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Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey Him

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Tragedianof Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey Him AUTHOR OF ETERNAL SALVATION UNTO ALL THEM THAT OBEY HIM   By   ARLEN L. CHITWOOD   "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was worldly-wise to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And stuff made perfect, he became the tragedian of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him," (Hebrews 5: 7-9).   Christ, during what the writer of Hebrews calls, "the days of his flesh," passed through unrepealable human experiences.  "Wisdom and stature," in connection with Christ's growth from diaper to manhood, were part of these experiences (Luke 2: 52); testings, emotions, hunger, sufferings, and numerous other things which man experiences were, as well, things which Christ moreover experienced (Luke 4: 1-13; 22: 44; John 11: 35; Heb. 4: 15; 5: 7,8).   One thing whilom all else must be kept in mind when viewing these human experiences which Christ passed through.  Christ's deity, during His earthly ministry, cannot be separated from His humanity.  That is, He, during this time, was not God and Man; rather, He was the God-Man.  At no point, whence with the incarnation, can one be separated from the other.   The question thus becomes, How could Christ increase "in wisdom and stature," be "tempted," learn "obedience," or pass through unrepealable other human experiences without a similar malleate if He was, at the same time, fully God?  Or, to ask the question flipside way, How could Christ, stuff God Himself, and Omniscient, increase in or learn human traits and characteristics through rhadamanthine a member of the human race which He Himself had brought into existence?  Withoutall, at the age of twelve, He entered into the temple at Jerusalem and confounded the "doctors" with His wisdom and understanding of matters; and, at the same time, He exhibited knowledge of that which He must succeed completely outside Joseph and Mary's understanding of the matter (Luke 2: 41-50).  Then, on numerous occasions, He either exercised His deity or could have exercised it, (Matt. 26: 53; Mark 1: 24-26; Luke 22: 61; John 1: 48; 11: 25, 43, 44; 18: 5,6).   Probably the most graphic testimony which Scripture presents pertaining to the inseparability of Christ's humanity from His deity surrounds the events of Calvary and the empty tomb.   It was the thoroughbred of God which was shed at Calvary, the same thoroughbred which is presently on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies of the heavenly tabernacle today (cf. Acts 20: 28; Heb. 9: 11,12).  And Jesus raised Himself from the dead, restoring life to the Temple of God (John 2: 18-21).   The day of the Passover, 30 A.D., was the day God died; and not only did the Son raise Himself, but God the Father raised Him (Rom. 10: 9), and the Spirit raised Him (Rom. 8: 11). This would have had to be the case, for an inseparable identification exists between the members of the Godhead.   Jesus, prior to His crucifixion, referred to His "body" as the Temple of God (John 2: 21).  There are two Greek words used for "temple" in the New Testament - hieron and naos.  The former refers, not to the temple proper, but to the outer porches, porticoes, etc.  It is the latter word which refers to the temple proper, with its innermost place, the Holy of Holies where God Himself dwelled among His people for over eight centuries during Old Testament days.   The Glory of the Lord (the manifestation of God among His people) though had departed from the Holy of Holies long surpassing Christ was upon earth.  It departed shortly without God unliable His people to be taken repeater into Babylon (Ezek 10: 4, 18; 11: 22, 23), well-nigh six centuries prior to Christ's first appearance; and during the unshortened times of the Gentiles - though a temple was built pursuit the Babylonian captivity (constructed during the days of Zerubbabel and rebuilt during the days of Herod), and flipside will be built during the days of Antichrist - there neither has been nor will be Deity within the Jewish temple.  The Glory of the Lord will return to the temple only without the times of the Gentiles has run its course, Christ returns, and the millennial temple has been brought into existence (Ezek. 42: 2-5).   The Greek word used relative to the soul of Christ stuff the Temple of God is naos, not hieron.  That is, this was a structure in which Deity dwelled.  Christ was "the Word," Who "was God," Who "was made flesh, and dwelt [lit., 'tabernacled'] among us" (John 1: 1-3, 14).   (Different words are used in the Greek text for verbs translated the same in the English text of John 1: 1-14.   The verb used in vv. 1, 2 - "In the whence was the Word ... " - has no reference to a time of whence or a time of ending.  