is Christ in you, the hope of glory, and that hope of glory is marvelous indeed. It is exceeding, abundantly above all we could ask or think.

We begin the journey by being born again and gaining an entrance into the kingdom of God, and then, when Christ returns, we will share in the inheritance that is laid up for us in heaven, and our hope fades not away. We will be glorified together with Christ!

Our light affliction, which is only momentary, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal heavy weight of glory for us.

Dearly beloved, we are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, and we will be glorified together with him. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed to us! Rejoice!

We walk by believing today, we have not yet seen the reality that is coming, but it is coming; we have God’s Word on it.

“Now believing is the assurance concerning those things that are in hope as if they had in fact happened, and the evidence of those things that are not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 Aramaic Peshitta

Until then, let us hold the confession of the hope without wavering, for He is faithful that promised, dearly beloved.

Christ Jesus the Lord will fulfill the purpose of the ages that God has purposed in him, so have joy and peace in believing so we may bound in the hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Today we experience the glory of the new birth, and we will obtain and experience the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the ages to come.

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.

Rejoice forevermore, dearly beloved, rejoice! He is coming!