Week 9: The Gift of Salvation--Part III

Glorification--Forever Saved From Sin

For the last two weeks we have been studying the various aspects of salvation. In Week 7, we found that God offers a means of salvation from the eternal consequences of sin through justification. Last week, we learned how God works to save us from the earthly consequences of sin through sanctification. This week, we examine glorification, which refers to how God will provide an everlasting salvation from sin.

The Bible teaches that sin entered the world through one man--and has been with us ever since (Romans 5:12). But Adam wasn't the first to sin; before him there was at least one other who rebelled against God. We can see this in the actions of the "serpent" who appeared in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-5) to entice Eve into sin. One might argue that given a freedom to choose and a temptation to choose "wrong," it was inevitable that humanity would eventually introduce sin into the world. It seems natural to wonder then how God will prevent this tragedy from reoccurring. If heaven is to be a place free of sin, what will keep its inhabitants from sinning again as they did on earth? Here again, we see the helplessness of our situation. Having "fallen short" of God's standard (Romans 3:23), we are powerless to provide for our own eternal security; so God offers justification. Forced to deal with the effects of our sinful nature (Romans 7:15-25), we must rely on God's sanctifying work in our lives to free us from the "body of death" (v.24) caused by sin in our lives on this earth. And in the end, we must rely on God again to ultimately perfect us in such a way that our existence in heaven will be free of sin. What an encouragement to know that this too is part of God's amazing plan of salvation!

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)

Indeed, as believers we "will be changed." Our bodies wrought with pain, sickness, weakness and sin are not fit for eternity. But how will we be changed? What will our bodies be changed into? Paul answers these questions in his letter to the believers in Philippi:

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)

We see here that Christ will transform our bodies into one like His. The apostle John would later write similar words in his epistle:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

Just as Jesus Christ, our high priest, was without sin on this earth (Hebrews 4:15), our ultimate freedom from sin is secure in the fact that we shall be like Him. The hope of eternal life is our inheritance; the glorification that awaits us, our ultimate "salvation" from sin:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22-23)

The three aspects of God's salvation have often been described as God saving us from the penalty of sin (justification), the power of sin (sanctification), and finally from the presence of sin (glorification). We have already seen how our bodies will be transformed through God's work of glorification. Were sin to ever rear its ugly head again in heaven, we would have the power (and the will) to resist it as Christ did on this earth. But thankfully, we as believers will not have to face this possibility. God will someday triumph over death--our "last enemy" (1 Corinthians 15:26) and the "wages" of our sin on earth. (Romans 6:23, cf. Genesis 3:17-23)

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

How many of us can sympathize with Paul when he wrote that "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do" (Romans 7:15). Imagine an existence where what we want to do, we do! Imagine a life free of temptation and the desire to do what is wrong. It won't be for a lack of freedom that we do not sin in Heaven, but rather, for a lack of interest! Praise God, His work of glorification in us and his final judgement on Satan (Revelation 20:10) will ensure it.

As we survey the work of salvation in justification, sanctification, and glorification, we rejoice that God has chosen to save us from sin--past, present, and the future!

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:29-31)

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