God has been fully glorified on this earth by the life that Jesus lived and gave. Jesus gave God perfect glory; it cannot be improved upon or added to. The question for each one of us is, “Since Jesus has fully glorified God, what’s left for you to do?” And since there are two ways of being human, there are two ways of answering this question.
The first answer is, “nothing.” There is nothing left for you to do. This is the answer to the old humanity. We will consider this in the next chapter. Just as the cross is understood only in the light of the resurrection, so it is best to consider the new humanity first, that we may understand the old in the light of the new.
The answer to the new humanity is, “anything you want to do.” The freedom of the new being in Christ is such that he may do whatever he desires to do without fear of contradicting the will of God. The hope of righteousness, for which we are waiting, is the prospect of perfect agreement with God that corresponds with perfect freedom to do whatever we want. This is the righteousness that Jesus lived in. He lived in the freedom of perfect obedience to God, and He lived to show that obedience to God is perfect freedom.
We are waiting for the fullness of this perfect righteousness, which Jesus will bring when He returns. In the meantime we taste this freedom daily, hopefully more and more each day. This righteousness is manifested whenever we do the right thing, not because we know we should, but because we genuinely want to. When we spontaneously and happily do what we want to do, knowing that it is also what God wants us to do, we are living as new beings in the world, free and obedient. This is a sign that the fruit of the Spirit is growing naturally in our lives.
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