What is glorification?
Question 07016
Glorification is the final act of God’s saving work. It is the moment when everything that salvation promised is fully and finally delivered, when the believer receives a resurrection body, is freed at last from the presence and possibility of sin, and is completely conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. It is the destination toward which justification and sanctification have always been pointing.
The Completion of Salvation
Romans 8:30 gives us the great chain of God’s saving purpose: “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” The final verb is in the past tense, which is striking given that glorification is a future event from Paul’s perspective. He writes as though it is so certain that it can be spoken of as already accomplished. The God who began the work will complete it, and from His perspective the outcome is not in doubt.
Paul clarifies what glorification looks like in Philippians 3:20-21: “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” The transformation is bodily, complete, and accomplished by Christ’s power alone. This is not merely the soul going to be with God; it is the full redemption of the entire person, body included.
The Resurrection Body
1 Corinthians 15 is the most extended treatment of the resurrection body in the New Testament. Paul uses the analogy of a seed and a plant: what is sown is genuinely related to what grows, but there is a transformation that makes the two appear quite different. The resurrection body is described as imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). This does not mean immaterial; it means animated and governed by the Spirit rather than by the limitations of the present fallen physical existence.
The template for the believer’s resurrection body is Christ’s own. He was recognisable; He ate with His disciples; He bore the marks of the crucifixion. But He also moved through locked doors and ascended into heaven. There is both continuity and transformation, the same person but liberated from every consequence of the fall.
Freedom from Sin’s Presence
Glorification completes what justification began and sanctification progressed: the total removal of sin’s influence. At justification, sin’s penalty was dealt with. Through sanctification, sin’s power is progressively broken. At glorification, sin’s very presence is removed. The conflict that Paul describes in Romans 7 will be over. There will be no more temptation, no more failure, no more need of mortification. The believer will be perfectly and permanently holy, not by constant effort but by completed transformation.
This is not a present reality, which is why Hebrews 12:14 urges believers to pursue holiness now. It is a future promise, and one of the most powerful motivations for present obedience. “We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). The certainty of glorification does not produce complacency; in genuine faith it produces a purifying hope that energises present holiness.
So, now what?
The Christian life is not lived between a certain beginning and an uncertain ending. God has not only rescued you; He has committed Himself to bring you all the way home. The present experience of struggling, failing, and falling short is not the final word. Glorification is the final word, spoken by the same God who justified you and who is sanctifying you now. Hold that end in view, and the present difficulties look very different.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18
