November 3, 2025 • 44 mins
Ever mix up what God declares, what we practice, and what we’re promised? We walk through the Bible’s three-part map of the Christian life—justification, sanctification, and glorification—with clear definitions, vivid analogies, and a stack of Scripture you can mark up and revisit. You’ll hear why no amount of future good deeds can pay for past sin, how faith unites us to Christ’s righteousness, and why justification is a one-time verdict from God that secures real assurance.
From there, we shift to growth. Sanctification isn’t a ladder to earn acceptance; it’s the Spirit-led process of becoming more like Jesus. We talk about what “set apart” looks like in ordinary days: learning God’s ways, resisting old patterns, forming new habits, and trusting the Holy Spirit’s quiet conviction. You’ll see why the Corinthians could be “sanctified” and still need correction, and how that tension makes sense of uneven progress without surrendering the call to holiness.
Finally, we lift our eyes to glorification. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 15, Philippians 3, and Revelation 21–22, we unpack the hope of resurrection bodies, a world made new, and tears wiped away. Glorification is not ethereal; it’s embodied, joyful, and just. We explore the promise that the saints will be raised imperishable and share in Christ’s glory, and how that future anchors courage, endurance, and meaningful work today.
If you’re hungry for gospel clarity and practical wisdom, this conversation will steady your heart and sharpen your steps. Listen, share with a friend who needs assurance, and leave a review to help others find the show.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:16):
Today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going
to do a special topic.
We're going to delve into sometheological questions.
I think you'll find this quiteinteresting.
Today we're going to explorethree theological ideas:
justification, sanctification,and glorification.
And God's Word spends a good bitof time talking about each of
(00:38):
these, so therefore we should aswell.
And if we get them confused ormixed up, then we can end up in
a world of trouble around Bibleteaching.
You can get into some really baddirections in your teachings if
you don't understand thedistinctions between these three
terms.
One way to remember these insummary is that justification is
(01:02):
how we are made right beforeGod.
Sanctification is how we aretaught to live increasingly holy
lives.
And glorification happens in themillennium and the final state
when we are given honor that weshould as Christians.
Another way to think of it isjustification delivers us from
(01:23):
the penalty of sin.
Sanctification delivers us fromthe power of sin.
And glorification delivers usfrom the presence of sin.
We're going to go through eachof these.
I think you'll find this quiteinteresting.
And Steve, any comments aboutthis?
These are quite importanttopics.
SPEAKER_00 (01:39):
Yeah, Glenn, one of the reasons why I think it's
good for us to go through thisis I think that in some cases,
some people, some teaching andsome doctrines have conflated a
little bit betweensanctification and the
justification portion of it.
Glorification, I think prettymuch everybody agrees what that
(02:01):
is.
And I would like to, as we gothrough this, to give a little
bit of clarity to that, becauseI think if we get a little bit
of it mixed up of thesanctification over into the
justification part, we end upsometimes thinking that we have
to do things in order to justifyourselves in front of God.
And those things which we shouldbe doing are really things that
(02:25):
are separating us from thisworld in that sanctification
part that we're going to talkabout.
So that's one of the things aswe go through here is to make
that distinction betweenjustification and
sanctification.
SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
And we'll go through justification first.
It's arguably the mostimportant, but at least most
discussed, I guess would be moreproper.
The Greek word dicaios is alegal term that means to show
justice, to do justice, tovindicate, to cause someone to
be released from legal chargesand to show a person to be
(03:03):
morally right.
If someone were charged with acrime and appeared before a
judge, the judge would eitherdeclare them guilty or declare
them justified before the law.
If the judge declares themjustified, the person would be
freed from the crime and thepunishment of the crime.
In a salvation sense,justification is the word that
(03:26):
is used to show that God hasdetermined a person no longer
guilty of sin and no longerunder the penalty of that sin.
Let's go ahead and look at somescripture to help us determine
exactly what it's saying.