Also, there is no vendible surpassing "beginning" [here or elsewhere] in the Greek text.  The thought is simply, "In whence [there are variegated beginnings in Scripture (for the earth, angels, man, etc.)] the Word existed without reference to a whence or an ending [for the Word has neither] ... "  Then in v. 14 a variegated verb is used, which has reference to a definite time of whence - "And the Word was made ['became'] mankind … "  There was a point in time when the eternal Word "became flesh, and tabernacled among us." though the incarnation wrought no transpiration relative to the way in which the Word is presented prior to this time in vv. 1, 2.  The Word was just as much fully God pursuit the incarnation as surpassing the incarnation.)   Thus, the true Tabernacle or Temple in Israel during the days Christ was upon earth was not the earthly structure on the Temple Mount (though Christ referred to this structure as, "My house" [Matt. 21: 13]) but "the Word" Who became mankind and tabernacled among His people.  It was this individual - God Himself, tabernacling among His people - that the priests of the earthly tabernacle (the tabernacle which no longer housed Deity) reviled, mistreated, and turned over to Pilate to be crucified (Matt. 26: 59ff).   A verse often misunderstood, though one of the clearest and strongest verses in Scripture relative to Christ's deity, is Mark 13: 32: "But of that day and that hour [the time of Christ's return] knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."   Seemingly, the way the text is structured, Christ separated Himself from the Father and stated that He, like fallen man, did not know unrepealable things which the Father vacated knew.  However, such was not the specimen at all.   The text unmistakably states that the Father vacated had knowledge of the things involved, but the simple fact of the matter is that the Father and Son were "one" (John 10: 30 [cf. v. 33]; 14: 9).  The Son, thus, had to, of necessity, posess the same knowledge, for He was then, and remains today, God of very God (cf. Col. 1: 9).   The problem lies in the English translation of Mark 13: 32, and a proper translation will not only reveal that the Son of Man was the God-Man but it will moreover reveal the inseparability of His humanity from His deity.  The Son of Man was, and remains today, fully God as well as fully Man.   The word "but" in the latter part of Mark 13: 32 is a translation of the Greek words, ei me.  Literally translated, those two words mean, "if not," or "except."  What Jesus said was that He couldn't know "that day and that hour" if He were not the Father, for the Father vacated knew.   Archbishop Trench, one of the greatest authorities from a past generation on word studies in the Greek text, translated this verse, "If I were not God as well as Man, plane I would not know the day nor the hour."  And this appears to capture the word-for-word thought of the passage well-nigh as well as any English translation, for not only is the translation true to the text but it is true to the testimony of the whole Scripture.   Thus, returning to the human experiences which Christ passed through, one thing whilom all else must be kept in mind: At no point in Christ's earthly existence - from the incarnation to the ascension - can His deity be separated from His humanity.  He was the God-Man.  He was just as much fully God as He was fully Man; and from the point of the incarnation forward the matter is as stated in Heb. 13: 8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."   Consequently, not only must the passages in Luke 2: 52 and Heb. 4: 15; 5: 7-9 be understood in this light but any part of Scripture touching on Christ's humanity must be understood without the same fashion.   SUFFERINGS, DEATH   During events surrounding Christ's crucifixion, He suffered like no other man could possibly suffer, for, withal with His physical sufferings, He suffered from a spiritual standpoint without a malleate which it was untellable for anyone else to suffer.  And the latter sufferings, equal to Scripture, were far worse than the former.   1. PHYSICAL SUFFERINGS   Insofar as His physical sufferings were concerned, the Prophet Isaiah, over seven centuries surpassing this time, stated, "his visage was so marred increasingly than any man, and his form increasingly than the sons of men" (Isa. 52: 14).   He was spat upon and tamed by the Jewish religious leaders; then He was turned over to Pilate, who, without dealing with Him a second time, had Him "scourged" and "delivered" into the hands of his soldiers to be crucified; and the Roman soldiers, pursuit His scourging, arrayed Him as a pseudo King and repeatedly mocked Him, spat on Him, and struck Him on the throne with what was theoretically a nonflexible bamboo-like reed, (Matt. 26: 67; 27: 26-31).   