For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy [to be compared] with the coming glory to be revealed to us.
Paul, the writer of this letter, has just called God's children heirs. As heirs they will share everything with Christ — but the road to that inheritance runs through suffering (Romans 8:17). So here he puts both on the scales. How does present pain measure against coming glory?
A Calculation, Not a Guess
"I reckon" is the language of careful accounting, not wishful thinking. Paul does not shut his eyes to pain. He weighs it.
Christian sufferings may be great. They often are. Yet see how he estimates them. He weighs them in the sober balances of divine truth against the glory to be revealed. He compares present sufferings with eternal glory. Weighed like this, the momentary trial of faith and patience proves to be as nothing. There is no doubt in his mind. It is a deliberate measurement of truth with truth. He sets real suffering against most real, most certain, eternal glory.
And no one was more qualified to do the sum. Paul suffered more than almost anyone for his faith.
Who was ever better able to reckon on this matter than Paul? Bonds and imprisonments awaited him in every city. His was a life of constant suffering with the One he so loved to serve. Yet he says the sufferings are nothing next to the glory. What a solution of the perplexing paradox of all creation! The groans of battlefields shall cease. The misery, poverty and degradation of the multitude shall come to an end. So shall the sufferings of creation.
Why Suffering Belongs to Sonship
The suffering in view is not punishment. It flows from belonging to Christ while living in a world that rejected Him.
Co-heirs, co-sufferers, co-glorified — this is the order of Christian life and hope. And notice: we have the whole inheritance of God. So this suffering flows from the glorious position God has brought us into. It flows from our sharing in the life of Christ Himself.
Glory Revealed "In Us"
Notice the wording: the glory will not only appear to believers. They are part of the display itself.
The day of His glory will be a great day for us; we shall see Him glorified, and we shall be glorified as His companions. He says to His Father, "The glory that you have given me I have given to them" (John 17:22). And the world will see us displayed in that glory. By this the world is to know that the Father sent the Son, and has loved us as He has loved Him.
The Door to a Groaning World
This verse also opens a new section. From here Paul widens the lens from the believer's pain to the pain of the whole created world.
From that point till we reach verse 27 we find ourselves in an atmosphere charged with groaning. That word occurs three times in these verses. No surprise: the present age lies in the "bondage of corruption," and the age to come will bring the "liberty of the glory."
What the Reckoning Does Now
Once the future filled Paul's vision, present trouble lost its power to stop him.
His mind is full of the future — absorbed with tomorrow. He is like a schoolboy waiting for a holiday, who can think of nothing else. The glory is so present that he calls the affliction momentary. The present sufferings had lost their hindering power, because he saw the power of God in them.
Knowing God as Father does not numb us to the world's sorrow — the opposite is true. But it puts that sorrow in its true proportion.
Knowing God as our Father only deepens our sense of the sorrows and miseries of the world we pass through. So does the blessedness of the glory ahead. But these sufferings cannot compare with the glories that are coming. The sufferings are passing, the glories are eternal.
Summary
Think of the verse as Paul's ledger — five entries, one result:
- Weighed. "I reckon" is a deliberate calculation. Paul measures real suffering against real, eternal glory. The scales refuse to balance.
- Qualified. The man doing the math faced chains in every city. His verdict comes from experience, not comfort.
- Included. Suffering is no detour from sonship. It is the appointed order: co-heirs, co-sufferers, co-glorified.
- Displayed. The glory shines out in us. The world will see believers with Christ as proof of the Father's love.
- Freed. When the eternal fills the vision, passing pain loses its power to hinder. The sufferings pass; the glories last forever.