The Daily Word of Righteousness

Glorified in His Saints

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. (II Thessalonians 1:10)

The first and second chapters of the Book of Second Thessalonians describe the parousia, the coming (presence; appearing) of the Lord Jesus Christ, His saints, and His holy angels. The coming of the Lord Jesus is described also in the twenty-fourth chapter of the Book of Matthew, the fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of First Thessalonians, and in Revelation 1:7. Let us examine closely, in II Thessalonians, the elements that will be present in the Day of the Lord:

Saints who are suffering persecution and tribulation as a "manifest token" (proof) of the righteous judgment of God (II Thessalonians 1:4,5).

Those who are troubling the saints (verse 6).

The bringing of rest to the saints at the revelation of the Lord Jesus with His powerful angels (verse 7).

Punishing with everlasting destruction those who obey not the Gospel (verses 8,9).

The glorifying of Christ in His saints (verse 10).

The teaching of the Apostle Paul in the above passage is that the Christian saints will be suffering persecution and tribulation until the appearing of the Lord Jesus from Heaven.

When the Lord appears from Heaven His power and glory will be revealed in His saints on the earth and in the clouds of the heaven at the same time. This follows the type of the flood of Noah where the "fountains of the great deep" were "broken up" at the time the "windows of heaven were opened" (Genesis 7:11). The Glory of Christ will shine in His resurrected saints on the earth, and from His own Person in the heaven (in the clouds in the sky above the earth), as one glorious appearing.

The coming of the Lord will be as the lightning that shines from the east to the west in that His Glory will be seen everywhere in His saints.

The nations of the earth will behold the Glory of God in the saints, and those who believe will be converted (John 17:21-23; Isaiah 60:1-4).

The saints then will be caught up to meet the Lord Jesus in the air, to the utter terror of those who were accustomed to persecuting and afflicting the Lord's disciples.

Now Christ and His saints will be in control of the spiritual thrones in the air that control all activity on the earth.

The tables have been turned. The saints are in joyous positions of authority and power, and wrath and affliction are falling on those who previously had been troubling the saints.

The saints had been experiencing the "righteous judgment of God" in the form of the tribulations that had been coming upon them (II Thessalonians 1:5). Now it is time for the judgment of the nations (Revelation 11:18).

It is a principle of the Kingdom of God that those who weep now will be comforted and those who are making merry now will weep when the Lord returns. It is the story of Lazarus and the rich man.

Let us consider for a moment the fact that the saints experience the righteous judgment of God now, in this present life, but that Christ will come to be glorified in them in that Day.

To be continued.