It is the glory of God to conceal a thing (Proverbs 25:2). And this point makes us glad. God still has His secrets—things He won’t tell you, things that even by faith you couldn’t understand. Your glorification is naturally mysterious, quite simply because you have not yet experienced it. As John says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

And so it is with all of your cross-carrying on the road to Jerusalem. Recall there is a feast in that city, even before death—a last supper that somehow becomes the first supper of the new world, still dined at by Christians today. Now you have bread and wine, and it does not yet appear what the marriage supper of the Lamb will one day be. This is as it should be. For the Lord’s Table is one of hope. And “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).