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Condensed Theology

A Primer in Systematic Theology

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation


What does the Bible teach about salvation?

Glorification

Glorification and the Application of Redemption


Its Place in the Ordo Salutis

Glorification and the Application of Redemption


Election Predestination (Effectual/Effective) Calling Regeneration Definitive Sanctification Repentance Faith Justification Adoption Progressive Sanctification Glorification

What Is Glorification?

Glorification Is Centered in Union with Christ

Glorification Is Centered in Union with Christ


1 Cor 1:30: But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption. 1 Cor 15:20-23: But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, 2 Cor 4:14: knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.

Glorification Is the Final Step of Our Salvation

Glorification Is the Final Step

Rom 5:9-10: Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Rom 8:17: and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Rom 8:30: and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Glorification Is Cosmic Transformation

Glorification Is Cosmic Transformation

Matt 19:28: And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Acts 3:21: whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. 2 Pet 3:13: But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

Glorification Is Cosmic Transformation

Rom 8:17-22: and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

Glorification Is Personal

Glorification Is Personal

Rom 8:11: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Rom 8:17: and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Rom 8:30: and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Glorification Is Personal

1 Thess 4:14-17: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Glorification Is Personal

Dan 12:2: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. John 5:28-29: Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. Phil 3:20-21: For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Glorification Is Personal

2 Cor 5:1-4: For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 1 Cor 15:12-58 <Turn there in your Bibles>

What Will Our Bodies Be like Once Glorified?

Our Bodies Glorified

In a word, our bodies will be like Christs.

Phil 3:21: who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. 1 Cor 15:49: Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 John 3:2: Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Our Bodies Glorified


Of course, to say that our bodies will be like Christs begs the question What is Christs body like now that it has been glorified?

Luke 24:3, 6: but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.6He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee. Luke 24:39: "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. Luke 24:41-43: While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them.

Our Bodies Glorified

1 Cor 15:42-44: So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 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. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Our Bodies Glorified


Durability (it is raised an imperishable body): Our bodies will no longer be subject to corruption. Honor (it is raised in glory): This is the opposite of disgrace. I take this to mean that there will be an overturning of the shame experienced in the garden at the fall cf. 1 Cor 15:47, 49. Strength (it is raised in power): No longer will we be subject to weakness, sickness, or fatigue. Spirituality (there is also a spiritual body): This does not mean an immaterial rather than material body (we will be like Jesus); it means that we will be suited for the life in the Spirit that we have only begun to experience now. They will be consistent with the character and activity of the Holy Spirit (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 832).

Our Souls Glorified

Our Souls Glorified

Col 1:22: yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Jude 24: Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy. 1 Cor 1:8: who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Glorified in Body and Soul

Glorified in Body and Soul

To be glorified means to be comprehensively transformed and suited for communion with God in the totality of our being. We are whole persons; and our resurrection therefore encompasses our whole selves. At the same time, you must understand that there is nothing sinful about the current condition of our physical bodies. Sin does not reside in our flesh. This asserts an unhealthy and unbiblical definition of the nature of sin and the fall.

Glorified in Body and Soul


Our bodies suffer from the effects of the fall God cursed them. But our bodies do not sin, we do. Take the soul out of the body and wait to see if it will sin: He who has died is freed from sin (Rom 6:7). Why, then, the need for transformed bodies? Because our bodies current condition makes them ill-suited for eternitythe curse has rendered them as temporary rather than permanent dwellings.

The Chief End of Glorification

The Chief End of Glorification

Conformity to the image of Jesus Christ

Rom 8:17: and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Rom 8:29-30: For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

The Chief End of Glorification

The conformity cannot, of course, have in view conformity to him in [terms of his eternal sonship]. The conformity includes conformity to the likeness of the body of Christs glory, and must, therefore, be conceived of as conformity to the image of the Son incarnate.

The Chief End of Glorification

But the glorified Christ does not cease to be the eternal Son. Hence conformity to his image as incarnate and glorified is conformity to the image of him who is the eternal and only-begotten Son.

The Chief End of Glorification

This is the highest end conceivable for created beings, the highest end conceivable not only by men but also by God himself. God himself could not contemplate or determine a higher destiny for his creatures (John Murray, Collected Writings, 2.316).

The Chief End of Glorification


Conformity to the image of the Son dovetails with what is really the ultimate end of our glorification: the glory of God. I say it dovetails with conformity to the image of the Son because the son is the image of the Father; Therefore to be perfectly conformed to the image of the Son is to magnify in ourselves the glory of God.

The Chief End of Glorification

The glory of God


Rom 5:2: we exult in hope of the glory of God. Eph 1:6: to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Eph 1:12: to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. Eph 1:14: who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. 1 Cor 15:28: When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.

Sanctification and Glorification

Sanctification and Glorification


If we will be made perfectly holy at our glorification, we must also assert that glorification is a kind of perfected sanctificationthe completion of our sanctification. And it is

Phil 1:6: For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Sanctification and Glorification

And if conformity to the image of Christ to the glory of God is the end of glorification, we must also be saying that progressive sanctification is a kind of progressive glorification. And it is

2 Cor 3:18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Conclusion
Toward a Definition of Glorification

Conclusion: A Definition of Glorification

Glorification is the act of God whereby the entirety of our being is transformed into perfect conformity with the Lord Jesus Christ in order to magnify the value of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father for all eternity.

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