‘Father, save me from this hour?  But it was for this reason that I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!’ A voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’

[John 12.27-28]

. . . share the divine nature and escape corruption in a world that is sunk in vice.. [2 Peter 1.4]

The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’  The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God.  And if we are children, we are heirs as well:  heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory.

I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is awaiting us.  The whole creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal his sons.  It was not for any fault on the part of creation that it was unable to attain its purpose, it was made so by God; but creation still retains the hope of being freed, like us, from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God.

 From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.  For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved – our salvation is not in sight, we should not have to be hoping for it if it were – but, as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet – it is something we must wait for with patience. [Romans8.14-27]