Romans 8:18, commentary and pictures

The verse reckons that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in believers. That glory belongs to those who through the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body and live as sons of God led by the Spirit, with the spirit of adoption witnessing that they are children and heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if they suffer with Him that they may be glorified together. Affliction is therefore God's discipline to educate, purify, and fit His children for heaven, revealing His character in them and bringing them into fellowship with Christ who is afflicted in all their afflictions. To make this reckoning is to stop dwelling and talking upon darkness and crosses, and to lay hold upon Christ by faith this very hour, talking hope and courage and heavenly things while living for the immortal life to come. So hatred, contempt, persecution, loss, and even martyrdom are to be endured with patience and joy without losing heart, as Paul did in toil and imprisonment without complaint, looking beyond momentary affliction to the eternal reward that will far outweigh it all.

Words, Context, Promise

The verse deliberately reckons that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in believers. The promise of that future glory gives present trials their proper perspective and makes the privileges of the Christian life worth more than the cost of suffering with Christ. It requires a deliberate reckoning that stops counting darkness as worthy to be dwelt upon and instead talks of the glory and of what Christ is as a present Saviour. He is worth nothing unless He is a present Saviour laid hold upon this very hour by faith in His merits and by committing the keeping of the soul to Him today under the shadow of the cross of Calvary. There infinite sacrifice was made to make sinners love God and reflect the image of God in Jesus Christ as Christ is formed within as the hope of glory, to be rejoiced in.

The verse forbids talking crosses, darkness, wicked feelings and rebelliousness where that sacrifice is seen. It calls for rising into a holier, purer atmosphere, feeling after Christ's hand until He takes it and lifts up out of darkness like a body of death into light, talking hope and courage and heaven and heavenly things. By beholding glorious beams from Jesus Christ the life is shaped into the same image and proves to the world that the sacrifice amounts to something. Suffering endured for God and for the truth is small beside the glory that will be revealed in His people. Even when Satan tortures and kills the body, steadfast faith makes God's people conquerors, for he cannot touch the life hidden with Christ, and they can look beyond present suffering to eternal glory.

Paul faced toil, care, and sacrifice without complaint because he looked toward that coming glory. His own afflictions show that hardship does not diminish the privilege of Christian life, for suffering with Christ leads to being glorified with him. Patiently bearing trials that refine and purify, while denying self and suffering with Christ, prepares believers to be glorified with him. The promise belongs to those who through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body and live, who are led by the Spirit of God as the sons of God, who have received the spirit of adoption and cry Abba Father with the Spirit witnessing they are children of God, and who as children are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if they suffer with Him that they may be glorified together.

Because those led by the Spirit are sons of God with the Spirit of adoption rather than bondage to fear, God has a wider outlook for each person than any human can discern. Therefore no mortal, however experienced, learned, or high in responsibility, may make a line for another to walk, lord over him, command his course, or dominate his mind and conscience. Each must bear individual responsibility for his own course and deliver his own soul by his own righteousness, learning all possible from teachers while remaining under the control of God alone. The human mind is God's property, with Jesus Christ as the one Master.

The gains and advantages of this life cannot compare with the eternal riches and glory awaiting those who seek eternal life. Earthly renown, earthly riches, and a name in this world are nothing compared with the coming glory to be revealed in God's children. That glory is reserved for the diligent, rational seeker for eternal life, calling believers to value what is lasting above what is passing and to set hope on heaven rather than on earthly things. It calls God's people to say this for themselves, giving the strength of body, mind, and soul to the service God expects and sweeping away the fanciful for the genuine. That coming glory requires those who claim to be His children to stop working their own ways and works at cross purposes with Him and to work the works of God, to appreciate the gift of the Son of God, to copy Christ as the model, and to strive earnestly in the grand struggle of good against evil with the cross of Calvary as the only hope by which every opposing power will be vanquished.

Hardships and losses endured in the present for God's work cannot compare with the eternal glory that will be shared by those who answer God's call in faith, as Abraham did. The disciples' sufferings in serving Christ, even sacrifice and martyrdom, cannot compare with the future glory and joy God gives. Their trials brought fellowship with Christ's sufferings, while their hope included the joy of bringing many people to glory and receiving the crown of righteousness at His coming. Suffering for Christ and the truth is not worth comparing with the glory to come, and women who endure want, persecution, imprisonment, danger, and loss while helping their husbands save souls will share a reward equal to their husbands'. The reward God gives will be great enough to outweigh the trials endured in doing the work He assigns.

Suffering Leading to Glory

Those who suffer with Christ will also be glorified with Him, for present suffering for Him cannot be compared in worth or greatness with the glory to be revealed in believers. Hardship does not lessen the privilege of the Christian life, and patiently bearing the trials of Christian service that refine and purify, in self-denial, prepares for sharing that future glory. This hope gives perspective amid trials and reason not to be discouraged.