I'm going to read Galatians2.16, that actually mentions
justification three times in oneverse, because the book of
(03:50):
Galatians is primarilyinterested with how we are made
right before God.
Galatians 2.16 says, quote, knowthat a man is not justified by
observing the law, but by faithin Jesus Christ.
So we too have put our faith inChrist Jesus that we may be
justified by faith in Christ andnot by observing the law,
(04:14):
because observing the law, noone will be justified.
So it introduces this termjustification and mentions it
three times.
A person who is justified is nolonger guilty before God.
He is released or vindicatedfrom any claims.
Justification in the Bible meansofficially and legally saved
(04:36):
from the penalty of sin.
So a person, of course, in lifestarts out as a sinner and
guilty of sin, legally deservingpunishment.
A sinner is charged with a crimeof disobeying God and is in need
of justification.
A sinner can have the sinremoved when they're justified.
(04:58):
The Bible talks a lot about howwe are justified by faith in
Jesus.
So, Steve, how important is thisconcept of being justified
before God?
SPEAKER_00 (05:09):
Well, another term that's used in this
justification portion isrighteousness.
How can we be declared righteousbefore a righteous God?
And of course, that's donethrough the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ and through his death,burial, and resurrection.
But it relates to a basicconcept of conversion.
(05:31):
Abraham believed in God and itwas reckoned to him or counted
to him as righteous.
Well, who did the reckoning orcounting?
It was God that did that.
It was declared to him as beingrighteous.
So it's a declaration act byGod, which he establishes a
person as righteous.
So that means the right and truestanding or relationship with
(05:55):
God.
So as we continue to go throughthe definition and look at
justification, it's one keything to look at that once we're
declared righteous, it's a donedeal.
And it's something thatscripture tells us has been
done.
God looks at it and thinks of itas being something in the past,
and we have that righteous orjust standing before God.
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
Let's go ahead and go through some Bible passages
that'll help us to determinewhat the scripture actually
teaches about justification.
Acts 13, 39 says, quote, by him,this is talking about Christ, by
him, everyone who believes isjustified.
It says there categorically,everyone who believes is
(06:39):
justified.
And the justification isdetermined by God.
We don't work our way and wemake the determination of
whether we're justified or not.
No, it is God that determineswhether or not we're justified.
And Acts 13, 39 says, everyonewho believes is justified.
Romans 3.20 says, quote, by thedeeds of the law, no flesh will
(07:02):
be justified.
So we can't be justified byobeying his commands, doing good
works, or acting morally.
The reason is because we'vealready disobeyed.
The Mosaic law is not just asacrificial system, but all the
moral parts of the law as well.
(07:23):
If you violate a law, let's saytheir criminal robs a bank,
appears before a judge, and thecriminal says, Well, judge, I
promise from now on I'm gonna begood and I'll go pick up trash
on the side of the road and I'lluh help old ladies across the
street and I'll say nice thingsto people from now on.
Well, the judge is gonna say,Well, all that's nice, but what
(07:45):
about this bank robbery thatalready happened?
Somebody's gotta pay the pricefor that.
Romans 3.20, by the deeds of thelaw, no flesh will be justified.
Steve, why is it that we can'tbe justified by keeping the
Mosaic law or any moral code forthat matter?
SPEAKER_00 (08:02):
Well, because we cannot keep any of those codes
or the Mosaic law in itsentirety.
That was one of the things thatJesus made clear as he was here
during his ministry.
If we break one, then we'vebroken all of the law.
Somebody trying to keep the lawof Moses, all 613 of those
(08:24):
commands, plus the rules thatthe Pharisees and the other
parts of the leadership added toit in order to make sure that
people kept those 613 rules orlaws.
If you break one of them, thenyou have to start all over
again.
So it's real obvious that you'renot going to be able to continue
(08:45):
to keep all of those laws.
And Jesus even raised the barwhen he was here in his Sermon
on the Mount, he said, You'veheard that you shouldn't murder
anyone.
