- Receive to Glory
Psalm 73:24b
And afterward receive me to glory.
After God has guided me with His counsel He will receive me to glory. He has already received me into His presence and His kingdom, but I have not yet entered into glory where life is lived without Sin, Death, or the Devil. But afterward, after He has guided me through life and been with me every step of the way He will physically and historically in a moment receive me into His glory. “Come…inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” The guidance is finished, the goal is achieved, the end is reached, the purpose is accomplished; and then He will receive me to glory.
This promise is fulfilled and it will be yet fulfilled: God has spiritually received my spirit into His glory; God will physically receive my resurrected body into His glory. Both “receptions” may differ according to time and substance, but both are alike in reality and in fact. For now, during this present life, God, because of Christ, receives and welcomes me whenever He draws me to Him in faith, and He guides me as He promised.
But “receiving me to glory” is still a future promise; it is afterward. For now, during the time of guidance, I was “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” (Ephesians 1:13-14). Now I have the Holy Spirit; afterward will have the inheritance. “Glory” means the outward manifestation of the inward character: in God’s case, it is light, beauty, holiness and the perfect love of God. In this glory there is only and completely God and there exists no sin, no sorrow, no Satan, no death, no tears, no fears, no darkness, no doubts, no questions. This is Glory. We will not see this until afterward. For now, while we wait we have faith and hope and a promise.