The Ordo Salutis

We will consider now the final act in the order of salvation: Glorification. When talking about glorification, we are entering into territory about which we know little about, but what we do know gives us great hope. Of glory and the heavenly state, scripture says in 1 Cor. 2.9 "... no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him".

Glorification will be God's final act of conforming us to the image of his son. Paul wrote in Rom. 8.29, that God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son. But predestination does not accomplish this goal all by itself. Rather God brings his children into conformity to his Son through a process that began with predestination. Then at the appointed time he calls and regenerates his chosen ones. He then justifies and adopts them, begins to sanctify them, and, as a final act, he glorifies them. Glorification completes and consummates the process. In the glorified state, all of God's elect will be perfectly conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will bear the image of the heavenly man.

Scripture often speaks of glorification in terms of the resurrection and transformation of our bodies when Christ's returns. So Paul writes in Romans 8.11, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." And again in Philippians 3.2,1 Paul says Christ "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 primary teaching about our being glorified is found in 1 Corinthian 15:36-57. Some of Paul's reasoning in these verses can be hard to follow, but what is very clear is that he is defending the resurrection. Strangely, there were members of the church in the ancient city called Corinth who didn't believe in the bodily resurrection, a truth that any Christian child knows very early in his or her life. How can you consider yourself a Christian and yet deny the resurrection? People in our day deny the resurrection, but they typically consider themselves atheists, denying God's existence.

Christians are people, and what we think and believe is often shaped by other people in our surroundings. That's normal and necessary if we are going to get along with others. Unfortunately, we can too easily agree with others about beliefs that are not true and even dangerous. So did the Corinthians.

Some of the church members in Corinth, were agreeing with a philosophy that is call Greek dualism. They taught that material things like trees, grass, metal, animals, and especially human bodies were a lower, weak, corrupt, evil mode of existence. There was a high form of existence that had to do with the soul, the mind, and rationality that was free from all weaknesses and corruption of the material world. So, if you want to be happy, then you need to be free of this material world and enter into the reality of the soul. Your body is a prison of your soul. You need to be set free from the body. Now if you thought this way, what you think of bodily resurrection? It meant you were going back into prison. And this is how some Christians in Paul's day thought, and Paul wants to correct them and lead them back from their error.

Missing the obvious

Paul, in 1 Cor. 15, is envisioning these "Christian dualists" when he mockingly says, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" They don't think that the resurrection body will be any different from the body we have now. This is how confused their thinking had become. We might easily say, of course, that God can create a glorified body, but they were skeptical that God could or would.

So Paul, using some analogies from creation, tries to show them that God can create a glorified body. He says, "You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory." (1 Cor. 15:36-41)

Paul appeals to creation to show that God can create a body that is different from the one we have now. Look, for instance, at the seed. You plant a seed, but it sprouts as a plant different than the seed. Further, look at the bodies of men, animals, birds, and fish: they are not alike. God has made different kinds of bodies. Again, take a look at the heavenly universe at night. You see the sun, moon, and stars, and these differ from earthly bodies of men, animal, and trees and things. Further the heavenly bodies differ in glory from one another. Sun, moon, and stars do not all shine with the same brightness.

When you look at creation you see different types of bodies and different degrees of glory. God made them all, and yet they are different. Now here is Paul's simple point. "Look, you fool, if God can create so much diversity and different kinds of bodies in creation, then why is it hard to believe that he can also create a glorified body?" This shouldn't be difficult to believe.

This shows the power of falsehood. It can darken our understanding and dull our thinking so much that we can not even see what is obvious to a child. Paul refers to such a one as a fool. This is not name-calling. He does not call the person dumb or unintelligent. He says you "fool." A fool's problem is his heart not his mind. He closes his eyes to reality. A fool will not listen to instruction because he or she is too proud. He won't receive correction because he already knows more than you. What's more, fools are gullible and naive. Really smart people can be fools. These people had become fools. Their eyes were closed to the obvious and they mocked those who had true knowledge. But worse, they failed to understand and believe that God could raise up body and transform it. Their faith in God was threatened because they believed in Greek ideas instead of gospel truths.

Our thinking and belief will be shaped by other people; this is inevitable and unavoidable. You and I think like Americans for instance, not like Afghans or even Englishman for that matter. I recall how an English minister interned in a church in the U.S. He was struck by the can-do attitude that he saw all around him. He felt that this attitude was not that prominent in England. I've seen this exhibited elsewhere as well. For us Americans this pattern of thinking and behavior is simply normal, just as Greek dualism was with the Corinthians. This was ingrained and normal. I've heard it said that the most difficult culture to understand is the one you live in. We're like fish in the water. Our culture is our habitat; we don't think about it too much and sometimes don't see the influences on how we think.

As Christian we need to be growing in discernment or we will either become or continue to be dull to the differences between truth and error. And the best way to learn the differences is to be growing in our theology, our understanding of God and his ways.

Having said this, however, we should understand that Paul's point here is that he wants us to compare the analogies in creation to the new creation. The great diversity and differentiation in creation tells us something about God. The differences between the stars, the sun, the moon, and the difference between the bodies of people and the bodies of animals and plants, tell us that God is powerful and supremely creative. So we can believe that He can create a resurrection body that is greater in glory than our present body. If we see this, then we have no problem believing He can create a glorified body.

When we look upon a plant growing in a field, we bear in mind that that plant was once a seed and now God has given it a body. And let this remind us of the resurrection which is to come. He will give us a body that is different and far more glorious than the body we have now.