But I say if you have hatred inyour heart for someone, then
you've already committed murder.
And there were other ones thathe expanded on.
Obviously, his point was thatyou're not going to be able to
(09:07):
keep all of those laws.
And if you can't keep all ofthose laws and statutes, then at
some point you have a penaltyand a price, and there's nothing
that we can do to pay the pricefor breaking those laws.
SPEAKER_01 (09:20):
More Bible passages that'll help us get some nuance
to this term justification.
Romans 3 24 says, quote, beingjustified is a gift by his
grace, unquote.
So we're justified because Godgives us the gift of his grace.
He is gracious enough to providea means for our justification.
(09:43):
God is therefore the only onewho can declare us justified or
not.
Romans 8 30, quote, these whomhe called, he also justified.
Romans 4, 5.
To the one who does not work butbelieves in him who justifies
the ungodly, his faith iscredited as righteousness.
(10:04):
So again, justification happensbecause of belief, not because
of doing righteous work.
God justifies the ungodly peopleby crediting faith as
righteousness.
Why?
Well, because it's a loverelationship and not an earned
work relationship.
We can't even live up to thestandards that we hold ourselves
(10:25):
to, let alone God's standards.
Therefore, he graciouslyprovides a way that says, if
you'll just take Jesus' paymentfor your sin, then I'll consider
you justified.
And we will have a spiritualmarriage that is a love
relationship.
The clear message is thatrighteousness is not earned as
(10:47):
actual righteousness, butcredited to us through faith.
Colossians 1.20, quote, throughJesus to reconcile all things to
himself, having made peacethrough the blood of his cross.
Justification is God takingaction to reconcile sinful
people to himself.
(11:07):
And in the book of Galatians,we've already mentioned that
most of the book, in fact, themain thrust of the purpose for
the book of Galatians is sayingthat we are justified by faith.
Paul says several times thatwe're justified by faith, not by
works.
Chapter three of Galatians, Paulhas very strong, actually very
severe language supportingsalvation by faith, and repeated
(11:32):
the same idea over and over,mentioning faith, belief, and
promises over a two dozen times.
We would just refer you to ourteaching on Galatians, where we
went through that in detail.
Paul made it very clear inGalatians that justification is
by faith.
Paul says that if you thinkyou're justified by doing works,
(11:53):
then you're not justified bygrace.
So, Steve, what otherconclusions can we come to about
this idea of being justifiedbefore God and being justified
by faith?
SPEAKER_00 (12:05):
The basic conclusion, I think, with the
justification is that it's aone-time act.
It's a one-time declarationthat's done by God.
We are declared justified.
We are declared righteous beforeHim.
It's something that He doesbased on our belief in Jesus
(12:25):
Christ.
If we believe in our hearts andconfess with our mouths that
Jesus Christ is Lord, we shallbe saved.
Whenever we do that and we'resincere in doing that, then
we're declared righteous.
We are justified, and it's aone-time act.
There's nothing to do after thatpoint in order to have this
(12:47):
state of righteousness beforeGod or justification.
You mentioned Galatians.
We've also gone throughColossians, and Colossians, I
think, makes it very clear thatthere's not anything else that
we need to do in order to have aright standing before God.
It says that we've beentransferred from darkness over
(13:07):
into light.
It also says that we've beendeclared complete in front of
God through Jesus Christ, thatwe've been qualified.
There's so much characteristicsand attributes that we get
whenever we are justified anddeclared righteous before God.
So a key takeaway from thisportion of justification is that
(13:29):
it's a one-time act done by Godthat declares us justified and
righteous before God.
We no longer have any type of apenalty as far as a payment for
our sin.
Jesus Christ has done that andpaid for it himself.
SPEAKER_01 (13:45):
And that's really the key theological conclusion
about justification is that noamount of future good works can
take away the need forpunishment for past sins.
We can't work off our debt bydoing good deeds in the future
because the past sins have to bepaid for.
