The Golden Chain of Redemption (7)
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And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Introduction:
I. God’s Faithfulness (vs. 28)
II. God’s Foreknowledge (vs. 20a)
III. God’s Formula (vs. 29b)
IV. God’s Facilitation (vs. 30)
A. Predestination
B. Calling
C. Justification
D. Glorification
It is vital that we remember that as with all of the other aspects of this chain, that they are inseparable from all the other elements and is exclusively a work of God.
This section is beautifully rich because not only does it say that all that the Father predetermined to life are justified, but it also says that all the justified are glorified.
Giving us a beautiful picture of the security of the believer or the perseverance of the Saints.
All that the Father foreknew or foreordained he predestinated; that is, to predetermined a destiny.
In this context, the destiny of eternal life.
And then those that He predestined to life, He called with an effectual calling; meaning that when the Spirit comes to do His work of regenerating a predetermined sinner, the internal call of the Spirit will effect what the Spirit is sent to do.
It does not teach, as some have wrongfully said and created an mischaracterization, that you are going to be saved whether you want to or not because the call is irresistible.
The fact is that sinners resist the Gospel everyday.
What is teaches is that when the Spirit of God comes with the inward call of the Gospel and the work of regeneration, that the heart of the sinner has been radically changed in such as way that when the Spirit of God convicts, the sinner willingly chooses Christ.
And then all that the Father calls, He justifies; he declares righteous and then imputes the righteousness of Christ to us.
So then not only are we said to have not disobeyed the law of God because we have been declared to be righteous, but we are said to have obeyed the law of God because we have the imputed righteousness of Christ given to us by the Father.
And then all that the Father declares and imputes righteousness, He will one day glorify.
Giving us a radically beautiful picture of the glory of the Father and the security of the believer in the Father.
And it is all wrapped up in the Doctrine of Glorification.
The Apostle said it best in his second letter to the Corinthians.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
Ultimate glory has been a recurring theme with the Apostle Paul; not only to the Romans, but also in other letters of the NT written by his hand.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:21
To the Thessalonians Paul wrote that our ultimate glorification was the very purpose of our redemption.
To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul was so convinced of this that wrote of these things; that if you notice, that are all in the past tense.
He foreknew, He predestined, He Called, He justified, He glorified.
Paul saws these things as a fixed promise of God’s guarantee.
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Just what is glorification by definition?
Glorification is the final process of Salvation; it involves the completion of sanctification and the removal of all spiritual defects.
Just some preliminary thoughts that we must we must keep straight as we think that about the Doctrine of Justification.
This must not be confused with the intermediate state.
For those who die in faith before the return of Jesus Christ, their souls will immediately go to be with the Lord (Luke 23:43; Phil 1:23).
Because glorification involves both the body and the soul, it does not take place when a believer’s soul enters the current intermediate heaven, but rather at the second coming of Christ.
Neither is glorification to be confused with the restoration of the earth.
While is is a marvelous promise that the whole earth will be restored (), just as creation was cursed as a result of man’s sin, so also will it be redeemed as a result of man’s redemption (), these acts must not be conflated.
Glorification refers to the final process of salvation of persons, not the redemption of inanimate objects.
We must understand that not all believers will be glorified at the same time.
The dead in Christ and those that are alive at His second coming will be glorified in a twinkling of an eye at His return (, ).
Yet these will also be those that repent and turn to Christ during the time of the tribulation, while the saints are feasting at the marriage supper of the Lamb ().
According to , the tribulation saints will await their glorified bodies until the millennial reign of Christ. .
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth Glorification
Glorification is the radical transformation of both the body and the soul of believers, perfecting them in holiness, and thereby fitting them for eternal life on the new earth in perfect communion with the triune God.
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth Glorification
Murray helpfully describes glorification as “the complete and final redemption of the whole person, when in the integrity of body and spirit, the people of God will be conformed to the image of the risen, exalted, and glorified Redeemer, when the very body of their humiliation will be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory” (cf. Phil. 3:21).181
The Apostle Paul spoke of Salvation in this way:
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
What exactly did the Apostle mean when he spoke about our salvation being nearer then when we first believed?
Christ purchased redemption for the elect, by dying in their place as a propitiation for their sins.
In justification, they are freed from the penalty of sin.
In sanctification, they are freed from the power of sin.
In glorification, they are finally freed from the very presence of sin in both body and soul.
Jesus Himself indicated that this was the salvific intention of the triune God.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Glorification is also the fulfillment of Jesus’ desire to see His Church purified from all spot, wrinkle or any such thing.
so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
In our text verse, the Apostle Paul said of Christ:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Paul said that ultimate end of the purpose of the Father was to conform us to the image of Christ so that Christ would be the first born, of the preeminent one, among many of God’s people.
Meaning this: because glorification is the consummation of sanctification, in which the believers are perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, glorification especially magnifies Christ as the preeminent source of the beauty of holiness that is reflected in His perfected brethren.
Our glorification magnifies Christs’ perfection as we we will be the reflection of Him as the preeminent one.
This is why death for the believer is such a victory.
Not only do we step into the presence of the triune God, but we are one more step towards final glorification.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.