2 Thes. 1:10 When He comes to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at in all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day.
The Lord Jesus Christ is coming to be glorified in His saints. Today He is in us as the hope of glory, but He will return soon to be glorified, marveled at, and admired in all His believers. When Christ comes the second time He will not only come from the heavens – He will also come from within all His believers.
Right now He is concealed in us, and Christ is in us as the hope of glory. We open to the Lord daily and enjoy Him, practicing to be in His invisible presence, and mysteriously the quantity of glory grows in us.
One day, when Christ has grown in us sufficiently, He will return both from the heavens and He will come out of us to be manifested and unveiled before all men.
Others don’t know what’s going on, and even we as believers don’t really understand what is happening, but all the genuine children of God have God in them, and He wants to glorify them by transfiguring their body and come out of them for God’s glory.
Today we live in a mortal body which is frail, full of sicknesses, tiredness, weakness, and eventually death. But Christ wants to transfigure the body of our humiliation into the body of His glory, a glorious resurrected body like His own!
Christ is in us as the hope of glory today, and we hope in the Lord that one day Christ will appear again to transfigure the body of our humiliation into the body of His glory. The body of Christ’s glory is a resurrected body, a body saturated with God’s glory and transcendent over any corruption and death.
Hallelujah, Christ comes – He comes to glorify us! Our body He will transfigure until like His own it then will be! He comes as the hope of glory to be glorified in His saints, and all will marvel at Him being unveiled in His believers!
Christ Comes to be Glorified in His Saints
In 2 Thes. 1:10 we see that the Lord Jesus is coming to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at in all those who have believed in that day.
How encouraging this is – the Lord Jesus didn’t just come into our heart and is seeking to make His home in all our inner parts, but He will return from the heavens and from within us to be glorified and marveled at! I love footnote 1 on this verse in the Recovery Version,
The Lord is the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8); He was glorified in His resurrection and ascension (John 17:1; Luke 24:26; Heb. 2:9). Now He is in us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27) to bring us into glory (Heb. 2:10). At His coming back, on the one hand He will come from the heavens with glory (Rev. 10:1; Matt. 25:31), and on the other hand He will be glorified in His saints; that is, His glory will be manifested from within His members, causing their body of humiliation to be transfigured into His glory, conforming it to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21). Thus, the unbelievers will marvel at Him, admire Him, wonder at Him, in us, His believers. (2 Thes. 1:10, footnote 1)
When we were born again, God’s divine life entered into us and we were born of God, having His life and nature. This life has a hope – the hope of glory, which is Christ Himself (Col. 1:27; Heb. 2:10).
Christ has already been glorified through His resurrection and ascension, and He is now the Christ in glory. At the same time, Christ is in our spirit, and He is the hope of glory to us – He is the coming glory.
All genuine Christians are like the Lord Jesus: they have the divine life within them, and the divine life is concealed by the shell of their humanity. We live as normal human beings, yet we have God living in us. We go to school, go to work, do this and that, and yet God lives in us. God is hidden in us, and our human body is a shell.
But one day Christ will return, and at that time He will not only come from the heavens – He will also be manifested from within His saints. He will transfigure our body to be like His glorified body, and all others will marvel at us.
Christ will be manifested in glory from within us openly, and He will be marveled at, admired by, and wondered at in us by the unbelievers. Hallelujah, Christ comes to be glorified in His saints!
Christ in us as the Hope of Glory will Bring us into Glory!
Christ in you, the hope of glory! (Col. 1:27)
Today we live in the age of the church, which is the age of grace and the age of the mystery. We believed into One whom we have not seen, heard, touched, or met physically, and yet we love Him, enjoy Him, love to spend time with Him, and believe into Him with all of our heart. This is indeed a mystery.
We love the Lord Jesus, the One whom we have not seen, and we are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And our hope is that Christ will return to transfigure us to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21). This is also a mystery for us now, but it will be made manifest at the Lord’s second coming.
The consummation of the wonderful salvation of God is that the body of our humiliation will be transfigured and conformed to the body of Christ’s glory. God’s complete salvation causes our whole being to be filled with God’s life: spirit, soul, and body.
The Lord Jesus lived a perfect human life on earth, and He expressed God in full in a human body. He was limited in time and space, and He desired His divine life to be released from within the shell of His humanity.
Through His resurrection, Christ’s life was released from the shell of His humanity, and His body was transfigured to become the body of His glory. Somehow He could simply appear with a human body among His disciples – even without going through the door. His resurrected body was glorified, expressing God’s glory.
Today we are still in the body of our humiliation, being subject to corruption, vanity, sickness, weakness, and eventually death. Christ is in us as the hope of glory, but the body of our humiliation is still with us. We get sick, we get tired, we are weak, and we are subject to death.
But one day the Christ who is the hope of glory within us will return and, on the one hand, He will come from the heavens with glory (see Rev. 10:1; Matt. 25:31), and on the other hand, He will be manifested from within His members!
He will cause the body of our humiliation to be transfigured into His glory, confirming our body to the body of His glory (see 2 Thes. 1:10; Phil. 3:21). This is our hope based on the word of God, and this is what we believe the Lord will do! Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, You are the hope of glory within us! We believe that You are coming to be glorified in Your saints! Come, Lord Jesus! Come from the heavens with glory and be manifested from within all Your saints! Lord, how we desired that the body of our humiliation would be transfigured to be conformed to the body of Your glory! Lord, glorify Your many sons that they may glorify You. Be glorified in the saints so that all may see the visible manifestation of Your glory!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Truth Lessons—Level Four (vol. 4, lsn. 52), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem, week 8 / msg 8, Having the Glory of God (you can buy this morning revival book here).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Christ is the hope of glory, my very life is He, / He has regenerated and saturated me; / He comes to change my body by His subduing might / Like to His glorious body in glory bright! (Hymns #949)
# Lord, today, increase Thyself in me, / Let Thy life grow to maturity; / Just a channel of life, let me be, / A pure vessel glorifying Thee. (Song on Growing unto Maturity to be Glorified)
# Of which I became a minister / According to the stewardship / Of God, which was given / To me for you, / To complete the word of God, / The mystery which has been hidden / From the ages and from the generations / But now has been manifested / To His saints; / To whom God willed to make known / What are the riches / Of the glory of this mystery / Among the Gentiles, / Which is Christ in you, / The hope of glory. (Song on Christ being Manifested)
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