(14:05):
Therefore, many times the Biblemakes it very clear that we
cannot justify ourselves beforeGod.
Once we sin, then we can't fixit.
Rather, God must do something todeclare us justified.
All who truly believe in Jesusare declared justified by God.
(14:26):
Justification happens prior toand apart from actual
righteousness on our part.
When we're justified, we arereconciled and have peace with
God.
Romans 4, 5 says, quote, to theone who does not work but
believes in him who justifiesthe ungodly, his faith is
(14:47):
credited as righteousness.
So the primary passages thatdeal with how we are made right
before God, how we arejustified, is Romans chapter 4
and 5 and the book of Galatians,specifically chapters 2 and
parts of three.
They make it very clear over andover again that we are justified
(15:07):
not by our own efforts, but byfaith.
If we're justified by faith, wecan't lose justification nor
regain it again by human effort.
Some teach a false idea, it's avery false idea, that people are
saved initially by faith, butwhen they sin, they become
(15:27):
condemned again and then mustwork to regain the
justification.
God says it is foolish to teachthat we can be perfected through
human effort.
Galatians 3:3, quote, are you sofoolish, having begun by the
Spirit, are you now being madeperfect by the flesh?
(15:49):
So justification is on all whobelieve, not merely those who
believe and live a righteouslife.
Therefore, justification is byfaith alone.
We are saved by grace throughfaith, it says in Ephesians 2.
The Bible repeatedly speaks ofChristians being saved through
faith, is the term it uses.
(16:10):
Therefore, it is the faith thatis the means by which we are
saved, not the results of oursalvation.
SPEAKER_00 (16:17):
Another thing, Glenn, thinking about it as
you're going through that lastpart, is that the justification
is done by God.
The declaration of beingjustified or righteous before
God is not done by any type of ahuman agent or human
organization.
So our dependency on beingjustified before God is not
(16:39):
dependent on some human personor organization declaring us
that we're justified.
Because all humans want to thinkthat they have to add certain
things.
And whenever you add the humanelement of a person or
organization, usually with that,they have a listing of here's
certain things that you have todo in order to have a right
(17:04):
standing with the organizationor the church that you're belong
to.
And if you have a right standingwith the church, then therefore
you'll have a right standingwith God.
And that's not that's notbiblical.
Let's say it that way.
God is the one that gives thedeclaration of righteousness and
justification.
(17:25):
We should look to a biblicalunderstanding of our
justification and also know andcome to within ourselves of
knowing that it's God that givesus the justification.
It doesn't come from any type ofman, person, or a man-made
organization.
SPEAKER_01 (17:41):
And in answering this question, how we are made
right before God, how we arejustified before God,
theologians over the centurieswrestled with this concept.
I feel like we have to at leasttouch on a major disagreement
that happened in the past.
In the 1500s, was what is calledthe Protestant Reformation.
(18:03):
One of the primary issues therewas how we are justified.
The Protestants held to a systemand disagreed with the Roman
Catholics, and the churchesseparated over justification
primarily.
There were other issues also.
But Protestants in theReformation held to what's
called forensic justification,which just means a legal
(18:26):
declaration, as we've beenexplaining here.
While the Roman Catholics heldthat people have to actually be
righteous in order to be rightbefore God, the Catholics would
hold you have to actually dorighteous deeds before you can
actually appear before God inheaven.
Whereas the Protestants held tothis legal declaration, forensic
(18:48):
justification, that would saythat God declares us righteous
because of our faith.
Arguments were given on bothsides.
We would fall, of course, to theProtestant justification by
faith alone.
I would refer you to ourteachings on Galatians, but
Galatians 2.16 three times saysthat we're justified by faith,
(19:09):
by belief.
If God would have intended thisto mean that we are justified by
faith plus anything else, suchas good works or behavior, it
would have been there.
It would have been in theprimary passages that deal with
justification, namely Romans 4and 5 and in Galatians.