A literal rendering of Isa. 52: 14 would reveal that His physical visitation would be so unsimilar by the time He was placed on theNavigatethat it would towards to unquestionably not be that of a man; and the same verses states that considering of His mutilated physical visitation many would be "astonished" when they looked upon the One well-nigh to be crucified.   Actually, Isa. 52: 14 is set between two sections of Scripture dealing with that future day when Christ rules and reigns over the earth (vv. 1-13, 15).  Verses one through thirteen introduce the subject (His coming day of glory and exaltation), verse fourteen moves the reader when 2,000 years in time (referring to His suffering and humiliation), and then verse fifteen moves the reader forward once then to that time introduced in verses one through thirteen.   A parallel is shown between that which would occur at the two advents of Christ.  The stratum of His sufferings and humiliation would parallel, in an opposite sense, the stratum of His glory and exaltation.  This is why the writer of Hebrews could state, "who for the joy that was set surpassing him - [the day when He would rule and reign over the earth]- [Christ] endured the cross, despising the shame ..." (Heb. 12: 2).   In that coming day the same scenes which witnessed His suffering and humiliation are going to witness Hid glory and exaltation.  He is going to be "exalted," "judge among the nations," and "rebuke many people" (Isa. 2: 2-4; 52: 13).  And "kings shall shut their mouths at him" and see and hear things which they had neither "been told" nor "considered" (Isa. 52: 15).   Those who squint upon Him in that coming day will once then be "astonished," though without a variegated fashion, for His coming glory and exaltation must, in an opposite sense, parallel His past suffering and humiliation.  And, as His physical visitation resulted in the people stuff astonished in the past, so will His physical visitation result in the people stuff astonished in that future day.   In the past Christ appeared untied from His Glory.  He possessed a soul like unto the soul which man possesses today, void of the tent of Glory in which man was enswathed prior to the fall.  It was in this soul that He suffered, bled, and died; it was in this soul that the very God of the universe, in the person of His Son, appeared in humiliation and shame on behalf of sinful man; and it was in this body, in the person of His Son, that God Himself was so tamed that people looked upon Him in astonishment.   But in that coming day matters will be just the opposite.  Though Christ will return in the same soul which He possessed since the incarnation, it will no longer be void of the tent of Glory.  Nor will He return as the suffering "Lamb of God."  All of this will be past.  In that coming day He will return as the conquering "Lion of the tribe of Judah."  And when men see Him in that day, they will squint upon One Whose "countenance" is "as the sun shineth in his strength" (cf. Rev. 1: 16; 19: 11ff).  And man will once then be astonished.*   [*A preview of this is found in Gen. 45: 3 with Joseph and his brothers: “… they were terrified at his presence”; without his exaltation to a position that “without your word no-one will lift hand of foot in all Egypt” – (a type of the world.)]   2. SPIRITUAL SUFFERINGS   Christ's spiritual sufferings began in the Garden, unfurled with His stuff arrayed as a pseudo King (twice [first by Herod, then by the Roman soldiers]), and terminated with the Father turning yonder from the Son while He hung upon the Cross.   In the Garden, anticipating that which lay ahead, Christ requested three times of the Father that "this cup" might pass from Him; but the prayer was unchangingly followed by the statement, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt," (Matt. 26: 39, 42, 44).   The "cup" which Jesus had to drink should be understood in the light of His present spiritual sufferings.  Drinking this cup could have no reference to the events of Calvary per se, for Jesus - in view of the purpose for man's megacosm in the whence and the necessity for redemption's price stuff paid - could never have made such a request.   But the sufferings which Jesus began to endure in the Garden, anticipating the events of Calvary, were flipside matter.   Jesus requested of the Father that these sufferings be unliable to pass, but such was not to be.  And, resultingly, Jesus "being in an traumatization prayed increasingly earnestly: and his sweat was as it were unconfined drops of thoroughbred falling lanugo to the ground" (Luke 22: 44).   Then, shortly thereafter, pursuit Jesus stuff delivered to Pilate by the Jewish religious leaders, the nation of Israel sank to a new low.  Pilate, without interrogating Jesus, sending Him to Herod, and having Him returned by Herod, sought to release Jesus; but the Jewish religious leaders persuaded the multitude to ask for the release of Barabbus (an insurrectionist, robber, and murderer) instead and insist on Jesus' crucifixion.  