From Lost to Loved: A 30-Day Study of Romans 8Sample

Yesterday we considered the uncomfortable reality that suffering and being a child of God go hand in hand. That truth is not popular, but it is no less true. Romans 8:18 shifts the focus to eternity. Here Paul writes, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

This glory is essential to understand if we are to endure suffering in a way that honors God and shapes His character in us. Paul’s words carry deep anticipation that what lies ahead far outweighs present costs. They remind me of young men I’ve counseled over the years as they’ve saved up for an engagement ring. They endured budget changes, daily sacrifices, and less-than-ideal living arrangements for the joy of asking the woman they love to marry them. Now raise that to the scale of eternity. What would you give, endure, or lose if the end of the road held a glory that will never tarnish, fade, or be taken from you?

William Tyndale believed that glory was worth more than his own life. He labored in exile to put the Bible into the hands of ordinary people, declaring he would “make the plowboy know more of Scripture than the clergy” of his day.[1] For that, he was strangled and burned, yet his work still speaks. He saw beyond the fire to a crown no executioner could take. Lose sight of the glory to come and joy will fade; hold it fast and you’ll stand when others collapse. Hebrews 12:2 tells us Jesus “endured the cross” and “despised the shame” because He looked to “the joy set before Him.” False gospels offer lesser joys. They promise ease, applause, and comfort in this life, but they pull our eyes from the glory Paul describes and fix them on fading glories that cannot sustain us.

What are your eyes fixed on? Comfort that withers or a glory that lasts?

There’s a “glory to be revealed in us.” We do not yet know the fullness of what God has prepared, but it is worth more than every loss, sacrifice, and hardship we will face in this life. I urge you to hold your ground and set your eyes on eternity. Glory is coming; it is your inheritance in Christ.

REFLECT:
If the glory of Christ is truly worth more than life itself, what do you need to surrender today?

[1]David Daniell, William Tyndale: A Biography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 79.