Romans 8:18

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.

Despite the fact that Christians are beneficiaries of the blood of Christ, heirs of everlasting glory, and destined at last to live in that upper and better kingdom where all the problems of earth shall be solved in the light and bliss of heaven, there is a present and urgent sorrow that falls upon all of them by reason of the sufferings in the flesh. Paul had revealed a moment before that the child of God might expect no exemptions but must suffer throughout the days of mortality; and therefore, by way of encouragement, he emphasizes as a motive for patience in such sufferings, their triviality, as compared with the ultimate glory of the children of God, a glory which they shall not merely see, but a glory in which they shall actually participate. The time of such a glorification of the redeemed will be at the second coming of Christ and following the judgment of the final day. That far-off reality is here made a motive of patient endurance of sufferings and tribulations. Greathouse thus expressed it:

Sufferings then belong to this present age, between the advents of our Lord. Glory belongs to the age to come. As Moffatt puts it, sufferings are a mere nothing when set against the glory that shall be revealed in us."[27]

Charles Hodge connected this verse with the remainder of the chapter thus:

The main idea of Romans 8:18, obviously, is that the future glory transcends immeasurably the sufferings of this present state. All that follows tends to illustrate and enforce that idea.[28]

[27] William M. Greathouse, op. cit., p. 179.

[28] Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), p. 269.