But the absence of any additionsin those passages leave us on
(19:33):
very solid ground that we aresaved by faith and faith alone.
Paul was too careful, toothorough, and felt this too
important to have left outanything essential to
justification.
If he would have intended thereto be works mixed in with being
made right before God, he wouldhave put it in Romans 4 and 5
(19:56):
and in Galatians.
We have to bring in a lot ofoutside baggage into those
passages to hold to an actualjustification.
That's why we would hold to theforensic justification.
We are declared righteous beforeGod.
And actually, in Galatians, ifyou look at the passages there,
Galatians 2.16, there's nodefinite article before the word
(20:19):
law, so that it literally says,faith in Christ and not by works
of law.
So it's not just talking aboutthe Mosaic law, it's talking
about any moral commands ofobedience.
We know that this passage,justification by faith, equals
righteousness before God becauseof Galatians 2.21, which says,
(20:41):
quote, if righteousness comesthrough law, then Christ died
needlessly.
He's saying that if we getrighteousness by obeying God's
commands, doing good works,obeying God, or by cooperating
with God, or by doing goodthings, then Christ did not have
to die.
Again, if we are to be justifiedbefore God by actual
(21:06):
righteousness of our own, thesepassages would have said so, but
they don't.
Steve, I just feel that's a verycritical thing.
I think that the New Testamentbears that out.
One last thing on justificationis what we would call eternal
security.
Once we are justified, ourjustification is not lost to
sin.
(21:27):
Jesus said, quote, I giveeternal life to them and they
will never perish, John 10, 28.
And 1 John 5 teaches that weknow that we have eternal life.
So once we are justified byfaith, just like Abraham was,
then we are declared righteousbefore God.
That is justification.
SPEAKER_00 (21:47):
As a final comment on that, Glenn, is to again give
this concept that we've beentalking about, that if there's
no works that we can do in orderto be justified before God, that
it's our expressed faith,belief, and trust in Jesus
Christ, and it's a declarationof righteousness given by God, a
(22:08):
one-time act, then it's also alogical conclusion on the other
side that there's nothing thatwe can do from a work standpoint
to undeclare ourselves as beingrighteous or undeclare ourselves
as being justified.
That's what we've been saying.
It's a one-time act by GodHimself.
(22:30):
We didn't work our way into it,therefore, we can't work our way
out of it.
We'll discuss a little bit moresome of the problems and issues
that I think that come up thatpeople put over into this
sanctification area that theytry and move that into the
justification area.
Because in sanctification, yes,we are doing things to become
(22:52):
more Christ-like there, but ithas nothing to do with God's
declaration of righteousness andjustification before Him.
SPEAKER_01 (23:01):
Next in our list of three terms is the word
sanctification or sanctify.
That word means to set apart,and more specifically, to be set
apart for a holy purpose.
The word is similar to the wordconsecrate.
Often when churches build a newbuilding, they will have a
(23:23):
consecration ceremony todedicate the building for God's
use and his glory.
Inanimate things in the templein the Old Testament were
sanctified, which means theywere to only be used in the
temple ceremonies.
In and of themselves, they werejust utensils and pots and pans.
But because they were set apartto only be used in God's
(23:47):
sacrificial system, then theywere sanctified.
That's what made them holy andseparate.
The actual mountain of MountSinai was sanctified at the
coming of the law because thepeople were not allowed to come
upon it.
It was set apart.
Before Moses met with God to getthe Ten Commandments, God tells
(24:09):
Moses to sanctify the people fortwo days.
It just meant to set them apartso that they're not doing common
things.
The people were to be sanctifiedbefore God appeared.
Sanctification just means to setapart from that which is unholy.
Therefore, Christians are to beset apart from unholy things so
(24:30):
that we are dedicated to theholy things of God.
Steve, how important issanctification?
SPEAKER_00 (24:36):
I think that it's a key part of our spiritual lives,
that process of becoming moreChrist-like.
