To God be the Glory Forever and Ever
I meet weekly with a group of Christians. In the past months we have been slowly reading through Romans, reading some footnotes in the Recovery Version, and discussing what we read. I write this a few days after we finished Romans by reading 16:25-27.
Verse 27 says, “To the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” I realized that this is not merely a nice closing word but is a conclusion of the whole of Romans. All positive aspects of Romans contributes to bringing glory to God.
In this, Romans is parallel to the entire Scriptures, in which all God’s work concludes with the bringing forth of New Jerusalem which has the glory of God (Rev. 21:11).
The moving of God with and in His people to bring forth His glory includes:
• the revelation to Paul and his interaction with the Romans (first half of ch. 1)
• condemnation (mid ch. 1 to mid ch. 3), a black background to justification (mid ch. 3 to end ch. 4)
• justification and reconciliation bring forth “being saved in His life” (first half ch. 5)
• sanctification, identification with Christ, and presenting ourselves to Him (mid ch. 5 and ch. 6)
• bondage in flesh (ch. 7) turns to “no condemnation” and the Spirit with our spirit (first half ch. 8)
• being conformed to the image of God’s Son and glorification (second half ch. 8)
• God’s choosing and promises to Israel are a picture of God’s work in us and conclude “To Him be the glory forever.” (11:36)
• being transformed to practice the Body life with the exercise of His virtues through us (ch. 12–13)
• receiving one another as Christ has received us “to the glory of God” (15:7) (ch. 14 to mid 15)
• fellowship among the believers in many parts of the earth (mid ch. 15 to end)
Eventually all these actions, and more, bring forth New Jerusalem with eternal fullness of glory.
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