Particular aspects of the nature, reign, inheritance, heavenly glory, and infinite blessing of Christ’s beloved Body & Bride (comprised exclusively of all believers saved from Pentecost to Pre-Trib Rapture) in and with her Head, Life & Bridegroom:

Section 4: The Eternal Glory of the Church in and with Christ, His Heavenly Body & Bride

The Eternal Glory Promised to Every Member of His Body
 (Part 1)

(1) “For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect [all believers from Pentecost to Rapture], that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory [which encompasses far more than (but not less than) our joint-heirship/co-rulership with Christ as His Body & Bride; but absolutely no ‘outer darkness’!].” (2 Tim. 2:10)

(2) “But the God of all grace Who has called you [every believer, by that grace, not by merit or works] to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus [what can be higher than that?], when ye have suffered for a little while, Himself shall make perfect, stablish, strengthen, ground.” (1 Pet. 5:10)

“…for He called us, not to salvation of souls alone, great as this grace is, but to His everlasting glory in Christ. For it is a glory which far exceeds the earthly kingdom, with its thousand years of righteousness reigning, and Satan shut up, and creation rejoicing after its long thraldom of vanity and groan. The God of all grace, who has called saints to His everlasting glory in Christ Jesus, is the best security against all that creature can or cannot do meanwhile; and the more, because as Father He carries on a constant, watchful, and righteous government of His children all through the wilderness (chap. i. 13-17).” – William Kelly (The First Epistle of Peter, p. 259,260)

(3) “Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we [all believers] have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by Whom we [all believers] have also access by faith into this grace in which we [all believers] stand, and we [all believers] boast in hope of the glory of God.” (Rom. 5:1,2)

“Peace with God has been secured to us then in a way which never can be disturbed: faith has given us access into a place in which we stand in grace – the free favor of God, which as such cannot be forfeited. As a consequence, the future also is absolutely clear: ‘we boast in hope of the glory of God.’ It is not a doubtful hope that one can boast in [as it is not based on our works or merit]…. Saul of Tarsus saw it, as Stephen had seen it, with the Son of man standing in it; and that which goes out now, as we have seen, is ‘the gospel of the glory.’ “ – F.W. Grant (The Numerical Bible, Vol. VI, Acts to 2 Corinthians, p. 213)

“There is entrance into favour, and nothing but favour. The believer is not put under law, you will observe, but under grace, which is the precise reverse of law. The soul is brought into peace with God, as it finds its standing in the grace of God, and, more than that, rejoices in hope of the glory of God. Such is the doctrine and the fact. It is not merely a call then; but as we have by our Lord Jesus Christ our access into the favour wherein we stand, so there is positive boasting in the hope of the glory of God.” – William Kelly (Lectures Introductory to the New Testament, Vol. II p. 24)

“…there is a third result [of justification, according to Rom. 5:1,2] which must not be passed by. The greater the boon, whether you look at the past with its dark sin or at the present with the settled sunshine of God’s favour, so much the less can one bear to think of such blessedness coming to nought; and to nought it must all come, did the rich effects of justification depend on ourselves. But they do not. They come to us faithwise, and they rest on Christ through whom alone they are our portion. They are not temporal like Adam’s tenure of Eden, or Israel’s possession of Canaan. They are secured through Him who died for our sins and is raised out of the dead. Can He lose the blessings He has thus won? No more can we for whom He won them. Hence we can exultingly look on the future. Not more certainly do we stand in present grace than ‘boast in hope of the glory of God.’ Less than this does not suit our God to hold out before us. He will have us to be with and as Christ in His own glory. With us who believe He deals as to past, present, and future, according to what our Lord Jesus deserves and His eternal redemption. If the righteousness be God’s righteousness, not man’s, if divine righteousness be the starting-point, no wonder that the grace of God is the ground in which we stand, and that the glory of God is the sole adequate hope, whether we consider the person or the work of the Saviour. May we boast of it and Him!” – William Kelly (Notes on the Epistle of the Romans, p. 58,59)

(4) “As ye know how, as a father his own children, we used to exhort each one of you, and comfort and testify, that ye should walk worthy of [walk in a manner in keeping with or consistent with] God, Who calls you [every believer] to His own kingdom and glory.” (1 Thess. 2:11,12)

How can God’s work thus be undone, so that any member of the Body & Bride of the Lord Jesus ends up (nay, is cast out by Him!) in outer darkness?!

