Glorification. December 7, Glorify KEY VERSES. John 7:39; 12:23; 13:31 32; 17:5; Romans 8:30

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1 Glorification December 7, 2014 Glorify KEY VERSES John 7:39; 12:23; 13:31 32; 17:5; Romans 8:30 The Greek term doxazō means to give glory or to make glorious. The New Testament gives us glimpses of when Jesus Christ was glorified. The transfiguration of Christ brought His glory out into the open (Matt. 17:1 8). The apostle Paul called Jesus the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8) and wrote that the glory of God radiated from His face (2 Cor. 3:18). John s Gospel is uniquely the Gospel of glory. In the incarnation, the Son of God showed the glory that was His as the only begotten Son of the Father (John 1:14). The raising of Lazarus was a manifestation of the glory of God in Christ (John 11:40). Jesus prayer in John 17 is filled with comments on the glory of Christ, including the affirmation that the disciples of the Lord would share in that glory. John said that Jesus would be fully glorified as the result of His crucifixion and resurrection (John 7:39; 12:23, 24). These events would show the world that Jesus was no ordinary man. The resurrection, especially, would show that He was the glorious Son of God worthy of all honor. In His final prayer, Jesus asked the Father to be glorified alongside of Him that is, in the Father s presence by means of the glory He had with the Father before the world existed. In other words, Jesus was praying to enter into that pristine state of coequal glory with the Father, a position He possessed from eternity as God s only Son (John 1:1, 18). He would enter into that glory in a new way as the God-man, the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. The believer will also experience glorification. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, spiritual transformation is described as a changing from glory to glory. Glorification is implied as the last event in the change from glory to glory. In the process of salvation, Paul lists glorification as the last and final event (Rom. 8:28 30). Just as the inner person undergoes glorification, so does the believer s body. Paul calls the resurrection of the body the redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23). In Philippians 3:21, Paul speaks of the transformation of bodies of humiliation that is, humiliated by sin and mortality into bodies of glory identical to that of Christ (1 Cor. 15). Just as Christians have borne the image of the mortal clay of Adam, we shall one day bear the image of the immortal Son of God. What a glorious 1 future we have. 1 Carpenter, E. E., & Comfort, P. W. (2000). Holman treasury of key Bible words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew words defined and explained (289). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers. 1 More study helps at

2 GLORIFICATION The goal of the Christian experience of salvation is sharing and participating in the glory of God. As Paul told the Romans, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (5:2). This hope includes the transformation of mortal life to immortal or eternal life. Paul told the Corinthians that he looked forward to the body being raised in glory (1 Cor. 15:43). The hope of the glory of God also includes the prospect of unimpaired fellowship with Him, the direct experience of His presence, and completed knowledge of Him. Paul compared Christians present experience to the perfect future in this way: Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Cor. 13:12). As in the case of justification and sanctification, what Paul said about glorification was closely linked to Christ as well. He told the Romans that Christians are co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory (Rom. 8:17). The process of sanctification advances in the context of suffering, as Christ Himself suffered, and culminates in the experience of glory that Christ Himself now experiences. In similar fashion, the apostle told the Thessalonians that God had called them through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 2:14). Glory and suffering are often collocated in Paul, as when he testified, for example, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). Elsewhere he expressed his conviction that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor. 4:17). In this aspect of salvation too, Paul stressed God s activity in bringing this phase of salvation to completion. He was so confident of this fact that he used the past tense of the verb to describe this experience as already done for Christians: those he called he also glorified (Rom. 8:30). Later he referred to Christians as the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory even us whom he also called (9:23 24). Paul s confidence in this is rooted in his view of God s faithfulness, the assurance that God will do what He 2 promised. GLORIFICATION The culmination of salvation for individuals is glorification. God s plan regarding salvation is summarily stated by Paul this way: those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified (Rom. 8:30). Glorification 2 Zuck, R. B. (1994). A Biblical Theology of the New Testament (electronic ed.) ( ). Chicago: Moody Press. 2 More study helps at

