Further thoughts on suffering and glory (see below):
A Bible teacher I know once said that he observed that the epistles Hebrews, James, 1
and 2 Peter, and 1 and 2 and 3rd John all have the theme of addressing Christians who were experiencing difficult times coming through sufferings and persecutions exhorting them to persevere to obtain a positive outcome. As James 1:2-4 says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance have perfect work, that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."
How does this sanctification of becoming "mature and complete," as
James says, work? The New Testament clearly states in many places that
it is through and in the Spirit, and through the Spirit of Christ and
of God, whose Spirit we are connected to by our "spirit." I will show this in the following verses: One way of describing the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, and the Spirit of Christ and of God, is God's agent at work here on earth in people to help them grow spiritually and come to know Jesus and the Father.
I've heard a well-known radio preacher say that what the letters are calling the recipients of these epistles for, is: 1 Peter,--to love; 1 John, to hope--with all the reasons that they should; and for James, to have faith, made perfect through works. . . . There are other places that talk about how the goal of our endurance of persecution is to be like Christ and the gaining of His glory. "After all, the word "Christian" means "little Christ."
For instance, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 says "But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you first for salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, to the gaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Corinthians 1:5 says, "For just as our sufferings are to us in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." It is this comfort that we can share with others. And it is these experiences that "equip" us to be "priests" to those around us. As 1 Peter 2:9 says, we are "a royal priesthood." To be a "kingdom of priests" (Revelation 1:6), is God's will for us, especially in the last days because priests are those who seek to comfort and counsel and meet people's needs, and have supreme comfort and reassurance from God, just as priests in the Old Testament did not have land allotted to them but rather were told that they had God as their inheritance. And it is God's will that people know Him as the One who meets their needs and who doesn't abandon them, because this is who He really is. . . .
Romans chapter 8, (one of my all-time favorite chapters) says, starting in verse 2, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, wherein it was weak through the flesh, God: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the thing of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace." So the main point of Romans 8 is that since we have the "Spirit" we don't have to give in to sin, but can live and "rise above" it. It is also important that we not only have the Spirit, but that the "Spirit has us," (quoted from a Charles Ringma Reader, Regent College Publishing--Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Jacques Ellul, not sure which) meaning we are responsive to His leading and obedient to how He leads us. As Ephesians 4:22 says, "That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lie aside the old man/woman, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man/woman which according to God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. An excellent book that talks about the Holy Spirit and all of His functions and ministries is Flying Closer to the Flame by Charles Swindoll. It was this book being taught that helped me "come back to God" after a time of straying.
I'll end with this: being full of grace and
truth is what believers need to work toward in becoming like Christ. As Ephesians 4:15 says, "But holding to (or walking in) the truth in love, we may grow up into Him, who is the head, Christ." This is the new man/woman we are able to attain to in this life, through God's grace and unity of other believers, as it talks of the "whole building (Ephesians 2:21-22), [is] being fitted together, and growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."--to be Christ's and having the characteristics of Christ. . . . As
Colossians 1:27, speaking of believers, continually called in the New Testament--saints--says "to [the saints] God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles [non-Jews], which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."