Encouragement from the glory of the Lord

God will adorn his house—that is, his people. The temple with latter glory is the people of God in whom the Spirit of God dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:14–18). And it is by beholding God’s glory in the gospel that we are transformed more and more into the likeness of God, so that we come to reflect his glory more fully (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29).

So, where do you turn for strength and encouragement to work hard at the task of personal, spiritual renovation? You gaze at God’s glory in the Word. How do you address your besetting sins and any sort of unbelief within? You look at the cross and see your Lord, broken, bloodied, abandoned by man and forsaken by God. How do you address your trials, your temptations, your discouragement, your fear, that seek to distract you from doing what God calls you to? Look again and again at the cross, the place from where our Lord shook up the universe and began a total transformation of the present world order. God will finish what he has started, in us, in this world, bringing both into his peace!

Look back, not to the glory days of an old temple but rather to a wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died.¹ He died for the forgiveness of our sins and the making of our peace. Yet we must also look ahead, to the world-shaking that is still to come, as Hebrews 12:1–29 says when quoting Haggai 2:6–7. That is when God will bring all of history to its consummation in Christ….when his glory-temple will fill the world, and the kings of the earth will bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

The best is yet to come. There is glory set before us, on the shores of eternal life. Our light, momentary afflictions do not compare to the weight of glory yet to be revealed when God one last time shakes the earth and makes all things new, for all of Christ’s people. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.