Romans - Part 4: SPIRITSample

Romans 8:30d says:

“And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Already Glorified?

Today, we’re continuing to discuss Romans 8:30, but this time we are focusing on the part of the verse that is about being glorified. Glory is such a common word in Christian circles that we often don’t realize that it can be understood in many different ways. One common way to think about glory is to consider it as something that happens or is given to you when you die. You may have heard someone saying something like, “They’re going to glory” as another way to talk about going to heaven or being raised in the resurrection. There is good reason to think about glory this way; for example, in 1 Corinthians 15:42-43, Paul talks about those who are in Christ as being “raised in glory” at the resurrection. In this sense, glory is something that is given to those who will be raised in the future. Here, however, in Romans 8:30, Paul talks about glory as something given to believers in the past tense, which is to say that those who are in Christ have already been glorified in some sense.

Earlier in the book of Romans, Paul spends some time explaining the human condition; in Romans 1:23 Paul says that we “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images [i.e. idols].” As we know from Genesis, all people are made in the image of God and the implication of that is that we are put in a position to rule and steward his creation (see Genesis 1:26-30). When humanity began worshiping idols, rather than the one true God, we subverted the created order, exchanged the glory given to us as being made in His image, and compromised our ability to live that role well. The Bible makes it clear that it’s wrong to worship images because we are the image of God!

Following Jesus frees us from that idolatry and allows us to become “conformed to the image of his son” (Romans 8:29). God’s glory is being restored to us even now! So, how can we live this? We take seriously the implications of being made in the image of God by ruling creation well, in order to join in God’s work of redemption. And how can we rule well? By looking at how Jesus did it. Haley Jacob, whose work on this subject inspired this devotion, has pointed out that Jesus’ model for this was “dominion via self-sacrifice.” Following his lead, we ought to serve others as Jesus served us and in this way, the world will know the glory of God (John 13:12-15).

-Wes Viau