Because if we're not doing that,if we're not becoming more
Christ-like, then we're missingout on a portion of our
spiritual life and getting toknow God, who He is, and working
up that relationship with Him.
(24:58):
So this whole process ofsanctification is one of
becoming more Christ-like.
We are set apart, we becomesanctified from a definitive
standpoint in a way, but we alsoare working through becoming
more Christ-like, as Paul likesto put it.
(25:18):
What does that look like?
It looks like learning moreabout God, learning more about
his ways, learning more aboutthe will that he has for our
lives.
Those are the things that haveto do with this sanctification
and setting ourselves apart fromthe world.
We've been justified, one timeact.
(25:40):
Now we are moving into an areawhere we are becoming more
separated from the world.
The justification happens withour spirit.
The sanctification is more to dowith not just our spirit of
becoming more Christ-like andknowing who God is, but it's
also the process of fighting ourbody to become separated from
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this world.
Paul says, I do the things Idon't want to do, and I don't do
the things I do want to do.
That I think is a gooddefinition of the battle that
goes between the spirit and thebody.
I think that's also a gooddefinition of the sanctification
process, the process that we'reinvolved with to become
separated from this world and tobe a holy vessel, we can put it
(26:24):
that way, also to be used byGod.
So it's a process.
And I think it's a key thing torecognize that as we continue to
talk about this area ofsanctification.
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
Sanctification does not mean that we've lived a
sinless life up to this point intime, nor does it mean that we
are sinless right now, that wehave reached sinless perfection.
And I would point to the book ofFirst Corinthians, the second
verse in the entire book, Paulis just in his introduction, and
Paul writes to the church atCorinth in 1 Corinthians 1 2, he
(26:59):
says, quote, who have beensanctified in the Lord Jesus.
So he writes to this church whohas been sanctified in Christ.
But if you look at the book of 1Corinthians, most of the book is
this long series of correctionsfor sins and problems they have.
Some of it was just downrightsin.
(27:20):
They hit a lot of fleshly thingsthat had happened.
Yet when he writes to them, thesecond verse in the book is, I'm
writing to this church atCorinth who's been sanctified.
So they have been set apart.
So sanctification is a processof becoming more holy.
Justification and sanctificationare really works of God.
(27:40):
Justification has to be declaredby God.
And sanctification, it's notsomething we can just have a
whole lot of human effort and dosimply because, as humans, we're
so flawed with our desires.
Sanctification means we have toallow God's Holy Spirit to lead
us.
And God has to teach us throughthe Holy Spirit to avoid things
(28:05):
and to gravitate towards holythings.
We have to follow the leading ofthe Holy Spirit, but without
that, we couldn't sanctifyourselves.
Justification is instantaneous.
Sanctification is a processwhere we have to learn more of
God's ways.
We have to yield to the stillsmall voice of the Holy Spirit,
(28:26):
where he leads us into pathwaysthat are increasingly holy.
Sanctification is in Christ, notjust through human effort.
Acts 13, 2, quote, the HolySpirit said, this is when Paul
and Barnabas were set apart.
He says, the Holy Spirit said,set apart for me, Barnabas and
(28:48):
Saul for the work which I havecalled for them.
So the Holy Spirit was settingthem apart for a good work.
Romans 1:1, Paul says that he isa bondservant of Christ Jesus,
called to be an apostle, setapart for the gospel of God.
The apostle Paul was set apartfor a particular role in the
(29:10):
church.
We already mentioned 1Corinthians 1.2 speaks of all
Christians saying we aresanctified in the Lord Jesus,
called to be saints.
1 Corinthians 6 11 speaks ofChristians as formerly being
sinners, but now are sanctified,washed, and justified.
(29:30):
1 Thessalonians 4.3 says, it isGod's will that we have, quote,
sanctification, that is, youabstain from sexual immorality.
So sanctification is thisprocess where God has to work on
us.
Jesus talked about him pruningthings out of our lives.
Those he loves, he prunes sothat we can bear more fruit.
