"And what glory stood before Christ as he endured the unthinkable? What was his blessedness? What was his prize? It was you. It was you. It was your ransom from death, and sin, and the clutches of the enemy, and hopelessness, and darkness, and despair, and every manner of unthinkable evil and bewildering circumstance that you can imagine. You were the joy set before him when he was raised from the dead, and you were raised with him, too, and even now you participate in the newness of life which Christ ushered in, which will end when he returns, not as an end, but as a glorious beginning, where there will no longer be death or suffering, or sorrow, or tears, for God will wipe them all away, for behold, he makes all things new in Christ." |