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.

An article written to teenagers about the dangers of idolatry is just as much an article written to the parents of teenagers. This is the case for two reasons. First, parents are the primary disciplers of their children (Deut 6; Psalm 78:1-11; Eph. 6:3). Secondly, every Christian household, particularly the head of the house should, like Joshua, order his home around the worship and service of God. Joshua declared to assembled tribes of Israel:

"And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" (Josh. 24:15).

If parents of teenagers serve the idols predominant in contemporary American culture, then it is hard to see how children can be brought up in the instruction and discipline of the Lord.

It may also be naïve to think we can have our kids read an article about idolatry and then assume they will apply it. For some youth this may happen, but for many, probably not. Parents are going to have to work with them to apply biblical teaching about idolatry to their own hearts. So, yes, give this article to your teenager, but ask questions and engage in discussion with him or her.

Look to Your Heart

Yet this is an article directed to covenant youth who are maturing into adulthood. So let's start with a question to teenagers or those youth-transitioning-to-adulthood, "Do you have a heart for God?" I am not asking whether you go to church, sing hymns, read your Bible, memorize the catechism, or do what your mom and dad tell you. You know as well as any that you can be holding a hymnal during a song in worship, but you wish you were holding your phone and texting. We can ask the question another way: "what do you have a heart for?"

It is important that we make a distinction between doing religious things and having a heart for God, because our walk with God proceeds from our hearts. In fact, everything we think, say, or do flows from our hearts. To be honest, even the most mature and godly Christians forget this, but youth tend to forget or be oblivious to the reality nearly always. This is why Proverbs, written to covenant youth coming into adulthood, calls upon teenagers to look to their hearts: "My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh." He is saying that his words are very important, so pay very close attention. Don't blow these words off. Then he says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life" (Prov. 4:20-23).

Our heart is our "control center." Our heart is our inner person; from it flow our emotions, thoughts, words, and deeds. If we love God, it is because our heart treasures him; if we hate God, such antagonism is from the heart as well. Whatever controls our heart controls us. And what controls our hearts is what we prize and treasure and trust. Jesus declared "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:21). Now Proverbs calls us to keep our hearts and to do so diligently. Heart care is not to be a passing exercise, but constant battle.

If you are a teen, this focus on the heart may have special relevance to you. Paul David Tripp in his book Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens, says that characteristically teens have a lack of heart awareness.¹ He writes, "it seems as if teenagers particularly struggle with [a lack of heart awareness] because they tend to think of life in such behavioral, physical, and present terms. They don't tend to spend much time searching their hearts¼ They tend to stay focused on the external, present moment."² Whether this describes you or not, it is clear from Scripture we all need to look to our hearts. Do you have a heart for God?

Keep Yourselves from Idols

We should keep our heart and lives from idolatry. The Apostle John concludes his letter to the churches by exhorting us to keep ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21). The word John uses, here translated as "keep," is a military term carrying the sense of guard or protect. Idolatry is something that we need to keep vigilant about. This guarding is the responsibility of each Christian individually. It is the responsibility of parents toward their children. Have our boys, for instance, made an idol of video games? There is the communal responsibility for Christians: are you praying for a brother or sister who is showing too much adoration for the contemporary idol of materialism? And the church officers are called to keep watch over the flock, which includes knowing the idols of our age and looking to see whether God's people are flirting with them. The church or the Christian has never been beyond the temptation to idolatry, as John's command assumes. Both biblical history and precept and church history confirm that God's people still have a corrupt inclination to the spiritual adultery that is idolatry. Our hearts still find the world's idols alluring. So we should keep close tabs on our heart and life lest we follow after idols.

To do this we need to have an idea of what idolatry is. "Idolatry," say the Heidelberg Catechism, "is to conceive or have something else in which to place our trust instead of, or besides, the one true God who has revealed Himself in His Word." Notice that on this definition an idol is "something else" beside the one true God of the Bible. Idols, then, are "God-replacements" according Paul (Rom. 1:18-25). A reason that idols exist is because man is a worshiper by nature. It is not the case that he sinfully turns from God to become a non-worshiper. The God-denying atheist worships something-perhaps his atheism or some form of immorality or the apparent freedom that it gives him from God. An idol is a false god, then, that has replaced the true God in the idolater's hearts and lives. Idolatry is a function of our corrupt nature and intrinsic to the very heart of sin. Idolatry, therefore, is not something they do. It's what we all do or are tempted to do. We must keep ourselves from idols.

