Behold All His Goodness

"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you -- majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Ex.15:11, NIV).

Last time, we realized that we have so much to praise God and to feel blessed for the forgiveness of our sins. We have seen the enormity of our sins, the grievousness of the penalty and also the beauty on how God rendered His forgiveness.

And we could appreciate more God’s forgiveness by realizing what we would miss, if such forgiveness was not given.

We read in 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, “For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.”

Apostle Peter also wrote in 1 Peter 5:10, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

Notice that God has called and is calling a people “into his kingdom and glory” – “to his eternal glory…” Those people are recipient of God’s grace – those who enjoy His unmerited forgiveness. Their destiny is truly glorious not just in the excellence of a particular position, condition, place, or whatever, but into “HIS eternal glory”!

An incomparable glory!

As we read in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 added, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us AN ETERNAL GLORY THAT FAR OUTWEIGHS THEM ALL. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

God is not only calling a people for such great glory, but He is also preparing them for it. God’s Word declares in Romans 9:23-24, “What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory -- even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?”

Matthew Henry’s Commentary explains, “Sinners fit themselves for hell, but it is God that prepares saints for heaven; and all those that God designs for heaven hereafter he prepares and fits for heaven now: he works them to the self-same thing, 2 Cor. 5:5 (“Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come”).”

Not only God calls and prepares them for glory, but we also read in Hebrews 2:9-12:

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.’"

It was the purpose of God “In bringing many sons to glory.” We also read in Isaiah 43:6-7, “I will say to the north, `Give them up!’ and to the south, `Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth -- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.”

The Holy God even allowed His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ to suffer and die “for everyone” – “everyone who is called by my name” (Isa. 43:7), for those He “is not ashamed to call them brothers” – to make them holy.

And the Son of God would want to bring them to glory not only by dying for them – but He is also praying for them, as we read in the 17th chapter of John, especially in verse 24: “"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

Jesus Christ prayed to the Father that those He gave to Him -- “everyone who is called”, who are forgiven, who are His brothers (God’s children) would be with Him to behold His Glory.