Glorification

The moment a sinner trusts Jesus Christ as Savior, he is saved, fully and forever. Yet God’s work on the believer’s behalf unfolds in three tenses. Justification is past tense: God has declared him righteous, and the penalty of sin is paid in full. Sanctification is present tense: having set the believer apart for Himself, God is now at work in his daily life, growing him in holiness and steadily breaking sin’s power. And glorification is future tense, the day God finishes what He began, delivering us from the very presence of sin and giving us bodies fit for eternity.

Put another way, the believer has been delivered from sin’s penalty, is being delivered from its power, and will one day be delivered from its presence. The first is behind us, the second is underway, and the third lies ahead, turning our eyes toward the horizon with hope.

What Is Glorification?

Glorification is the final stage of salvation, when God completes His work and brings the believer fully into His glory. The whole person is made new: spirit, soul, and body. Ultimate sanctification and glorification are closely tied. Both reach their fulfillment when we see Him, and the same promise stands behind them: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Glorification is not something we achieve or grow into. Like justification, it is God’s work from beginning to end.

God Already Sees You Glorified

Here is one of the most remarkable truths in the Bible. Look carefully at the tense Paul uses: “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” (Romans 8:30).

Paul does not say “will glorify.” He says glorified, past tense. Our glorification has not yet happened in our experience, but God speaks of it as done, because with Him it is certain. He is not bound by time as we are, and what He has promised, He sees as accomplished.

The Bible gives us other glimpses of this. Paul says God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). And Jesus prayed, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22).

What does this mean for us? It does not mean we are already free from sin. We know better, and so does the apostle Paul. But it does mean that your future is not in doubt. The chain from justification to glory is held by God. How we grow along the way matters, and it will look different for each believer, but where we end up does not depend on how well we have done. Paul asks whether anything can break it, and then answers: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

The Body Made New

Glorification includes our bodies. Right now, we live in bodies that grow tired, get sick, and eventually die. Paul says even we “…groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

That redemption is coming. Paul describes the change this way: “…It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body…” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). And Christ “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:21).

When does it happen? At the Rapture, when the Lord returns for His church: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Paul calls this “that blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), and for the believer, that is exactly what it is.

The result is a total victory: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:53-54).

Free From the Presence of Sin

This is the part that many believers long for most. Every struggle with temptation, every stumble, every sorrow that sin has brought into the world will be over. Sin will not simply be forgiven or resisted. It will be gone. Revelation describes the scene: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

And we will stand before God as He sees us in Christ: “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy…” (Jude 24).

Looking Ahead With Hope

If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, your future is secure. The penalty of sin is behind you, the power of sin is being broken, and the presence of sin will one day be gone. Until then, this hope is meant to shape how we live: “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). And whatever we face in the meantime, Paul gives us this perspective: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

The One who justified you and is sanctifying you will also glorify you. What He has begun, He will finish.