Pilate, seeing that "he could prevail nothing," finally "gave sentence that it should be as they required."  He released Barabbas and had Jesus scourged.  And pursuit the scourging the Roman soldiers arrayed Jesus as a pseudo King, which, withal with the humiliation, involved remoter beatings.   Then Pilate, making one last struggle to save Jesus from crucifixion, brought Him along in the mutilated condition described in Isa. 52: 14 and presented Him to "the senior priests and the rulers and the people" with the words, "Behold your King!"  But the Jewish people who were present would still have nothing to do with Christ.  They cried out to Pilate, "Away with him, yonder with him, crucify him."  Then, in response to Pilate's question, "Shall I crucify your King?," the senior priests climaxed the whole matter by stating, "We have no king but Ceasar."  Jesus was then led yonder to be crucified (Matt. 27: 15-31; Mark 15: 7-20; Luke 23: 13-26; John 18: 39- 19: 16).   It was through all this, preceding the Cross, that Jesus not only suffered physically but spiritually as well.  The Jewish religious leaders had persuaded the people to ask for the release of a notorious imprisoned criminal rather than Israel's King; then Christ was then arrayed and mocked as a pseudo King.  He had previously been arrayed, treated with contempt, and mocked in Herod's presence; but this time, pursuit His arrayal, Christ was not only repeatedly mocked but He was moreover repeatedly spat upon and beaten.   And to bring the whole matter to a close, preceding the crucifixion (where mocking and expressions of contempt unfurled with Christ hanging on theNavigate[Mark 15: 24-32]), the Jewish religious leaders echoed the ultimate insult when Pilot brought Jesus along to them.  They not only rejected their true King, calling for His crucifixion, but they pledged true-heartedness to a pagan Gentile king (cf. Mark 15: 16-20; Luke 23: 6-11).   (The Jewish religious leaders, through this act, placed the nation of Israel in a position diametrically opposed to the reason for the nation's very existence.  Israel had been tabbed into existence - as God's firstborn son - to be the ruling nation on earth, within a theocracy.  Israel was to be the nation through whom God would rule and solemnize all the Gentile nations [cf. Gen. 12: 1-3; 22: 17, 18; Ex. 4: 22, 23; 19: 5,6; Deut. 7: 6]   However, the religious leaders in Israel had placed the nation in subjection to a pagan Gentile power, rejecting their true King and, in His stead, ultimatum true-heartedness to a pagan Gentile king.  Such an act not only removed the One Who must reside in Israel's midst at the time these blessings would be realised [cf. Joel 2: 27-32; Acts 2: 16-21; 3: 14,15, 19-23; 7: 54-56] - affixing Him to theNavigaterather than seeing Him seated on the Throne - but it moreover placed both nations in completely opposite positions from the respective positions which they were to occupy for their well-being in God's plans and purposes, proving detrimental to both nations.)   Then at Calvary there was both a climax and conclusion to Christ's physical and spiritual sufferings.  He had once been physically tamed to the point that those who looked upon Him were astonished, but now He must suffer something far worse.  He must now suffer without an entirely variegated fashion.  He must now take upon Himself the sins of the world, and He must perform this act alone.   Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world during the last three of the six hours He hung on the Cross.  God caused darkness to envelope all the land, and He then turned yonder from His Son while redemption's price was stuff paid.  And this resulted in the cry from the Cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27: 45, 46).   (Though the Father turned from the Son at this point, leaving the Son to act alone, the Son remained just as much fully God as He had unchangingly been and would unchangingly be; and, resultingly, it was the thoroughbred of God which was shed at Calvary.)   But at the end of those three hours it was all over.  The Son's work of redemption had been accomplished.  God had "laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53: 6); and the Son could then cry out, "It is finished [lit., 'It has been finished'] (John 19: 30).   And that is the way matters stand today. Consideringof the Son's finished work, a finished [eternal] salvation is misogynist for fallen man.  God's Son has paid the price, and all man has to do - all he can do - is receive that which has once been workaday on his behalf.  A Barabbas can be set free, for the Just One has died in his stead.   (The same perfect tense is used in the Greek text relative to both Christ's finished work and man's [eternal] salvation.  The perfect tense refers to whoopee completed in past time with the results of that whoopee existing during present time in a finished state.  