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The Glorified Romans 8:30
Who are those people described by God the Holy Ghost as “glorified”? What does it mean to be “glorified”? How is glorification accomplished?
Glorification To be “glorified” is to be made glorious, as our Lord Jesus was on the Mount and in his exaltation as our God-man Mediator. When he had brought in everlasting righteousness by his life of perfect obedience to the law and will of God as our Representative, when he had satisfied the justice of God by the sacrifice of himself and put away our sins by pouring out his life’s blood as our Substitute, when he had finished his work of obedience as our Covenant Surety and Jehovah’s Righteous Servant, our Savior entered into his glory. That glory he had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5) was given to him manifestly in time when he was taken up to heaven (Acts 1:9-11). It was given to him from everlasting as our accepted Surety and Sacrifice, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” And it is this same glory, this same glorification, that the Lord Jesus freely gives to all his people (John 17:22).
Glorified The Word of God declares that God’s elect, those eternally loved of God and predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, have been (all at one time in eternity) called and justified in Christ, “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” “accepted in the Beloved,” and “sanctified” (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:3-6; Jude 1). And God the Holy Ghost here tells us that they were all, at one time, “glorified”. Such is the eternal union of God’s elect with Christ that as he had this glory with the Father before the world was, so we had this glory with him! And, as his eternal glory was made manifest in time, so our glorification in him and with him is made manifest in time. The salvation of God’s elect is as a line drawn from eternity to eternity, done from eternity, experienced in time, and consummated in eternity. What unspeakable comfort! What blessed assurance!
Resurrection Glory Every chosen, redeemed, called, sanctified sinner is given faith in Christ, faith by which we live in this world receiving all grace from God our Savior. Soon, we shall drop this temporary tabernacle of clay, this body of flesh and death. When we do, we will enter into glory. But that is not the end. In the last day, when Christ appears in his glorious second advent, we will appear with him in glory, being raised from the dead and glorified together with him (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). That glorification shall be our consummate and perfect conformity to our dear Savior, perfect and uninterrupted communion with him, everlasting and incessant vision of him, and complete freedom from all that is evil and the perfect enjoyment of all that is good forever!
Present Glorification This glorification is already done with respect to that part of God’s elect who are in heaven, as they walk in their uprightness (Isaiah 57:1-2) in their houses “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2), awaiting the resurrection glorification of their bodies. Indeed, there is a sense in which it is already true regarding God’s saints on the earth. Being born of God they are on earth. It is written, “The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold” (Psalm 45:13). Being made glorious within by the grace of Christ and arrayed and adorned with the glorious robe of his righteousness, we are already made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12). The righteousness of Christ imputed to us in free justification gives every believing sinner a right to eternal glory. And the righteousness of Christ imparted to us in sanctification, making us new creatures in Christ, making us partakers of the divine nature, giving us that “holiness without which no man shall see the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Peter 1:4; Hebrews 12:14). The grace we have received is the beginning, pledge, and earnest of the glory to come. “The Lord will give grace and glory” (Psalm 84:11). All to whom he gives grace he shall give glory. And by the gift of grace, by which grace we have faith in Christ, we have the witness and evidence of God himself that we are already glorified in Christ our Head and Representative.
Don Fortner
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Pastor Fortner’s
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