“Having such a portion in the coming kingdom and being an heir of glory [not in order to futilely attempt to obtain such], the walk of every believer should indeed be worthy of God.” – Arno C. Gaebelein (Gaebelein’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 1043)

(5) “...the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven...when He shall have come to be glorified in His saints [all of them, no exceptions]....” (2 Thess. 1:7,10)

“When the Lord comes [to this earth] in that day He will be glorified in His saints and then wondered at in all who have believed. When He comes thus in judgment upon the world the true Church is no longer on earth, but the saints, having been previously caught up to meet Him in the air, come with Him in glory. It is the time of the manifestation of the sons of God, transformed into His image, each reflecting His glory, who is the leader and the first begotten. And so these poor, persecuted, despised Thessalonians would then be the marvels for the inhabitants of the earth when they appear with Him. Blessed future for all the redeemed to come with the Lord in glory and to be like Him!” – Arno C. Gaebelein (Gaebelein’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 1055)

“The careful reader will observe that the Lord is not said in that day to come for the saints and receive them to Himself, and present them in the Father’s house, as in John xiv. Here He will have come to be glorified in them, and to be marvelled at in all those [same ones] that believed. It is an evidently different and subsequent part of His advent: not the hidden scene, so near to the Lord’s desire that where He is, they also may be with Him, that they may behold His glory which the Father had given Him; but the outer display, Christ in them and the Father in Him, when they are in glory thus perfected in one…. The world will then know thereby that the Father sent the Son and loved the saints, appearing with Him in glory, even as He loved Him. Compare John xvii. 22, 23. The translation of His saints to heaven is one thing; quite another and subsequent is their appearing with Him in glory and judgment of the world.” – William Kelly (The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians, p. 68)

“…the saints [will, at His return with us,] shine out in glory – their inheritance for evermore. It is the time of which we hear in Romans as ‘the manifestation of the sons of God.’ Such by creation, but redeemed and immeasurably exalted by new creation, they now are seen as the fruit of Christ’s work [not ours!], their glory His glory: He is glorified in them….” – F.W. Grant (The Numerical Bible, Vol. VI, Acts to 2 Corinthians, p. 431)

(6) “But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, that God has chosen you [all believers] from the beginning to salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereto He has called you by our glad tidings [by grace through faith, not by good works or merit], to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thess. 2:13-14)

“What blessed reasons are stated here to give thanks to God for what He has done for us and for all who believe! Brethren, beloved of the Lord, this is what believers are. Chosen we are to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And glory is before all [and outer darkness before none!] who have believed ‘the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ And that glory may burst upon us at any time. For this God’s people wait. Therefore we are ‘to stand fast and hold fast’ [v. 15].” – Arno C. Gaebelein (Gaebelein’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 1059)

“The manifested character and awful doom of those who abandoned the truth when most fully brought out had been laid before us. Now we are told of the simple blessedness of those who cleave to the grace of our Lord in the gospel, and its effect upon the heart of those who wrought in the work, and were sharers in the blessing. It would be a poor ground of thanksgiving if the salvation were precarious; but this is quite to mistake the nature of Christianity, which is founded on the glory of Christ’s person and on the everlasting efficacy of His atoning work. Hence on the one hand the unspeakable guilt of rejecting, and above all of apostatizing from it; as on the other hand the blessedness and security of those who enter in by faith…. Doubts and fears are not of faith any more than the presumption founded upon our own estimate of ourselves, the natural effect of law acting upon the human mind for despair or false confidence. Christ and His work of redemption alone give a true foundation before God, and as the foundation is immutable, so with faith there need be hesitation neither in the channels nor in the objects of this grace, as we see here.”

“Thus, if we have God’s purpose in Himself before time, we have the object He proposed as to the saints for eternity. He chose them from the beginning unto salvation. This He effectuated in time for the saints in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, not by a law curbing the lusts and passions of a fleshly people under the elements of the world….And then the end, how high and holy as well as excellent! How worthy of God and suitable for His children! It was not merely to attain blessing, but ‘to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ As He is the One in whom all the divine counsels centre for the display of His own excellency, so would His grace have us who now believe to share it with Him. ‘If children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.’”

“It is remarkable how the thoughts of men cross the word of God when His grace is brought out as a living, believed, and applied reality. Speculative men wonder and judge after their puny way that the apostle should call the saints to steadfast adherence in ways and words to the truth [v. 15-17], after he had just owned their calling of God to obtain the glory of our Lord. The mere mind of man regards this as logical inconsistency, conscious or not: why, reason they, should those elected to salvation be exhorted to aught more? Is not all sure and settled on divine grounds? But it is the elect, the consciously blessed and happy children of God, whom scripture everywhere urges to vigilance and prayer, to reading the word of God and all other means of spiritual wellbeing; never do we find such calls to the unbelieving and the fearful. Those who owe all, and who own that all is due, to sovereign grace, are the very persons to show diligence in their responsible services day by day. And how can this be known save by the revelation of His mind? If we are God’s workmanship, we were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God before prepared that we should walk in them. To faith alone all is plain and sure. If Christ is believed on God’s testimony, we believe His love from first to last, and His word is a law of liberty to our souls. The reasoning that sets His grace at issue with our responsibility is seen at once to be of Satan. Subject to the word we believe both, go forward in peace, but acknowledge the need of all He lays on us.” – William Kelly (The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians, p. 132,133,137-139)

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