What the Bible Teaches--A Guide to Total Christian Commitment
by Rev. James McRobbie    ©Pillar of Fire, International 
"For the redeemed, the glorified state will mean perfect deliverance from sin, sickness, pain, and death- all that was entailed in the curse."
Learn more about the power of the Holy Spirit for personal holiness through Sanctification

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Chapter 13 Contents: [Man and Glorification] [When Will Glorification Take Place?] [Our Glorious Bodies]

 [What the Bible Teaches refers to numerous passages from the Bible. Your study will be greatly
enhanced by looking up the verses as you go along. If you want to look up Bible verses online as you study, clicking here will open up "The Bible Gateway" in a new window. You may then use the title buttons on your browser screen to move back and forth between the Bible and this study. All quotations in What the Bible Teaches are from the King James Version [KJV] unless otherwise specified.]

Chapter 13: What the Bible Teaches ABOUT GLORIFICATION

    Step by step in His unique scheme of redemption God in sovereign goodness leads fallen and sinful men back to Himself. Side by side with the beginning of transgression in the opening chapters of Genesis, we see the inauguration of this gracious plan [Genesis 3:15]. This redemption scheme, like all other phases of the Creator's handiwork, is perfect. Yet this does not undo the terms of the curse that fell on man at the beginning, except in the consummation of the church at the coming of the Lord. In compliance with the divine law, in order that man might in due time be the recipient of the fulness and perfection of redemption, it is necessary for him to pass through the portals of death. By this, the earthly body, having served its purpose, will return to its element, so that the soul, the man himself, may enter into the state of perfection when he will be clothed upon with a "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." This "house which is from heaven" [2 Corinthians 5:1-3], with which we are clothed, is the celestial or glorified body. God leads all who yield to Him from transgression to a "new creation," comparable to regeneration and justification, then by the dynamic cleansing of the Holy Spirit, to sanctification, by which we will indeed be "perfect in love," and finally to glorification in His own very presence through the working whereby He is able to subdue all things.

Man and Glorification

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    Glorification has to do with the body only. It cannot take place in this life, for the terms of the curse upon the physical body can be absolved only by death. It has to do therefore with the future glory of man through and beyond death in the life to come.
    The glorified body can be explained only in the terms of God's omnipotence, for He alone is able to raise it and fashion it after the identity of the earthly tabernacle. The human body, subject to disease, decrepitude and death, is important, for it is to be raised. In the spirit realm there was a contention over the body of Moses at the time of his decease [Jude 9], from which we might gather that there was importance attached to it. Body and soul are equally declared to exist in the world to come [Matthew 5:29-30; 10:28]. In this, of course, we naturally think of the glorified bodies of the saints, but the Scriptures also show that the bodies of the wicked are to be raised and that they are to exist hereafter, too [Daniel 12:2; Acts 24:15]. There is no promise of glorification and blessing for the wicked even though they are to live in a body beyond. Resurrection will proffer no hope for them: wickedness will return to wickedness, lust to lust, greed to greed, to suffer in body and soul through the passing of eternal ages.
    For the redeemed, the glorified state will mean perfect deliverance from sin, sickness, pain and death -- all that was entailed in the curse.
 

When Will Glorification Take Place?

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    People are not glorified when they die. Even if it their exalted lot to go directly to be with Jesus in heaven at death [Philippians 1:23], yet the glorification of the body does not take place until "that day" for which all creation groans, approaches [Romans 8:19], even the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The "crown of righteousness" which St. Paul looked for was not to come to him at death, but at "that day" -- the day of His appearing [2 Timothy 4:8].
    The saints are to return with Christ, He and they in glorified bodies.  "Even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him" [1 Thessalonians 4:14]. How and when will the change take place? The Word speaks for itself. [See 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54.] The "dead in Christ" shall rise first. This is the "first resurrection" [Revelation 20:5-6]. Christ is the "firstfruits," afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised." Up from the grave they will come! What a bursting asunder of the tomb there will be! Just as the body of Jesus was quickened by the power of God so will the bodies of the saints be quickened through the power of the Spirit. That which is sown in weakness will be raised in power.
    Immediately following the first resurrection will be the instant change of the living saints, for the "dead in Christ" shall rise first. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" we shall be changed. The natural will suddenly change to supernatural; the mortal will instantly be clothed with immortality.
    Conjointly with the instant change of the saints will be the glorious rapture of the changed ones through the skies to meet the Lord in the air. We will then be "caught up together with them [the resurrected saints] in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."
    There will be then (1) the resurrection of the dead in Christ, (2) the instant change of the living saints, and (3) the rapture.
    What will we do when we gather with our gracious Lord in that glorious meeting place in the skies -- body and soul reunited? That will indeed be the crowning day for the loyal children of God. Here will be the union of bride and Bridegroom. This will be the wedding banquet of the skies for which will be required the pure and perfect garment of holiness [Matthew 22:11-13]. Christ's own will gather with Him at His judgment seat to receive their rewards [Luke 14:14; 2 Corinthians 5:10]. There, glorified together with Christ, they will be feasting in the highest degree of bliss, waiting the moment when they will return with Him in glory, while the horrors of the tribulation will be raging upon the earth.

Our Glorious Bodies

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    Christians have their citizenship in heaven. Their interests are there. How can they be expected to do as the unsaved masses do? They are constantly alert for the moment when Christ will return. To Him at His coming will be delegated the power to change and fashion these bodies of ours like unto His own glorious body. Here is this classical scripture as it is in the Revised Version [Philippians 3:20-21]:
"For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself."
    The scene on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah appeared with the transfigured Christ, was a foreshadowing of the coming glorified state of those who will participate in the glory of the life to come. The "majesty" of that occasion Peter declares to be an affirmation of the "power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" [2 Peter 1:16]. This goes to confirm that during the millennial age, Christ and those who will return with Him will have bodies supernaturally adapted to circumstances in both the celestial and terrestrial worlds.
    Whatever Jesus will be at His coming, the Scriptures plainly teach that we shall be, in His likeness. "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him" [1 John 3:2]. Paul reasons that if we are the children of God we are heirs of God and "joint-heirs with Christ," and if we are faithful in trial and "suffer with him," we shall be "glorified together" with Him. Then as a stimulus to fidelity he assures the suffering saints that the hardships of the "present time" are so insignificant as "not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." When Peter exhorted the "elders" to feed the flock of God wholeheartedly, and with a "ready mind" irrespective of "filthy lucre," he reminded them that when the "Chief Shepherd" would appear they would then receive an abundant reward, even a "crown of glory that fadeth not away" [1 Peter 5:4].
    St. Paul in all his "abundant labors" was constantly "forgetting those things" which were behind; he pressed "toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" [Philippians 3:14]. May we likewise "count all things loss" so that with him we may "attain unto the resurrection from the dead" [Philippians 3:11, R.V.], when this body of "our humiliation" will give place to one
"Like unto his own glorious body."

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