“ARE you hoping for the enlistment shilling?” I say to a sick soldier in the hospital.
“No. I enlisted five years ago.”
“Are you hoping for your regimental uniform?”
“No. Though I am not wearing my uniform here in the hospital, I have already received my regimentals.”
“Then have you nothing to hope for as a soldier?”
“Indeed I have. But not for the enlistment shilling―that is a past thing. Nor for my uniform―that is a present thing. But I am hoping for the pensioning—off day; and hoping for it does not mean that I am the least uncertain about it―the King’s word for that.”
So with us. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:22By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)). It is a God-given hope. But hoping for glory does not invest the expectation with any uncertainty. We hope because it is yet future. But inasmuch as His promise is the ground of it, we are as certain of it as if it were an accomplished fact. We rejoice in it.
How wonderful that we are to be in that glory, to form part of the display of what God Himself is! We are called to it, fitted for it, and well may we rejoice in the hope of it.
As sure as you are justified by faith you will be glorified by power―they go together. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified”: therefore we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. It is because there is the promise of glory on His side that there is hope of glory on mine.
An aged Christian in Lincolnshire was dying. His wife and he had lived many years happily together. One day, as she saw him growing weaker, she said to him, “Well, John, the storm will soon be over.” “That is a mistake,” he said. It was not that he did not know he was going, and that quickly. But he said, “The storm has been over eighteen hundred years; that is a thing of the past. There’s no storm now: nothing but bright glory for John!”
Yes. John had got the truth of it. For believers in Christ the storm is over; that is a thing of the past; for the present we have peace, we stand in favor. But what about the future? “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Many years ago I went to see a man in a workhouse hospital who had found peace on his sick-bed. His wife was a Roman Catholic, and apparently a hard, unfeeling woman. One day while visiting him she said, “Well, James, Death must have his own.” “Not so,” he said. “Oh, yes, James, Death must have his own.” “No,” he said, “Death has had his own already, now Christ shall have His own.” He could look back and see that the death-penalty had been received by Christ upon the cross, and he could look forward to the day of glory when Christ will have His own, yea every one of them, himself included. Has the death-penalty question been settled for you, my reader? Can you rejoice in that hope of glory?
Do you forget that every tick of the clock, every beat of your heart, brings you nearer to that glory, or nearer to the darkness that will never be reached by one ray of hope? Put your hand on your heart, feel its pulsations. Every beat is sending you, if unconverted, nearer and nearer to an eternity of woe, or to the pleasures for evermore. As you lie down at night every pulse-beat brings you nearer somewhere. Tomorrow, if you should awake, still nearer will you be. Where? Forever where?
Two boys occupy the same room at night―one believes in Christ, the other does not. They fall asleep, and the night unconsciously wears away; but see where morning finds them. The house takes fire, and they are suffocated by the smoke.
When I was crossing the ocean some years ago it was a comfort, when I awoke in the morning, to know that I was one night nearer to the end of my journey. When night came again and I laid my head on my pillow, a new comfort was mine—I was still nearer home. This continued till at last we got to port with its joyful greetings.
And you too will reach the end of your voyage, my reader. Every day is bringing you nearer. For you who believe on Him who was delivered for your offenses, and raised again for your justification, each moment brings eternal glory nearer. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.” What a wonderful prospect!
But that is not all. We have something, for the present. Look at verse 5 and read, “Hope maketh not ashamed: because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.” He would not only manifest His love by giving His Son to die for us, He would have us know it and enjoy it even here.
Take an illustration. Here is a widow. She has saved a little competence for her declining days. She has lost her husband, and all her children except James. One day she hears that he has absconded. He had, through bad company, got deeply into debt, and in order to extricate himself from his difficulties, had been tempted to take his employer’s money. Then, afraid of the consequences, he had fled the country. What sorrow for his mother! But she never rests till she finds out how much James owes his master. She gets the assurance from him that if the sum is paid he will not prosecute. It is a large sum. But in the bank she has her savings, and there is just enough to pay all.
But she is never going to take from the bank the money she has worked so hard for, and leave herself destitute for a worthless fellow like James! Yes, she is. “Never mind me,” she says, “it shall all go for James.” So it does. She completely clears him. But is she satisfied? Oh, no. What is the next thing? “James must know it,” she says. “Who will go and search him out and tell him? I’ll never rest till he knows it. It is only this knowledge that can give him a solid hope of returning home.”
That is how God acts. He wants you to know how much He cares for you. He does not send Gabriel to search you out and tell you. He could not be entrusted with that mission. He sends the Holy Spirit.
At Calvary Jesus paid our liabilities. At Pentecost God sent down His Holy Spirit, that poor, dying sinners might know that Christ had died for them, and that believing on Him, His love might be shed abroad in their hearts, and that they might rejoice in hope of the glory to come.
Perhaps you say, “I have been longing to have this love in my heart, for then I should have peace.” My friend, you have begun at the wrong end. It is the Spirit’s love-shedding that will give you comfort and joy; but it is the Saviour’s blood-shedding that will give you peace. You must have peace in order to hope for glory.