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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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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Theological Term of the Week: External Call

external call

The invitation offered to all who hear the gospel; “the presentation and offering of salvation in Christ to sinners, together with an earnest exhortation to accept Christ by faith, in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins and life eternal.”1 Sometimes called general call, universal call, or gospel call.

• From scripture: 

[Jesus] said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  (Luke 24:47 ESV)

I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:20-21 ESV)

• From the Canons of Dordt, Head III-IV, Articles 8 and 9:: 

Article 8: The Serious Call of the Gospel

Nevertheless, all who are called through the gospel are called seriously. For seriously and most genuinely God makes known in his Word what is pleasing to him: that those who are called should come to him. Seriously he also promises rest for their souls and eternal life to all who come to him and believe.

Article 9: Human Responsibility for Rejecting the Gospel

The fact that many who are called through the ministry of the gospel do not come and are not brought to conversion must not be blamed on the gospel, nor on Christ, who is offered through the gospel, nor on God, who calls them through the gospel and even bestows various gifts on them, but on the people themselves who are called. Some in self-assurance do not even entertain the Word of life; others do entertain it but do not take it to heart, and for that reason, after the fleeting joy of a temporary faith, they relapse; others choke the seed of the Word with the thorns of life’s cares and with the pleasures of the world and bring forth no fruits. This our Savior teaches in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13).

• From Living for God’s Glory by Joel Beeke: 

..[T]wo calls need to be distinguished: and outward or general call that everyone hears, which can be rejected (John 7:41b-42; 10:20; Heb. 12:25), and an inward call that God extends to the elect, which always results in conversion (Matt 22:9; Acts 2:39; Rom. 9:11; 1 Tim. 6:12).

With the outward call, the gospel is preached and a call to salvation is extended to everyone who hears the message. God is serious about offering Christ to all hearers. …All men without distinction are invited to come and drink freely of the water of life in Christ Jesus (Isa. 55:1-7; John 4:14). Forgiveness and salvation are promised to all who repent and believe (2 Thess. 2:14; Rom. 10:15).  

• From Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray: 

We may properly speak of a call which is not in itself effectual. The is often spoken of as the universal call of the gospel. The overtures of grace in the gospel addressed to all men without distinction are very real and we must maintain that doctrine with all it’s implications for God’s grace, on the one hand, and for man’s responsibility and privilege, on the other. It is not improper to refer to that universal overture as a universal call.

Learn more:

1. Louis Berkhof: Calling in General and External Calling
2. Wilhelmus A. Brakel: The External and Internal Call
3. Herman Bavinck: The Universal Proclamation of the Gospel and the Particular Gospel of Grace
4. Anthony Hoekema: The Gospel Call and the Effetual Call

Related terms:

• effectual call
• gospel
• irresistable grace
• regeneration

1 Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, page 459.

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.