The Glory of Salvation

Among the questions we ask is: why does God not bring all the sufferings of this world to an end RIGHT NOW - assuming he can?

Today at our Fellowship meeting we thought about the words 'NO LONGER', found in many Bible verses.  Including this one in Revelation 22: 

No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him.

Yes but - why must we wait for that happy day?

In any Lifeboat Station, as in the picture above, a place of honour is given to the record of salvation.  What, after all, is a lifeboat that has never saved?  There is no lifeboat in our back garden pond, and no frightening waves or storms, but there is also no record of salvation there.

The same book of Revelation that reveals the coming day when the curse is no longer also reveals the adoring praise of heaven to the Saviour, the Lamb at the centre of heaven's glory.  His glory is the salvation he has accomplished, the salvation is from the cursed environment of sin.

So the agonies of this world are the backcloth of his glory, a trick pulled by Satan and rebels like me that has backfired to the glory of the God against whom we sinned.  The storm of sin has - and continues to - produce ever more praise to the one whose grace saves human beings from the curse of their own making.

And they sang a new song: "Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation