Chapter 7 - Glorification: From Glory
To Glory
We are not redeemed,
sanctified, and glorified for ourselves, but for God. It is His redemption, not ours; His
sanctification, not ours; His glorification, not ours. Though we accrue the benefits of
fulfilling His purposes in all history, we must come to the stark realization that He
purchased us, we did not purchase Him. We are not our own (1 Cor. 6:19-20). We are His
possession, vessels in His hand to do with as He pleases.
When we come to this reality, we will have come to understand what it
means to be crucified with Him. Just as Jesus had to come to the end of Himself, emptying
Himself (Phil. 2:7 NAS) in order for God to be glorified through Him, so are we to follow
Him in His baptism; that is, allow the Holy Spirit to bring us to the end of ourselves
that God might be glorified through us.
To the Praise of His Glory
It always happens, though, that when we bring glory to God, God bestows
His glory upon us. We are to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:6, 12).
The only way we can be to the praise of His glory is to bring glory to
Him. The only way we can bring glory to Him is through our laid-down life. "Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up" (James 4:10).
Everything we do, we do for Him that He may be satisfied, that He may
be glorified. This is not to say that we do anything to satisfy God for our salvation.
Only Jesus satisfied God for that. Having received redemption, however, we are so given to
Him that He lives His life through us. The more He lives His life through us, the more He
is glorified and the more we become like Him. Thus, the more we become like Him, the more
we share in His glory.
So, it continues to hold that whoever loses His life for Christ's sake
shall find it. If you lose your life in Him, you will be found in Him. Since He is the
resurrection and the life, that is the only place to be found--in Him.
Being Properly Related
This brings us back to the need to be in proper relationship with God.
We need to cultivate this relationship with God. The more we are rightly related to Him,
the more we will walk in fellowship and harmony with Him.
He is our peacemaker. He is our righteousness, our justification, our
redemption, our sanctification, our provision, our healing, our protection. He is our
glorification. Nothing of Him happens to us except as we are properly related in Him.
He is in us and we are in Him, just as He is in the Father and the
Father is in Him. We are one with Him (John 17:21).
When He told His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for
them, He was talking about a place in Father. "In My Father's house are many
mansions," or abodes, dwellings (John 14:2). John 17:3 explains that eternal
life is knowing God and Jesus Christ whom God had sent.
Jesus explained in John 15:1ff that He is the true vine. We are to
abide in Him (v. 4). Without Him we can do nothing (v. 5).
If we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we will ask what we
desire and it shall be done for us. What do we ask for? That we should bear much fruit for
Him and so be His disciple. By this Father God is glorified (vv. 7-8).
This is a mystery, but one that must be understood and, moreover, one
that must become a reality in every believer. We cannot abide both in the world and in
heaven at the same time. We cannot abide in the flesh and Spirit at the same time. We
cannot abide in sin and righteousness at the same time. We cannot abide in Satan and
Christ at the same time.
We are going to bring glory to something or someone. We are going to
seek to glorify ourselves, another man, or by our evil deeds bring glory to Satan and his
works of darkness.
We will constantly fellowship in something. We will fellowship either
in the Word or the world. You can't have it both ways.
God is so dealing with His holy ones today so as to bring them to the
end of self into a holy and pure, undefiled relationship with Him--not for us (though it
ends up being for us), but for Him, that He might be all in all.
We are going from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17), from glory to glory (2
Cor. 3:18). It is a process God is dealing in us. We are being conformed into His image
(Rom. 8:29) and being transformed by the renewing of our minds that we might prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2).
Any righteousness we think we have is not, nor ever could be, of our
own. It is His righteousness. He is righteous. Get into Him!
Any sanctification we think we have is not, nor ever could be, of our
own. It is His holiness. He alone is holy. Get into Him!
Any glorification we think we have is not, nor ever could be, of our
own. It is His glory! He alone is worthy. Get into Him!
Jesus Prayed Us through to Glory
There's a great little chorus we sing, "From glory to glory, He's
changing me, changing me, changing me; His likeness and image to perfect in me--the love
of God shown to the world."
We find that His great salvation is all wrapped up in who He is, not in
who we are; in what He has done, not in what we could ever in a thousand lifetimes hope to
do.
"For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that
we should walk in them"
(Eph. 2:8-10).
Jesus' priestly prayer in John 17 includes this progression from
Passover to Pentecost to Tabernacles; that is, from justification to sanctification to
glorification.
JUSTIFICATION/REDEMPTION. "Father, the hour is come, glorify
Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him power over all flesh, that
he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him" (John 17:1b-2
NKJV).
Jesus was looking toward the hour of His own glorification when He
prayed this prayer. Through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension He would be
returning to the glory He had with Father before the world was (v. 5).
Furthermore, He was already glorified in the disciples who believed in
Him and became His through faith (v. 10).
So, in the glory of His death, burial, and resurrection, He gave
eternal life: justification and redemption.
SANCTIFICATION. But He was leaving the world and was leaving them in
the world. So as He continued in prayer, He asked that Father-God keep them through His
name that they might be one as He and the Father are one (John 17:11).
"Sanctify them through your truth. Your word is truth"
(v. 17). As Father sent Him into the world, He is sending them into the world (v. 18). He
sanctified Himself for their sakes that they may be sanctified by the truth. Thus, He sent
the Holy Spirit, the administrator of truth, to sanctify them with the truth.
Jesus explained to His disciples that it was to their advantage for Him
to go away so He could send the Helper (the Paraclete: one who goes alongside of), the
Holy Spirit (John 16:7). When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide them into all
truth (v. 13). Sanctification is a guiding, progressive process.
GLORIFICATION. So the Holy Spirit is given not only to continue to
glorify the pattern Son, Jesus, but that God might bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10).
Jesus prayed, "And the glory which you gave me I have given
them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them and You in Me: that they may
be made perfect in one..." (John 17:22-23).
"That they may be made perfect..."
relates again to
the continuing work of sanctification intended to bring us to the finished work of
glorification.
And we have it again and again--three feasts, three courts, three
phases in our walk with the Lord. "Be therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect"! (Matt. 5:48). The word "perfect" means
mature, complete.
Do you hunger to go on with Him? Are you willing to be baptized in the
Holy Spirit and fire in order to bring that ultimate glory to God in Christ Jesus?
Let us not fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).