“And whom He justified, them He also glorified”.
(Romans 8:30d)
In the annotations on the Dutch Staten Bible we read as an explanation of the word “glorified”: “Namely here initially, as children through sanctification and adoption, and hereafter, through the full possession of this glory.”
Sanctification means separation. Indeed, the apostle Peter preached: “Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:40). Now if someone is chosen and is taken out the big heap, then is this the sanctification of the Spirit. What is this man secluded from? From himself. He has denied himself. The Lord Jesus Christ once said: “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Once again, what has he done? He has given up everything of himself, and as one that was poor he has let himself to be made rich. Mary spoke of this in her song of praise: “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:53).
Something has been abandoned and something has been accepted. Until that moment he had always sought to have both: what he was in himself and Christ, although he did not really know what he was in himself nor what Christ was. And so a man can read the truth all his life, be under the preaching of the truth, and still hold on to what is his. And sooner or later this will come to light.
Would you like to hear the words of such a separated person? Then listen to the testimony of the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:7, 8: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, etcetera”. His object is: that he might win Christ. This man is separated from the visible and material things and from the world. He is not attached to them anymore. He has been pulled out these things.
(From: Meditations, 28 January. Sermon on 1 Peter 1:2, 5 November 1930 in Delft.)