3 involves several aspects, including deliverance from the presence of sin and all its pernicious effects at death (1 Cor. 15:55 56) into the presence of God. Entrance into God s presence at death. Though Paul did not write explicitly about the circumstance of Christians entering into the presence of Christ and God immediately at death, an understanding of this sort is implied by his word of assurance to the Thessalonians that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him (1 Thess. 4:14). The verb fall asleep (koimaō) was sometimes used to refer to death by both biblical and nonbiblical writers, but Paul frequently employed it to describe the death of Christians (e.g., 1 Cor. 15:6, 18, 20, 51). Related to this issue is the understanding that Paul s anthropology included the conviction that people are composed of material and immaterial parts. He told the Romans that if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness (Rom. 8:10). The spiritual aspect of a believer enters at death into the Lord s presence. In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul wrote in terms of the two spheres of mortality and immortality (without discussion of any phases in that experience). Still his profession that he would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord (v. 8) can be applied to the circumstance of those Christians he described in 1 Thessalonians 4:14. Thus the first phase of the experience of glorification is entrance into the presence of the Lord at death. Resurrection of the body. But the process of glorification for the individual Christian that begins at death with the spiritual aspect of the believer is completed at the resurrection with the transformation of the Christian s body. As Paul assured the Thessalonians, According to the Lord s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep the dead in Christ will rise first (1 Thess. 4:15 16). Paul discussed the resurrection most extensively in 1 Corinthians 15. As he told the Corinthians, the resurrection of Christians will follow the pattern of Jesus resurrection (v. 20). But defining the nature of the resurrected body was no easy task. Paul s depiction was more suggestive than descriptive (vv ) and has produced discussion and debate among interpreters even in the present. For example, he compared the mortal body to a seed. As a seed is sown in the ground, so the body is laid in a grave. But the flower that emerges from that seed is remarkably different and grander than the lowly seed that was sown. As Paul put it, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body (vv ). When Paul described the resurrected body as a spiritual body, did he mean it was nonmaterial? Probably not. As in the case of the references to glory and power, spiritual identifies the resurrection body with the Holy Spirit s work. In salvation the Holy Spirit is the Agent who begins and completes the process of transformation. But to conclude that Paul envisioned that Christians would become like the Holy Spirit with a 3 More study helps at

4 non-material existence is an overinterpretation of Paul s point. Paul, in fact, explicitly likened the Christian s resurrected body to Christ s resurrected body (vv. 20, 45 49). If he regarded Christ s resurrected body as a non-material mode of being, like that of the Holy Spirit, he expressed this in a remarkably oblique manner. What distinguished the Son from the Father and from the Holy Spirit was His incarnation. If Paul meant to say that the incarnate Son became again a purely spiritual being at His resurrection, and Christians likewise will gain this mode of being, his words to the Corinthians about the necessity of a resurrection seem curiously beside the point. Though it is clear that Paul did not articulate precisely the nature of Christ s resurrected body with all its glorious differences, he conceived of it, nonetheless, as a corporeal form of existence. This bodily transformation would also be experienced by Christians living at the time of Jesus return. As Paul told the Corinthians, We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality (vv ). Thus the experience of glorification for those alive at Christ s return begins at His appearing (cf. 1 Thess. 4:17). Earlier in this letter to the Corinthians Paul compared the present experience of salvation with the future this way: Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (13:12). The heart of glorification is this enjoyment of God s presence and the unimpaired fellowship with Him that will exist. Paul envisoned the end of all things as a state in which God may be all in all (15:28), in which no opposition will remain and His people will live completely in His presence. THE CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS Like the Old Testament prophet Isaiah (Isa. 65:17 25), Paul looked forward to a radical change in the natural world, a virtual emancipation of creation itself (Rom. 8:18 21). When Christians enter into their glorification then the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (v. 21). This renewal will take place at Christ s return. Whether this renewal will immediately give way to the eternal state or will usher in a time during which the expectations of the Old Testament prophets will find fulfillment (e.g., Isa. 11:6 9) is debated. Paul s letters are indecisive on this point, but if he envisioned such an era before the advent of the eternal state, he has given only a vague indication of it in 1 Corinthians 15: There he described the order of the resurrections as each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him (v. 23). The first stage, Christ s resurrection, has occurred. But nearly 2,000 years have elapsed, and the second stage has yet to be fulfilled. It is possible that a third stage is described in v. 24, then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has 4 More study helps at

5 destroyed all dominion, authority and power. On this reading, the resurrection of all people will take place in a third stage after the earthly renewal anticipated by the Old Testament prophets is fulfilled and judgment against all the enemies of God is completed: For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death (vv , cf. Rev. 20:1 15). Paul stated that Christ s authority will be universally acknowledged and His judgment comprehensively applied. When that is completed, the Son Himself will defer to the Father s authority in whose stead and power He had acted. That submission of the Son will be the last act of history. Then will begin the eternal state that Paul cryptically described as 3 God being all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). GENERAL RESURRECTION THE DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE IN GLORY But someone may ask, How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35 37, Jesus was the first to rise from the dead (Acts 26:23), and when he returns to this world he will raise his servants to a resurrection life like his own (1 Cor. 15:20 23; Phil. 3:20 21). He will, indeed, raise the whole human race; those who are not his through faith will be raised for sentencing (John 5:29). Christians alive at his coming will at that instant undergo a marvelous transformation (1 Cor. 15:50 54), while Christians who had died will experience a glorious re-embodiment (2 Cor. 5:1 5). There will be continuity between the mortal and the immortal body, as there was in Jesus case, for it was the body in which he had died that was raised. Paul compares the relation between the resurrection body and the mortal body to the relation between a seed and the plant that grows out of it (1 Cor. 15:35 44), a kind of continuity, we should note, that allows for great differences between the starting point and the end product. Also, says Paul, there will be in every case a contrast of quality. Our present bodies, like Adam s, are natural and earthly, subject to all sorts of weakness and decay until finally they perish. But our resurrection bodies, like Christ s, will be spiritual (created, indwelt, and sustained by 3 Zuck, R. B. (1994). A Biblical Theology of the New Testament (electronic ed.) ( ). Chicago: Moody Press. 5 More study helps at

