Transcript
The time between the "already" and the "not yet" wasn't intended to be comfortable. It was intended by God to be transformational. When I think about these two doctrines, the perseverance of the saints and the glorification of the saints, I always think they need to be put together.
My Hope Is Not in My Power to Endure
My hope is not in the fact that I will have the power to endure. I'm called to endure. Now, if someone says to you, "Well, you're going to have to persevere," you know, whatever's coming next is not going to be comfortable. The whole doctrine of perseverance and endurance tells me two things.
One, I live in a broken world where things are not functioning as God intended and life is going to be hard because of that. I'm going to face temptations everyday and I still have a susceptibility to those temptations, so I'm going to need to endure.
And then, that God is going to use trial to work good things in me, that hardship in the hands of God is a workroom of grace. It's not just that the world is messed up, it's that God uses that mess intentionally to move me along. And so, I have to be perseverant. I have to commit myself to the hard work of godliness. I want to say this a God-honoring life is hard work. It takes sacrifice. It takes discipline. It takes commitment.
Now, there are pockets of wonderfully comfortable moments because God loves us and He gifts us with those things. But the name of the game between when I come to know the Lord and I go home to be with Him, the name of the game is change. Heart and life change.
Trials in a Broken World
And so, that happens in a broken world. It happens in the midst of hardship. Everybody around me will fail me. Things around me won't work as they were intended to work. God's going to put trial in my pathway because He loves me and He wants to grow me, and so I've got to be committed to persevere.
Why you need to attach glorification to that is glorification tells me God will complete His work. It's not just me striving. There's going to be a day when I will actually be as holy as God has declared me to be. I will be completely holy, actually holy. I will be like my Redeemer and I will live with Him in utter perfection forever. And in those days when it's hard, I have to hold on to that.
I'm facing something today that don't I know how I'm going to get myself through, but this God is not going to let go of me and He's going to hold on to me until this work is done. I think in the midst of your daily perseverance, glorification can get you up in the morning and know it's worth enduring because I'm not in this hardship by myself. God is with me and He will complete His work.
