That You May Be Glorified in Him

Sometimes a phrase in Scripture jumps out at me even though I’ve read it many times before.

One of them is 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12:

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Most of this prayer, which is part of the opening to the letter, is typically Pauline. Paul prays that we walk worthy of our calling; that we fulfill every resolve for good work and every work of faith by his power. The goal of all of this: that the name of Jesus may be glorified in us, all by God’s grace. Profound, glorious, but also somewhat in line with what you’d expect.

But one phrase jumps out at me: “so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him…”

Wait. I understand that we want the name of Jesus to be glorified in our lives, but what his this about us being glorified in him?

In the end, both Jesus and his church will be glorified. While we exist for God’s glory, God is willing to share some of that glory with us.

In the end, we can look forward to being glorified in Jesus, not because of anything we’ve done, but because of his grace. He’s already begun to change us. When the work is complete, as D.A. Carson says, “he will be glorified in them (in us) on account of what we have become by his grace. We will be glorified in him on account of what he has done for us.”

God seems to be willing to share so much with us. We will reign with Jesus (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 5:9-10). Jesus will judge the earth. He will “break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:9), but so will we (Revelation 2:26-27). We are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17); as John Piper puts it, everything in the world will one day belong to us because it belongs to Christ. “Everything that God ever made is yours.”

And we will be glorified in him.

Sometimes I think our view of what God is doing is too small. It’s hard to comprehend how glorious all of this is and will be. Yes, it’s all about God’s glory, but the blessings that come from seeking God’s glory are unbelievable for us as well.

Never make the mistake of underestimating what God has promised to do. Scripture gives us this information so we can grasp the greatness of our salvation, and so that this anticipation shapes how we live today.

A few simple words at the end of one of Paul’s opening prayers gives us a glimpse of God’s mind-blowing agenda for his people.