Theological Term of the Week: Glorification

glorification

The completion of the application of redemption to believers in which all of God’s people will be instantly and perfectly conformed, both body and spirit, to the image of the risen and glorified Christ when he returns.

• From scripture: 

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  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 shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-53 ESV).

… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  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 (Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV) 

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith: 

CHAPTER 32
Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead




2. At the last day, such as are found alive shall not die, but be changed: and all the dead shall be raised up, with the selfsame bodies, and none other (although with different qualities), which shall be united again to their souls forever.

• From Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray: 

Without resurrection of the body from the grave and the restoration of human nature to its completeness after the pattern of Christ’s resurrection on the third day and according to the likeness of the glorified human nature in which he will appear in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory there is no glorification. It is not the vague sentimentality and idealism so characteristic of those whose interest is merely the immortality of the soul. Here we have the concreteness and realism of the Christian hope epitomized in the resurrection to live everlasting and signalized by the descent of Christ from heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God.

Learn more:

1. Gerald Bray: Glorification
2. Ligonier Ministries: Glorification
3. Martin Blocki: The Ordo Salutis: Glorification
4. R. C. Sproul: The Difference Between Our Sanctification and Our Glorification (video)
5. Michael Horton: Glorification (video)

Related terms:

• justification
• sanctification
• spiritual body

Filed under Salvation

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Sunday Hymn: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but thou art mighty;
Hold me with thy pow’rful hand;
Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven,
Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through;
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be thou still my Strength and Shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of death, and hell’s Destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side;
Songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever give to thee.

—Will­iam Will­iams

Another hymn for this Sunday:

• When This Passing World Is Done at The Happy Wonderer 

Theological Term of the Week: Federal Headship

federal headship

The position of Adam and Christ as God-appointed representatives of their descendants. Adam was the federal head of the whole human race, and he acted on their behalf in the fall, so in Adam, the whole human race is born under God’s judgment as guilty sinners. Christ is the federal head of all believers, and he acted on their behalf during his obedient life and substitutionary death, so God will judge all believers to be righteous in Christ.

• From scripture: 

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:12-21 ESV)

• From The London Baptist Confession 1689: 

Chapter 6: Of the Fall of Man, Of Sin, And of the Punishment Thereof

2._____ Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

3._____ They being the root, and by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free.

Learn more:

1. Guy Waters: Federal Headship
2. Ligonier Ministries: Our First Federal Head
3. Simply Put Podcast: Federalism
4. R. C. Sproul: Adam’s Fall and Mine
5. Chris Gordon: Two Gardens, Two Adams, and the Forgiveness of Your Sins
6. Michael Reeves: Christ Mended What Adam Broke (video)

Related terms:

• imputation
• original sin

Filed under Salvation

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.