This is the tense used in John 19: 30, recording Christ's cry from the Cross. "It has been finished"; and this is the tense used in Eph. 2: 8, referring to man's salvation by grace through faith: "For by grace are ye saved [lit., 'you have been saved'] through faith ... ")   Both acts involve, in their entirety, Divinely finished work; the latter work [man's salvation] is based on the former [Christ's work at Calvary]; and insofar as the state of redeemed man is concerned, one work is just as finished, complete, and secure as the other.   BEING MADE PERFECT   Through suffering (Heb. 4: 15; 5: 7, 8), Christ was brought to a position which Scripture calls, "being made perfect" (v. 9), something which the writer had once stated in an older passage in the typesetting (2: 10).  This though was not perfection in the sense of the way the word is often used and understood today.  Rather the word is used in this passage referring to an "end result" or "goal" of that which is in view.   "Perfect" is the translation of the Greek word, teleioo, which means, "bring to an end," "bring to its goal," "bring to accomplishment."  Christ, by passing through these sufferings, as a Man, was brought into a position which He had not previously occupied.   In one sense of the word, Christ was brought into this position through learning obedience, resulting from sufferings which He experienced; but, in flipside sense of the word, such an act was impossible.   Hebrews 5: 8 states that Christ learned "obedience by the things which he suffered."  However, John 7: 15 states that Christ posessed knowledge well-nigh unrepealable matters, "having never learned" (cf. v. 16).  The Greek word translated "learned" is the same in both verses, the word manthano.  But, the thought overdue what is meant by learning in the two verses is not the same.  It can't be.   The Omniscient One has perfect knowledge untied from life's experiences.  But, on the other hand, Scripture states that the same Omniscient person learned through life's experiences.  How can one be reconciled with the other?   The learning is within the framework of Christ personally, as a Man, passing through the same experiences as man.  He personally experienced, as a Man, that which man experiences.  In the words of Heb. 4: 14b, 15, "Let us hold fast our profession - ['confession', R.V. - (the confession of our hope)]- "For we have not an upper priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without ['apart from'] sin."   However this still leaves unaddressed the issue of how the Omniscient God, as Son, could learn obedience through suffering.  But the wordplay to the matter is really very simple:   Christ learned through personal wits that which He once knew in the same sense that God learns through uncorrupt "watchers" who report to Him at scheduled times that which He once knows (cf. Dan. 4: 17, 23-25).  Or, as in the specimen of the cities of the plain during Abraham's day, God came lanugo to see for Himself that which the watchers had previously told Him.  This was something which He not only knew well-nigh surpassing the matter was revealed by the watchers but moreover something which He didn't need to see in order to know if the matter was "altogether equal to the cry of it" (Gen. 18: 20,21).   This is simply the way Scripture reveals God's intervention in the wires of man.  He is, at times, revealed as learning, through personal intervention, that which He once knows.   As in the specimen of the cities of the plain, God is seen as personally coming lanugo to view matters Himself surpassing permitting the cities to be destroyed; and, in the person of His Son, as a Man, God has personally passed through unrepealable experiences which man passes through, attributing to Himself the same qualities which man uninventive by passing through these experiences.   And God has washed-up this for revealed, related purposes, with one such purpose stuff revealed in Heb. 5: 7-9.  Through learning "obedience by the things which he suffered," matters have been brought to a goal.  Christ has wilt "the tragedian ['source'] of eternal salvation" unto all those who, in turn, "obey him," which must, of necessity, moreover involve suffering.   It is suffering on His part and subsequent suffering on our part; and as the former resulted in learning obedience, so must the latter.  As stated in 1 Peter 2: 21, "Christ moreover suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps."   ETERNAL SALVATION, OBEDIENCE   The word "eternal" in the English text is misleading.  Those for whom Christ is the source of salvation (Christians) once possess eternal salvation; and, vastitude that, this salvation was not uninventive through obedience to Christ, as in the text.  Rather, it was uninventive through yoyo on the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3: 16).   Obedience to Christ, resulting from suffering, can come in view only pursuit belief. never before.  Only the [eternally] saved have "passed from death into life" and are in a position to suffer and subsequently obey.  