¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

Reality is harsh, but hope sustains. Few Christians, if any, escape hardship of some kind in their life: sickness, injustice, discrimination, accidents, weakness, relational or emotional pain, conflict, mental illness and aging, just to name a few. How a person responds to difficulties depends entirely on the big picture of life that he or she envisions. If this world is all there is, then life is ultimately hopeless, and for the consistent thinkers, meaningless. Our suffering is just poor luck of the draw.

For those enslaved by the Law through sin, hope is fanciful but ultimately empty, because without true certainty of the big picture and the meaning of life, the known breeds a deep, unsettling fear that the suffering in the world may ultimately prove meaningless after all.

But those who have been justified before God have connected confidently to the Creator of the universe, the one who by definition of creation has given meaning to life. He had a reason for creating all that exists, so the meaning of life is His. Those who have been justified, as this letter is all about, have been accepted by God and restored to their original purpose for being created, namely to reflect God as His image bearers. With this in mind, we have every reason to hope in the future, beyond the present difficulties of life. Our meaning and purpose supersede the difficulties of life.

Justification leads to the faith that our present sufferings are nothing more than mundane in light of eternity. Yes, sufferings are very real and very difficult—we do not deny their reality. But we are nonetheless talking about a glory that outweighs the suffering. Paul writes in another place, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor 4:17–18).

Paul was no stranger to suffering, as his autobiographical comments clearly show (see 2 Cor 4:7-12, 11:23-29). But his understanding of the coming glory more than adequately sustains him—and it can sustain us as well. While we may not be able to see the glory now, like Paul we anxiously await that time when His glory will be revealed in us. That is the time when “He appears [and] we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2).

Lord, I can hardly wait for Your glory that will be mine also.