Glorification: Our Ultimate State

The doctrine of glorification is the truth of biblical theology that one day every believer will be in a glorified state in heaven where there will be the total removal of sin. At that time there will no longer be a possibility of future sin because we enter eternal life and will be like the Lord Jesus Christ, perfectly holy. The Greek word under consideration is the verb “doxazo” from the noun “doxa,” from which we get the English word “doxology.” The verb is translated as “glorified” in Romans 8:30 referring to believers, These whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. It is translated as “glory” in 2 Corinthians 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. Even though most of the time the word is used in the New Testament as being directed toward God, we also will experience His glory in His Kingdom (1 Thessalonians 2:12).

Glorification is the final step in sanctification and the perfection of our salvation. Christ died for believers while they were helpless sinners and enemies of God (Romans 5:8; James 4:4). By faith believers have now been justified by God’s grace (Romans 3:24). Nothing shall separate believers from the love of Christ, now or in the age to come (Romans 8:38-39). In glorification, believers will be freed from every stain of sin, not only positionally like we are now, but actually. Christ cleanses our souls to a sparkling perfection and freezes us in that flawless state for eternity. We are justified in God’s sight now so that He sees the perfect righteousness of Christ, but we are not perfectly righteous yet, that will only happen when we are glorified in heaven.

There are two facets of our glorification. First, when believers die they are instantaneously translated into glory. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Our bodies go in the grave but our spirits are with Christ and glorified (Romans 8:17). But the Bible also teaches that one day the Lord will return and will resurrect our bodies. The dead in Christ will come out first (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Their glorified spirits will rejoin with their glorified bodies to enjoy the presence of God in Heaven forever. Then those who are alive will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and be changed and immediately receive glorified bodies (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). Philippians 3:21 describes it this way, [Jesus] will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Our current bodies are subject to wrinkles, scars, age, suffering, sickness, and death. They have massive limits that remind us every day that we are human. But when the Lord comes He will transform our lowly bodies into bodies of pure glory, like His.

Scripture Reference

and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

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 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.

52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with [a]His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

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