There is a moment in the future when everything corruptible, broken, sinful, decaying about you will be swallowed up in glory.
“For whom He …called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30).
From the above Scripture we can see that you have been justified so that you might be glorified.
There are different stages of salvation: 1) Justification, 2) Consecration, 3) Separation from the world, 4) Sanctification, and 5) Glorification.
Here is the truth: Justification is the legal declaration that you are righteous in Christ, no longer guilty, no longer condemned. God the Father justifies you by giving you right standing with Himself (Rom. 8:30, NLT).
Sanctification is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to maintain your holiness, changing you from the inside out.
But glorification, is when the work of salvation is completely finished. That’s when the corruption is gone, sin is silenced, and your physical body and soul are fully redeemed.
Justification changed your status. Sanctification changes your character. But glorification will change your nature, your form, your very fabric. You won’t just become better, you’ll become new. In glorification, God the Father gives you His glory (Rom. 8:30, NLT).
What is Glorification?
1. Glorification is the final and irreversible transformation of your physical body and your soul.
Man comprises of three parts – spirit, soul and physical body (1 Thess. 5:23). Jesus saved your spirit when you received Him as Lord and Saviour. He is still coming back to save your physical body and your soul.
Here is the truth: You were born into dust. You wake up every morning with the evidence of the fall in your bones – tired, frail, aging.You feel it when your thoughts betray you, when your body breaks down, when your desires pull you in directions that do not honour God. And you wonder saying, “Is this all I will ever be? Forgiven, but still fractured, saved but still stumbling?”
2. Glorification is the final act in the drama of redemption. And without it, the story of salvation is incomplete.
3. Glorification is the promised inheritance for every believer who has been justified by grace, and is being sanctified by the Spirit. It is the final crescendo in the song of salvation, a day when your entire being will be made perfect, radiant, immortal and unable to sin.
And until you understand this, you will live with one eye on your past, one foot in the present, and no true grasp of your future.
4. Glorification is the moment when the work that began with the Cross and an empty tomb explodes into final perfection.
Apostle Paul saw glorification as the goal. “And we believers also groan even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day, when God (the Father) will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved” (Rom. 8:23-24, NLT).
Your adoption was signed when Christ rose from the dead, sealed by the Holy Spirit, but it will be fully revealed when you stand glorified with a resurrected body like His. This is a body that cannot die, decay, get weary, or be tempted? A body that cannot sin or be limited by anything?
5. Glorification is the ultimate unveiling of what God always intended you to be. But make no mistakes about this: It is not a reward for those who tried hard. It is a guaranteed result of your union with Christ.
If you are in Christ, then what happened to Him must happen to you. He was raised from the grave, so, you will be raised. He was glorified, so you will be glorified.
This is not propaganda; it is your coming reality. When Christ, who is your life appears, you will also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).
Here is the truth: You were made for more than moral improvement. You were made to be clothed in glory. For instance, Adam and Eve were clothed in glory back in the garden of Eden. But when they sinned, that glory was removed from them (Gen. 3).
Ever since we have lived like people in exile, half remembering what we were supposed to be, half dreaming of what we might become. But in Christ, the way back has been opened.
6. Glorification is not a return to what Adam was. It is the fulfilment of what Adam failed to become.
It is what Paul called the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).
Paul said that he counted everything as loss just to attain it (Phil. 3:7-8). Why? Because glorification is the point at which every scar in you is undone. Every tear wiped away. Every failure loses its grip.
You will not merely be healed, you will be transformed into someone so radiant that if you could see your future self now, you will fall down and worship God like never before.
So, why do we live as if this world is the ultimate goal? Why do we store treasures in containers destined for fire? Why do we fear aging, sickness, death when these are doorways to glory? Why are we content with being forgiven but not changed? Why are we content with being justified, but the salvation is not completed?
But the Gospel never ends at forgiveness. It ends at glorification. It ends in you standing in a body that can never die, seeing God face to face, reigning with Christ, radiating of the one who redeemed you.
The truth is, if you are in Christ, the glory has already been written into your story. There is a moment, so sudden, so violent, so beautiful that it will split time itself. Every grave will break open. Every scar will vanish, and what has been groaning in the shadows will step into the light.
When will the glorification take place? Scripture tells us that we will be glorified at His return to rapture the saints (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
The dead in Christ will rise with bodies from dirt to glory. Then Paul goes on to say that we who are alive and remain will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16). This is the timeline, not folklore, not fiction.
To be continued!!
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
Your friend, I. I. Madubunyi (Senior Pastor, HOG).
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