Idols rob God of His glory. Men ascribe to their idols characteristics which are not inherent in them, but actually belong to God. For instance, the Canaanite idol Baal, was thought to have the power to give rain and withhold it. But the scripture says that God is Lord, maker of heaven and earth and guides nature according to his will (Psalm 104). Same goes for the contemporary idols of sex, sports, materialism, and the like. When we worship money, for instance, we are treating it like it can satisfy the deep longing of our hearts to be happy. When we invest ourselves in our careers in order to get meaning and fulfillment through the praise and power it brings, we worship the idol of success. In all this, however, we are crediting to created things a potency and honor that belongs to God alone. In the end we are only worshiping ourselves, through the medium of an idol. Yet, it is all a sham. Men may glory in their idols, but their glory is really their shame. Paul says of idolaters their "end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame-who set their mind on earthly things" (Phil. 3:19).

So look to your heart; I would encourage you to think about what your heart really treasures. To what are you really devoted? This does not mean that you cannot be devoted, in a sense to the good things and outcomes of this world. A man can be devoted to his family. But to what belongs your primary love and devotion? Here are some questions to help detect idols in your own heart and life:

What do I not have in my life that, if I only had it, I believe it would make me happy?

What do I now have, that, if taken away, would leave me unhappy or devastated?

What do I have now that I spend a lot of time maintaining and would struggle to keep?

What is it that I now have in my life that I can't live without?³

The One True God

A significant part of the solution to idolatry is to worship God. God and the idols simply do not compare. He is the living and true God, the maker of heaven and earth. We need to continuously fight against the temptation to see glory and happiness in our idol, for those are false promises. Conversely, we must see in the true God life, glory, joy, and blessedness in this life and especially in the next. In short, our heart must treasure Him and for this to happen we must see Him by faith.

In the book of Isaiah God repeatedly asks, "To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?" (Is. 40:18, 25; 46:5). In Isaiah 46, He says of the Babylonian gods Bel and Nebo, how they are carried in a procession on the backs of beasts (v. 1). Then in striking contrast, He says to Israel that "Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." God cannot be compared to a dead piece of word, layered with gold that cannot see, hear, or speak. To show the Israelites their folly for making such idols which were meant to depict Him, God puts questions to the idols themselves, "Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?" (Isaiah 40:21). The idols just sit there in dumb silence like the block of wood, which, of course, is what they are. In contrast to the idols, God knows all, hears all, and understands all from before the foundations of the earth. God exposes the idols to us that we can see them for what they are and will repent of our foolish idolatry.

As Christians we are called to take our joy in God. Habakkuk said "I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (Hab. 3:18). The gospel of salvation also displays the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). Through his once-for-all-death we may draw near to God with confidence, which is a delight to the believer's soul, for in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forever more (Psalm 16:11). Paul says that when the Lord comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints, all those who believe will marvel at him (2 Thess. 1:10). In short, in the gospel of Christ, God gives us Himself. And knowing Him of is of surpassing excellence (Phil 3:8). He in all His glory is our God, and clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we are His people.

If you are a teenager, what I am saying is that the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is worthy of your devotion and adoration. He is worthy of your heart and life. Idols are unworthy at best. They compete for your heart's affection. They promise but do not satisfy. They corrupt those who worship them. Their end is not glory, but shame and wrath. But the good news is that God has saved us from idolatry through his Son so that we will worship him (1 Thess. 1:9). And our exalted Lord has given His Holy Spirit, by whom we are able to see the salvation of God, this exceedingly rich out-pouring of His grace, and we marvel and are amazed. Seeing, knowing, and glorying in our Covenant God is the death of idolatry.

Thus let us pray with the Apostle Paul:

"[I] do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe" (Eph. 1:16-19).

___________________

¹ Tripp, Paul David, Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens, 73-94. The Bible does not have a specific category called teenager. But it does give us "wonderful descriptions of the tendencies of youth. Many of these are found in the book of Proverbs."

² Ibid., 90.

³ Lou Going, "Modern Idolatry: Understanding and Overcoming the Attraction of Your Broken Cisterns," in The Journal of Biblical Counseling; 52.

A dedicated Christian man sits down to have devotions. He opens the Bible to read a section of Paul's letter to the Romans. He starts reading, but a personal problem at work grabs his attention. His eyes read the words but his mind doesn't. He hasn't a clue what he's reading. "Stay focused," he chides himself as he begins to read again. A little better this time. He then reflects on what he has read: being justified by faith we have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). The truth hits his heart like dry corn flakes on the tongue-rather bland. He knows that his heart should be set aflame by this truth. He berates his dullness. Still he meditates on what he has read some more, then moves to prayer. But to begin prayer is another struggle because he wants to start with new words and thoughts than the usual. Yet his mind seems to run through the same "ruts." He prays through a list of people and concerns, says "amen," and closes his Bible. He deems it a dry, fruitless time, one of many. No wonder he often skips prayer. What's the use?