Glorification and Hope

Salvation is a work that is entirely from God to the undeserving sinner. As Christians, we often ask others the questions, "When were you saved?" However, salvation is a work of three parts, namely justification, sanctification, and glorification. This is an easily found doctrine in the Bible, but one verse I read recently does an excellent job in displaying what God has done for us in this. First Corinthians 1:9-10 says, "Yes, we had the sentence of death on ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us."

In justification, we are declared righteous by God. He imputes his righteousness into our account by regenerating us to repentance. Though we are sinful, we have the standing of the righteousness of God. This is a punctuated moment in time. This is God's deliverance from so great a death.

In sanctification, we are continually being made into the image of God. This is a progressive work that goes on throughout the believers life. Some embrace this process more than others do. However, all genuine believers will bear fruit; those who claim to be justified but never bear any fruit are not saved. Christians often seem to focus on the fact that they were saved from the penalty of sin, but not on the fact that we are being saved from sin, namely the power of sin and the hardship it brings.

Glorification is the completion of sanctification. This is what I would like to focus this blog on, and also the hope that comes with it. In sanctification, we are never fully made like Christ, but in glorification, our sinful, immoral bodies are removed and we receive a glorified body. This is the fact that "He will still deliver us."

This brings me to my discussion on the resurrection. As a brief explanation of the background to the passages I will be listing in Paul's letters to the church in Corinth, one must understand that the church at Corinth is under attack by false teachers. These teachers, who attack Paul's integrity and sow seeds of dissension, are also the resurrection of believers. They believed that all matter is evil, and that hence the resurrection wasn't true. (It is interesting to note that this same Gnostic philosophy is even seen in such recent issues as the supposed Gospel of Judas, which teaches that Jesus did good in turning in Jesus because Judas was freeing Jesus from his evil flesh).

Therefore, in both his letters we have to this church Paul spends extensive time on reiterating the resurrection. Paul says, "Now I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:50)." In other words, believers in their current bodies could not inherit an incorrupt heaven. However, he goes on the explain that "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed...the dead will be raised incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:51,52)." This is what Paul is speaking of in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, saying:

"For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation that is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee."

Believers in their current tent (body) groan and wait for their glorified bodies. Indeed, we long not to rid ourselves of our bodies, but rather to be further clothed in our incorrupt glorified bodies. Those who God has prepared for this, meaning believers, are given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee and a seal for this future inheritance.

My largest application for this comes within 1 Corinthians 15 (its always good to use context). A very popular verse is found in 1 Corinthians 15:58, saying, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." How is it we can be encouraged during difficult times? How is it that we can be lifted up in ministry when everything seems ineffective, when you feel like you are wasting your time? It is because of our future resurrection! I could not word it better than John MacArthur, who says about this verse, "The hope of resurrection makes all the efforts and sacrifices in the Lord's work worth it...No work done in His name is wasted in light of eternal glory and reward."

If you are feeling down today, or worn out, especially in doing good, pray to God for his Spirit to work in you and open the spiritual eyes of your heart to behold the hope we have in our future glorification! How amazing it will be! How trivial our suffering and hardship and failures on this earth will seem when weighed with the glory we will receive in Christ in our future resurrection! I will close this post with one of the most encouraging passages in scripture, also found in 2 Corinthians, specifically chapter 4 verses 16 and 17.

"Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen."

Amen.