What God Finishes
From your first breath, your body begins to die. Knees wear out, eyes dim, memory slips, and the people you love get sick. And no matter how long you walk with Jesus, the flesh keeps fighting you. Christians are not promised an end to any of this in this life. They are promised something far greater.
We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). On that day there will be no more sickness, no more pain, and no more sin. For the first time in your life you will not have to fight yourself. You will never again lose your temper, say something you regret, or wake up with a back that hurts.
The last stage of salvation, when God makes believers fully and forever like Christ, giving them raised, immortal bodies and freeing them from sin and all its effects.
The noun glorification is not in the Bible, but the truth is everywhere in it: whom he justified, them he also glorified (Romans 8:30). Salvation is the miracle of a moment. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime. Glorification will happen in a moment, and it will last forever. Justification freed you from the penalty of sin. Sanctification is freeing you from its power. Glorification will free you from its presence.
A new body is not the final point of the story. Christ shall come to be glorified in his saints (2 Thessalonians 1:10). We will be changed, and He will get the glory for it.
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For Deeper Study
- Heaven: Your Real HomeAmazon Joni Eareckson TadaA warm evangelical book on heaven from a woman who has lived as a quadriplegic since 1967. It is especially good for those who suffer.
- HeavenAmazon Randy AlcornAn evangelical's long, Scripture-filled study of the resurrection body and the new earth. Separate his biblical arguments from his imaginative descriptions.
- Things to Come: A Study in Biblical EschatologyAmazon J. Dwight PentecostThe standard dispensational, premillennial, and pretribulational textbook, for where the rapture and the resurrections fit.
- Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian TraditionAmazon Hans BoersmaAn Anglican scholar's sympathetic history of the beatific vision. Read it to understand the view, not as a guide to doctrine.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Sanctification
God sets every believer apart in Christ the moment he trusts Him, makes him more like Christ all his life by the Spirit through the Word, and finishes the work when he sees Christ face to face.
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