Our life and glory are thus both of a new character. The life is a new life. The man in Christ is a new creature; he is a dead and risen man. His powers and affections have acquired a new character. His intelligence is spiritual understanding, or “the mind of Christ.” His love is “love in the Spirit.” The power in him is “glorious power,” the power of Christ's resurrection. And so he knows no man after the flesh, but all things are become new to him. It is not enough that human affections or natural tastes would sanction anything; for being after the Spirit, he “minds the things of the Spirit.” He serves in “newness of spirit,” and the name of the Lord Jesus is the sanction of what he does either “in word or deed.” He has been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, and there he walks, going forth in assurance and liberty to do service from morning till evening, living by faith on Him Who loved him and gave Himself for him.
The glory is also a new glory. It is something above all that was seen in previous ages. Excellent things have been spoken of Adam and of Israel; but not equal to what is told us of the Church. Christ is to present the Church to Himself, as God presented Eve to Adam, to be the companion of his dominion and glory. The saints are to be conformed to the image of the Son. It is “the joy of the Lord” that is prepared for the saints, a share with Christ in the authority of the kingdom, in that which He has received from the Father. They are not so much brought into the glory, as made glorious themselves; as we read, “The glory that shall be revealed in us”; and again, “glorified together,” that is, “together with Christ”; “fashioned like unto His glorious body.” The place of the Son is the scene of their glory. They are not to stand on the footstool, but to sit on the throne. Israel may have the blessings of the earth, but the Church is to know the upper or heavenly glory. And it is life and glory that makes us what we are. The life makes us sons, the glory makes us heirs, and our sonship and inheritance are everything.