Glorification

by J.W. Archibald, Manchester | Category: The Gospel And Its Ministry | Nov 1979

The Gospel of the Glory

In Paul's first letter to Timothy he describes the gospel as "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust" (1 Tim. 1:11). The glory of God is the subject and the objective of all gospel preaching, and the sublime content of the message is entrusted to fallible men, chosen and enlightened by God to proclaim it on earth. The title "blessed God" describes the attitude and disposition of the Almighty. The lives of men are often filled with discontent and frustration. Sin has brought forth its harvest of bitterness and sorrow in all earthly experience but it is not so in the presence of God. The Supreme Being is happy and blessed. "In Thy presence is fulness of joy; in Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Psa. 16:11).

The appreciation of the glory of God brings happiness of a surpassing order. Jude speaks of the exceeding joy that will be the portion of those who in the coming day will be set before the presence of His glory (Jude 24). These ideas find expression in the old hymn;

"There is a happy land,

Far, far away,

Where saints in glory stand,

Bright, bright as day"

in which the writer has sought to portray the blessedness of that better country where the Lord has promised to prepare a place for all who are His.

Now the gospel is also described as the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). The Son of God is the effulgence or outshining of the glory of God as well as the very image of His substance (Heb 1:3). The glory of Christ is the glory of Deity and in His blessed Person is displayed the full brilliance of the character and attributes of God. The supreme benefit in our earthly experience is the shining in our hearts of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). Of the men who enjoyed the priceless privilege of being often in the company of Christ in the days of His flesh, one testified that "we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father" (John 1:14). John includes this testimony in the introduction to the Gospel record which bears his name. The gospel of God is the story of the greatest manifestation of divine glory.

The Humiliated

We now consider those to whom this magnificent message is sent. The gospel is for sinners who fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Of themselves, men have no appreciation of the glory of God and no understanding of His ways. "Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known" (Rom. 3:16,17). The human condition has become debased by sin so that the words and deeds of men do not reflect the divinely conferred glory that the Psalmist described, "Thou... crownest him with glory and honour" (Psa. 8:5).

Sin has also made its mark on the bodies of men. Our bodies are subject to disease and our faculties deteriorate with advancing age. Many lives are filled with pain and the deprivation that illness brings. All are subject to death, and after death there follows the decay and decomposition of the body as it returns to dust. It is little wonder that Paul described our bodies as "the body of our humiliation" (Phil. 3:21). God made man in His own image, and it is humiliation indeed that such a privileged creature should bear in his person the ravages of disease and the infirmity that accompanies old age. When the Lord Jesus was here in the days of His flesh, His heart must have been deeply grieved to see the devastation that sin had brought to mankind. He, as Creator, had given to man the blessing of full exercise of all the wonderful bodily function divinely imparted when the first man was formed from the dust of the ground and received the breath of life. When Christ came into the world as Man, He encountered from day to day men with sightless eyes or speechless tongues, or maimed limbs or with bodies consumed with leprosy. He must have shared in the acute sorrow of bereavement in His own family when Joseph the head of the household was taken. At the creation, the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy (Job 38:7) but during His time on earth the Son of God heard from close at hand the groaning of the whole creation in pain (Rom. 8:22).

The Humiliator

This devastation is the result of the activity of the great Adversary of God and men. Satan is the enemy who stole into the fair garden that God planted and sowed the seeds of disobedience and unbelief in the minds of our first parents. The man and the woman were given free will, the opportunity to exercise choice. Deceived by the enemy, they chose, and their choice brought humiliation and they and their posterity have suffered appallingly. Consequent upon that early enemy victory, the bodies of men whom death has claimed have suffered decay and disintegration. The process of corruption in the dead bodies has destroyed all

physical resemblance to the man that God made. In every case a noble and perfect work of God has been reduced to dust. Can this be final? Can the process of humiliation be reversed?

Victory

What we now have to say concerns those who "obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (2 Tim. 2:10). That salvation is accomplished by the suffering and death of the Saviour on the cross. There the Lord of Glory knew deep humiliation. "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). Suspended on the tree on that terrible day was the Giver and Sustainer of all life. He it was who in the beginning breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). He Himself became Man, and at Calvary He yielded up His own life that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14). What a complete victory was the victory of Calvary! a victory that was triumphantly confirmed and gloriously proclaimed by His resurrection. His victory is complete and it is final.

The Glory that shall be

All who have believed in Christ will have full share in that mighty victory. For them is the teaching of Romans chapter 8. They are to wait with patience for the coming day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). That is the day when they will know the complete enjoyment of all that has been purchased for them by the death of Christ. It is the day of "the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8:23). This is a happy contemplation for all believers but perhaps particularly precious to those who have endured much bodily affliction. For such afflicted ones is the sweet assurance that the Saviour has purchased eternal release and restoration. This is the application of the death of Christ to our bodily condition.

When the Saviour comes from heaven, He will fashion anew the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21). The words Paul uses here imply both a change of form and of nature. All the effects of sin, both moral and physical, will be for ever removed. Then will be seen in every one of the redeemed the true likeness of Himself. This transformation is achieved "according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself' (Phil. 3:21). It is therefore an overwhelming demonstration of the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will recover in full the bodies that death has taken and will translate them to a state of glory that exceeds all human aspiration (1 Cor. 2:9). Then will the corruptible put on incorruption and the mortal put on immortality. What is sown in dishonour and weakness will be raised in glory and power.

In conclusion, we observe that the glory with which the saint is glorified is the glory of Christ and God. When Moses came out from the presence of God his face sent forth beams of light, but the radiance could not be sustained away from the divine presence. In the new heaven and new earth everyone and everything will be illuminated by the glory of God and the Lamb (Rev. 21:23). There can be no other source of light.

"The Lamb is all the glory

Of Immanuel's land".

Long ago, when Moses asked God, "Shew me, I pray Thee, Thy Glory," the Lord in response made to pass before him all His goodness and proclaimed His grace and His mercy (Exod. 33:18,19). The glory of God is manifested in these divine attributes. What greater outpouring of the goodness, grace and mercy of God could there be than that which is seen in the gospel of His glory? Happy are those who have believed it and blessed are those who preach it.

J.W. Archibald, Manchester | Nov 1979
The Gospel And Its Ministry