The Perfect Body

What will are bodies be like when we are raised from the dead? Paul's answer is brief but filled with hope: "So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; 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 Cor. 15:42-44)

This description is meant to show the differences between our bodies now and at the resurrection. It is important to see that Paul has the same body in view. In other words, at the resurrection we are not trading our bodies for a new one. Rather it is the same body, only transformed.

This description says a lot about our current bodies. They are perishable, lowly, weak, and natural. This should keep us from worshipping our bodies as so many do in our culture. In our culture today, if we don't already have a perfect body, then we are striving to get one. Ours is the day of obsessive exercising, diets galore, and cosmetic surgery. But no matter how perfect our bodies become, they are still perishable, lowly, weak, and natural, especially when compared to the body that Christ will give us.

Does this mean that we should not exercise and take care of our bodies? Not at all. Nor am I saying that everyone at a gym is trying to get the perfect body. Many are simply getting the exercise they can't get elsewhere. Others are genuinely trying to get healthy. A helpful verse here is 1 Tim 4.7, "Bodily training profits a little but godliness holds great value, both in this life and in the next." Yes, there is some value in exercising your body. I would venture that its value is not as great as what people think. Indeed that is Paul's very point. Don't overvalue what is of little value. There is something that holds far greater value. So, yes, exercise your body; but be far more devoted to getting godliness.

We need to understand that there is a perfect body and it is given to us solely by grace. Most believers will receive their resurrection bodies long after their bodies have disintegrated into the dust.

As to this perfect body, it will be imperishable. This means it won't be susceptible to corruption and decay. It will not grow old, nor become sick. It will not die. In addition, the perfect body will be honorable and glorious. Now they are lowly, Paul says in Phil. 3:20. However much our bodies may match the Hollywood ideal of the perfect body, they are still inglorious and lowly.

Our perfect body will be raised in power. Wayne Grudem explains, "our resurrection bodies will...also be given fullness of strength and power - not infinite power like God, of course, and probably not what we would think of as "superhuman" power in the sense possessed by the "superheroes"...but nonetheless full and complete human power and strength, the strength that God intended human beings to have in their bodies when he created them." (Systematic Theology, p. 832)

Finally, the perfect body will be a spiritual body. A "spiritual body" is not a "non-physical body". It is rather a body controlled by the Holy Spirit. Note that Paul contrasts the spiritual body with the "natural" body. It's not the physical verses the spiritual, but the "natural" versus the spiritual. This helps us understand what Paul means, for the natural in Paul refers to human nature subject to sin and confined to life in this evil age. Not so with the resurrection body. It will be completely subject to the Spirit and responsive to His guidance (Grudem, p. 832). Of the four things that Paul mentions about the resurrection, this is the greatest. This speaks directly to the holiness of our lives in heaven.

Here is the perfect body as best we know of it. You will not find it in Glamour Magazine, nor on the big screen. Paul describes it here in four terms. Each arouses our hope. The fact that is will be incorruptible is a joyful thought. I am presently completely deaf in one ear, and I suffer palsy on the side of my face. But these things will be completely gone because my resurrection body will be incorruptible. Whereas now I am weak, then I will be strong. Now I know lowliness, then honor. Now I am still fighting the flesh, but then, I will follow the Spirit as I desire to follow him (Gal. 5:17).

In His Heavenly Image

Why will God glorify us with a perfect body? One answer in found in 1 Cor. 15:50, "I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." A mere mortal cannot enter and live in heaven. Heaven is a place of immortality and imperishability, and our bodies are currently the opposite.

There is a greater reason why God will change our bodies. It is so that we will match the image His Son Jesus Christ. We saw earlier that God predestined us to be conformed to his Son's likeness. This likeness refers ultimately to Christ in His state of resurrected, exalted, heavenly glory.

At this point, Paul steps back, as it were, to give us the ultimate perspective on the resurrection. He says that there are ultimately only two men. Everyone else is united to one of these two men and bears his image. There is the "first Adam" and the "last Adam". The first Adam is natural and became a living soul when God breathed life into him. He is from the earth, a man of dust. In contrast, is the last Adam, Jesus Christ. He is a "life giving Spirit"; (this means Jesus is the source of spiritual life and thus of our resurrection bodies). Further, he is from heaven and he reigns in heaven. Then Paul draws the conclusion in 1 Cor. 15:49, "Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven."

The resurrection is not so much about us in our new bodies checking out the architecture in heaven. It's more than this. It's about the Son of God. Like every doctrine and every story in the whole Bible, the resurrection is Christ-centered. From first to last salvation is about the Son of God and His glory. We get the truly awesome privilege of sharing in His glory. And this we will do only if we are fully and completely like Him. The reason why we will have a body like His, then, is that we are meant to bear the heavenly image of the last Adam.

So while every believer should look forward to having the "perfect body", this is not the main reason to desire the resurrection. The greater, far more joyous reality is that we will be like Jesus in his glory.

Here we have our questions. What is the greater glory of bearing the image of the man of heaven? What will this mean for us? What precisely will it be like? These questions remain unanswered. We simply know that we will be like Jesus and this is will be joyful and glorious. John says, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3.2)

You should understand that this teaching is not a small matter. It should have a radical impact upon our lives. It should change us from an earthbound orientation to being heavenly minded people. Paul says, "Set you minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life I is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Col. 3.2-4)

Not only this, the resurrection should create expectation in our hearts, so that we will set our hope completely on the grace which is yet to be revealed. It will be grace that will transform our lowly bodies; it will be grace that will complete us in the image of the Son of God. For these reasons we look forward to the coming of Christ with uplifted heads.