6 the Holy Spirit) and will belong to the eternal, imperishable, immortal, heavenly order of things (1 Cor. 15:45 54). However, as the risen Jesus was recognizable by his disciples despite the change that resurrection had wrought in him, and as the re-embodied Moses and Elijah were recognizable at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:3 4), and as re-embodied Jewish saints were recognizable at the time of Jesus rising (Matt. 27:52 53), so risen Christians will be recognizable to each other, and joyful reunions beyond this world with believers whom we loved and then lost through death are to be expected. That is implicit in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 18, which was written because persons who were alive in Christ feared they had finally lost those who had died in Christ; Paul wrote as he did about Christ s return in order to assure them that they would certainly see their Christian loved ones again. As Jesus single-minded love and humility are the model to which God is conforming our regenerate characters, so his glorified body, the present form of the body through which he perfectly expressed these qualities when he was on earth, is the model for the remaking of our bodies (Phil. 3:21). The bodies that Christians have now are at best poor tools for expressing the desires and purposes of regenerate hearts, and many of the weaknesses with which the saints struggle shyness, shortness of temper, lust, depression, coolness in relationships, and so on are closely linked with our physical constitution and its patterning in our behavior. The bodies that become ours in the general resurrection will be bodies that perfectly match our perfected regenerate characters and will prove perfect instruments for our holy self-expression throughout eternity. Glorification (so called because it is a manifesting of God in our lives, 2 Cor. 3:18) is the scriptural name for God s completion of what he began when he regenerated us, namely, our moral and spiritual reconstruction so as to be perfectly and permanently conformed to Christ. Glorification is a work of transforming power whereby God finally turns us into sinless creatures in deathless bodies. The idea of our glorified final state includes (a) perfect knowledge of grace, through limitless extension of our powers of understanding (1 Cor. 13:12); (b) perfect enjoyment of seeing and being with the Father and the Son; (c) perfect worship and service of God out of a perfectly integrated nature and a heart set perfectly free for love and obedience; (d) perfect deliverance from all that is experienced as sinful, evil, weakening, and frustrating; (e) perfect fulfillment of all desires of which we are conscious (not sexual desire, Matt. 22:30; or hunger and thirst, Rev. 7:16; or desire for sleep, Rev. 22:5; but desires for more communion with God); (f) perfect completion of all that was good and valuable in this world s life but that had to be left incomplete because desire outran capacity; and (g) endless personal growth in the encompassing of all these perfect things. Paul ends his analysis in Romans 8:30 of the action whereby God saves his elect with a striking past tense: Those he justified, he also glorified. Glorification was in Paul s day, and still is, future for everyone apart from Jesus himself, but Paul s thought evidently is that since our glorification is here and now a fixed point in God s sovereign plan, it is already as good as done. The past tense is meant to let us know that it is absolutely impossible for our 6 More study helps at

7 4 glorification not to happen. Such is the sureness and certainty of the Christian hope. Regeneration is birth; sanctification is growth. In regeneration, God implants desires that were not there before: desire for God, for holiness, and for the hallowing and glorifying of God s name in this world; desire to pray, worship, love, serve, honor, and please God; desire to show love and bring benefit to others. In sanctification, the Holy Spirit works in you to will and to act according to God s purpose; what he does is prompt you to work out your salvation (i.e., express it in action) by fulfilling these new desires (Phil. 2:12 13). Christians become increasingly Christlike as the moral profile of Jesus (the fruit of the Spirit ) is progressively formed in them (2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 4:19; 5:22 25). Paul s use of glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18 shows that for him sanctification of character is glorification begun. Then the physical transformation that gives us a body like Christ s, one that will match our totally transformed character and be a perfect means of expressing it, will be glorification 5 completed (Phil. 3:20 21; 1 Cor. 15:49 53). 2 Thessalonians 2:14 Glorification (v. 14) Glorification is the final link in the chain of salvation (Rom. 8:30). Paul sees it as something flowing from the other essential elements in salvation, saying, He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 14). When the gospel is preached, the call to come to Christ is given. This phrase the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ reminds the Thesssalonians that, apart from Jesus Christ, there is no salvation and no eternal life. The church has no splendour or beauty other than in its union with Jesus Christ. With him as its King, it will share in the glory of heaven at the marriage supper of 6 the Lamb (Rev. 19:7 9). Ephesians 1:14 reveals the nature of the Holy Spirit as the down payment of our ultimate and complete glorification in heaven. Redemption in Ephesians 1:14 looks forward to the final stage of the believer s redemption, that is, his ultimate glorification. The Holy Spirit as 7 a pledge is a symbol of the believer s security in Christ. 4 Packer, J. I. (1993). Concise theology: A guide to historic Christian beliefs. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House. 5 Packer, J. I. (1993). Concise theology: A guide to historic Christian beliefs. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House. 6 McNaughton, I. (2008). Opening up 2 Thessalonians. Opening Up Commentary (57 58). Leominster: Day One Publications. 7 Enns, P. P. (1989). The Moody handbook of theology (254). Chicago, IL: Moody Press. 7 More study helps at