The unsaved are still "dead in trespasses and sins" (John 5: 24; Eph. 2: 1).   1. ETERNAL   The Greek language, from which our English versions have been translated, does not contain a word for "eternal."  A person using Greek language thinks in the sense of "ages"; and the way this language is normally used in the New Testament to express "eternal," untied from textual considerations, is through the use of the Greek words eis tous aionas ton aionon, meaning, "unto [or, 'with respect to'] the month of the ages" (ref. Heb. 13: 21; 1Peter 4: 11; Rev. 1: 6; 4: 9,10 for several examples of places where these words are used, translated "forever and ever" in most versions).   The word from the Greek text translated "eternal" in the Greek New Testament, untied from textual considerations, is through the use of a shortened form of the preceding - eis tous aionas, meaning "unto [or, 'with respect to'] the ages" (ref. Rom. 9: 5; 11: 36; 2Cor. 11: 31; Heb. 13: 8 for several examples of places where these words are used, translated "forever" in most versions).   The word from the Greek text translated "eternal" in Hebrews 5: 9 is aionios.  This is the adjective equivalent of the noun aion, referred to in the preceding paragraph in its plural form to express "eternal."  Aion ways "an timelessness [the word 'aeon' is derived from aion] or "an era," usually understood throughout the Greek New Testament as "an age."   Aionios, the adjective equivalent of aion, is used seventy-one times in the Greek New Testament and has been indiscriminately translated "eternal" or "everlasting" in scrutinizingly every instance in the various English versions.  This word though should be understood well-nigh thirty of these seventy-one times in the sense of "AGE-LASTING" rather than "eternal"; and the occurrence in Hebrews 5: 9 forms a specimen in point.   Several good examples of other places where aionios should be translated and understood as "age-lasting" are Gal. 6: 8; 1Tim. 6: 12; Titus 1: 2; 3: 7.  These passages have to do with running the race of the faith in view of one day realising an inheritance in the kingdom, which is the hope set surpassing Christians.   On the other hand, aionios can be understood in the sense of "eternal" if the text so indicates.  Several good examples of places where aionios should be so translated and understood are John 3: 15,16,36.  These passages have to do with life derived through faith in Christ considering of His finished work at Calvary (cf. v 14), and the only type life which can possibly be in view is "eternal life."   Textual considerations must unchangingly be taken into worth when properly translating and understanding aionios, for this word is a word which can be used to imply either "age-lasting" or "eternal"; and it is used both ways numerous times in the New Testament.  Textual considerations in Hebrews 5: 9 leave no room to question exactly how aionios should be understood and translated in this verse.  Life during the coming age, occupying a position as co-heir with Christ in that coming day, is what theTypesettingof Hebrews is about.   2. SUFFERING, REIGNING   Suffering with or on behalf of Christ must precede reigning with Christ.  The latter cannot be realised untied from the former.  Such suffering is inseparably linked with obedience; and the text unmistakably states that Christ is the source of that future salvation "unto all them that [presently] obey him," in the same respect that Christ is the source of presently possessed eternal salvation for all those who have (in the past) "believed" on Him.   1 Peter 1: 11, relative to the saving of the soul (vv. 9,10), states, "Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it [He] testified earlier the sufferings of Christ [lit., 'the sufferings with respect to Christ'], and the glory that should follow."   The thought, contextually, is not at all that of Christ suffering.  Rather, the thought has to do with Christians suffering with respect to Christ's sufferings, subsequently realising the salvation of their souls * through having a part in the glory which is to follow the sufferings. [* The ‘salvation of their souls,’ must take place at the time of Resurrection; for the soul must remain in Hades during the interim between Death and Resurrection, when the “Gates of Hades” will no longer prevent those whom Christ deems worthy to reign with Him in His millennial kingdom.]   This is the underlying thought overdue the whole typesetting of 1 Peter, expressed in so many words by the writer in 4: 12, 13: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the zesty trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad moreover with exceeding joy."   This is the "eternal [age-lasting] glory" to which Christians have been tabbed and in which Christians will be established without they "have suffered a while," with obedience to Christ emanating from the sufferings (1 Peter 5: 10). -------