(29:53):
So sanctification is thisgradual process where we become
increasingly more Christ like.
He has to teach us thingsthrough experiences, prick our
conscience, and lead us towardssome things and away from
others.
Justification is instantaneousat the point of salvation.
Sanctification takes a littlewhile.
(30:14):
And Steve, God is still workingon me to help me be more
sanctified.
And I pray that people wouldhave patience.
SPEAKER_00 (30:21):
That's a good point that you have made, Glenn, and
that through God's power andstrength of the Holy Spirit,
that's how we can go throughthis process of sanctification.
Without the Holy Spirit in us,it would be really, I think,
nearly impossible to do thatbecause the Holy Spirit is the
(30:42):
one that tells us you're not onthe right path, you're not going
in the right direction.
And I'm speaking on that fromexperience.
My personal testimony is I cameto salvation and belief in Jesus
Christ at the age of eight.
But as much as I tried to live agood life as a boy and be
obedient to my parents, I stilllied to them from time to time.
(31:06):
I still went places where Iwasn't supposed to go and play.
And as I entered into my teenageyears and my 20s, I was not
living a, you know, Christianlife of going to church and
learning more about God andthose types of things.
But all through that time, theHoly Spirit was there telling me
what you're doing, Steve, is notright.
(31:28):
And you need to get back into arelationship with Jesus Christ.
And that happened in my early30s.
Since then, I have built myrelationship up with Jesus
Christ.
So we can't do it without theHoly Spirit.
And that is when we're given theHoly Spirit, is at the time that
we're declared righteous in thejustification, we receive the
(31:51):
Holy Spirit.
Jesus told the disciples whenthey were questioning him,
going, he says, Don't worry, I'mnot going to leave you alone.
I'm going to send one that'sgoing to come after me.
In the Greek, it's paraclete.
It means someone that's going tocome alongside of you and that's
going to help you.
And then later at another point,Jesus said, I must go so that
(32:14):
the Spirit might be sent to you.
So this process ofsanctification is one that is
empowered by the third person ofthe Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
And it is through the HolySpirit that we have the
enablement and the power and theability to be able to learn more
(32:35):
about God and Jesus Christ, butalso to be able to stay away
from the things of the world andresist the temptation of the
world that we have here on adaily basis.
So I think this is a veryimportant part of sanctification
that you've pointed out, Glenn,is the reception of the Holy
Spirit.
We wouldn't be able to do it onour own without the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01 (32:57):
The first area was justification, and that is a
declaration by God at one pointin time upon our faith and trust
in Christ.
We then enter the period ofsanctification, which is a long
process of becoming more andmore set apart for God's use.
The final state isglorification.
(33:17):
Glorification is where we willbe exalted.
Romans 8:30 says, quote, thosehe justified, he also glorified.
So in the end, we will beglorified.
Our physical bodies will beglorified when we are
resurrected from the dust of theearth and glorified to be like
(33:37):
Jesus' resurrected body.
Philippians 3.21 says, quote,the Lord Jesus Christ will
transform the body of our lowlystate into conformity with his
glorious body, unquote.
In 1 Corinthians 15, starting inverse 42, it has a long section
(33:59):
that where it talks about ourphysical bodies being raised to
a glorified state.
It says in there that ourphysical body dies perishable
and it is raised imperishable,dies in dishonor, raised in
glory, dies in weakness, raisedin power, dies natural, raised
(34:21):
spiritual.
And in this sense, the spiritualthere is physical as well,
simply because in the same book,1 Corinthians, it talks about
the manna in the wandering inthe wilderness years being
spiritual food.
So our bodies will be raisedimperishable, glorious, in
power, and a spiritual body thatis like Christ.
(34:45):
That's our glorified state.
We're told there in 1Corinthians, quote, the dead
will be raised imperishable, andwe will be changed, for this
perishable must put on theimperishable, and this mortal
must put on immortality.