Through trial and persecution God's character is revealed in His people, as affliction educates, purifies, and disciplines them. In that schooling they learn the guilt and misery of sin and come to abhor it, while sharing Christ's sufferings with self-denial and disappointment helps them look beyond present gloom and sorrow to future glory. The discipline of this present life is preparation for a high destiny, even to become sons of God restored to His image. The education begun here will continue in the life to come, where God's wonderful works and the mystery of redemption will open in new beauty, and what is tasted now in communion with heaven is only a glimpse of a fullness of joy and glorious destiny that eternity alone can reveal.

All sorrows and afflictions here are only discipline for the higher life, permitted by God to fit His children for heaven, to be met by waiting on God and leaning on Him in entire dependence. The more the Redeemer is trusted the more He is loved, for He knows every throb of pain and pang of anguish and distress, His heart beats in sympathy with suffering humanity with most pity for those who suffer most, giving grace to endure and sustaining with everlasting arms, while the Father who notices the sparrow cares for those who love and trust Him. Present suffering does not mean believers are not children of God nor give reason to lose faith in Him, and when they suffer greater faith enables them to see more of God's glory. Even when Satan tortures and kills the body, steadfast faith makes God's people conquerors, for he cannot touch the life hidden with Christ, and they can look beyond present suffering to eternal glory.

Present sufferings bring believers into profound sympathy with Christ by making them partakers of His sufferings, for Christ is afflicted in all their afflictions, having become a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in their behalf, so that affliction is fellowship with Him calling for firmer faith and deeper, more abiding love. To suffer for Christ is for present and eternal good, learned under God's discipline by accepting God's way of doing good rather than one's own way and learning Christ's meekness and lowliness. It means desiring heavenly treasure rather than earthly advantages, and seeing nothing worth living for but the joy of doing God's will from the heart while trusting all consequences to God, since present suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory to follow. Present suffering for the truth is small beside the glory and immortal inheritance to come, so that those who have endured most will regard heaven as more than worth the hardship. God's people in the last days will be tested in a final trial before receiving eternal life. The verse points to the superiority of the future life over this one, and the hope of being transferred to another world is to shape character and education.

Living the Reckoning

The reckoning means deliberately ceasing to count darkness as worthy to be dwelt upon and instead speaking of the glory to be revealed and of what Christ is as a present Saviour. He is of no worth unless laid hold upon this very hour by faith in His merits, by committing the keeping of the soul to Him today under the shadow of Calvary. There infinite sacrifice was made to make sinners love God and to reflect the image of God as Christ is formed within as the hope of glory. Where that sacrifice is seen there is to be no talking of crosses and darkness and wicked, rebellious feelings, but a rising into a holier, purer atmosphere. The soul is to feel after Christ's hand until He takes it and lifts up out of darkness as out of a body of death into light, talking hope and courage and heaven and heavenly things, so that by beholding glorious beams from Christ the life is shaped into the same image and proves the sacrifice amounts to something.

To take eternity into the reckoning is to live for the future immortal life when Christ comes to take His people to Himself. Beholding Christ in faith makes a person like Him and, by divine help, removes the hellish shadow the enemy interposes between the soul and God, bringing power interwoven into life and experience. This calls for diligent work every day as though it were the last, proclaiming Christ and inviting others to hear what He has done in dying to redeem and in coming again. The light afflictions of this life, which are but for a moment, are not to absorb attention, life, and affections, but the gaze is to look beyond time to eternity so as to live worthy of hearing, Well done, good and faithful servant.

The verse is the language of one in whom self has passed through a severe conflict of death so that Christ lives in him, counting present sufferings as nothing beside the coming glory to be revealed in him. It is an experience to be gained as a safeguard for all of life. Many with every advantage for obtaining it are failing because self is still alive and they lack a saving understanding of Scripture.

Paul's life of toil, care, sacrifice, persecution, imprisonment, and physical pain illustrates this confidence. He voiced no complaint but remained confident in God and looked toward the promised reward and coming glory, since suffering endured for the truth in the present cannot be compared with the glory to be revealed in God's people.

Hatred, contempt, ridicule, slander, humiliation, and abuse are therefore not to make believers lose heart or be discouraged, for present suffering will not compare with the glory later to be revealed in them. They are to show joy even when suffering humiliation and abuse, remembering that Christ suffered for them, as Paul endured pain and disappointment and still gloried in tribulation. They are to endure hardship with patience and confidence in the coming reward while looking forward to that future glory.

That coming glory, beside which earthly renown, riches, a name in this world, and all gains and advantages of this life are nothing, requires those who claim to be His children to stop working their own ways and works at cross purposes with Him and to work the works of God. They are to appreciate the gift of the Son, to copy Christ as the model, and to strive earnestly in the grand struggle of good against evil with the cross of Calvary as the only hope by which every opposing power will be vanquished. They are to say this reckoning for themselves, giving the strength of body, mind, and soul to the service God expects and sweeping away the fanciful for the genuine, as diligent, rational seekers for the eternal riches and glory reserved for eternal life.