We must descend through trials in order to ascend to glory

"Did not Jesus 'learn obedience by the things which he suffered,' so that, 'being made perfect, he became the author of salvation to all who obey him' (Hebrews 5:8–9)? Paul thus informs us that Jesus' becoming 'the author of salvation' was inextricably linked to his attaining perfection. By passing through his ordeal—by suffering for humanity's transgressions—Jesus inherited a greater glory. But so may we 'if it so be that we suffer with him' (1 Peter 5:10): 'For it became him, for whom all things are and by whom all things are, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings' (Hebrews 2:10).

Humanity's path to exaltation, too, therefore, lies through suffering—through a refiner's fire that purifies and sanctifies God's sons and daughters until they fully attain his image and likeness. And as Jesus descended below all things before ascending above all, so they, likewise, must descend through trials in order to ascend to glory. According to Isaiah's pattern of spiritual ascent on a ladder to heaven, ruin occurs before rebirth, suffering before salvation, humiliation before exaltation, and so forth, each time a person ascends to the next level. And as 'there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars' (1 Corinthians 15:41), so the higher a person ascends, the greater the degree of glory. If Paul was 'caught up to the third heaven' (2 Corinthians 12:2) and Isaiah to the seventh (Ascension of Isaiah 9:1), then there exist multiple heavens to which God's sons and daughters may ascend."

Avraham Gileadi