Perhaps the greatest sectionwhere it talks about our
(35:06):
glorified state is in the end ofthe book of Revelation, where
Revelation 22 2 says, the treeof life there will give fruit
every month, quote, for thehealing of the nations.
So there will be no more death,Revelation 21:4.
Therefore, we will be in a statewhere our bodies are going to be
(35:26):
like Jesus' resurrected body.
There will be no more strife, nomore sickness, no more death, no
more wars between nations.
He says he's going to dry everytear, and we'll be able to live
in a state where our physicalbodies are glorified.
And Steve, I can't wait for thatday.
SPEAKER_00 (35:46):
I can't wait for that either.
It's going to be a great daywhenever our spirit is united
with a glorified body and we'refreed from the body that we have
here that we're living in inthis earth.
And this glorified body is goingto be living in a redeemed
creation.
And of course, in the end state,we're going to have a new
(36:07):
heavens and a new earth.
So our glorified body is goingto be one that's going to be
created to be and exist in thatglorified period of time.
We see through Jesus that he wasthe first one, the first
prototype of this glorified bodythat he had.
Whenever he came back, we seedifferent characteristics that
(36:28):
he had.
He also was able to physicallyeat something.
He was cooking fish on theseashore whenever they
recognized him by the Sea ofGalilee.
It also had some physicalcharacteristics in that Thomas
(36:50):
and others were able to touchhim and to feel of him as well.
So this isn't going to be somesort of a ghostly ethereal type
of a body.
No, it's going to be an actualphysical body, albeit that it's
going to be glorified and onebuilt to exist in the glorified
and eternal state with God, onethat's going to be able to be
(37:13):
with and stand in the presenceof God Himself.
It's just going to be a greatthing.
SPEAKER_01 (37:18):
First Corinthians 15, as we said, talks a lot
about this glorified body.
It's the same one that was putin the ground, will be raised
and glorified.
It'll be fixed this time, butit's a very physical body that
is glorified.
It's the same one we have now.
But not only is our body goingto be physically glorified, but
(37:40):
our position in Christ is goingto be glorified and elevated.
Revelation 19:9, we are invitedto the marriage supper of the
Lamb.
Imagine we will be in the king'spalace, able to sit at the
king's table, eat the king'sfood.
We are in a glorified state.
And he says in 1 Corinthians 6,2, quote, do you not know that
(38:04):
the saints will judge the world?
And the very next verse says, Doyou not know that we will judge
angels?
So Christians, followers ofJesus Christ that are born
again, our bodies are going tobe glorified, but we're also
going to be elevated into aglorified position of authority
and reverence where we can sitat the king's table.
(38:25):
So we will have a glorifiedposition.
Only those who are born again inChrist will be able to be
glorified this way.
Further, all of our problems aregoing to be solved and perfect
justice will prevail.
It says in Revelation 21:4,quote, He will wipe away every
tear from our eyes, and therewill no longer be any death.
(38:48):
There will no longer be anymourning or crying or pain.
The first things have passedaway, unquote.
So we're told there's no moredeath.
Our glorified bodies will notdie again.
They will not hurt again.
There will be no tears.
We're also going to be able tosee God face to face in all his
(39:09):
glory.
Quote, the dwelling of God isamong men, and he will dwell
among them, it says inRevelation 21:3.
Over in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, itsays, For we now see in a mirror
dimly, but then face to face.
Our bodies are going to beglorified, and as such, we're
going to be able to see Goddirectly in all of his glory.
(39:32):
We're going to be in a glorifiedstate where we can be with him.
If we were to see God's fullglory now, it would probably
strike us dead.
Remember when Christ revealed alittle bit of his glory on the
Mount of Transfiguration, Peterand James and John had to hide
their eyes.
So remember, the Bible speaksabout salvation of the
(39:55):
individual, but that's not theonly thing it talks about.
It talks about the redemption ofpeople, talks about the
redemption of the earth and theredemption of nations.
So in the end, the last coupleof chapters in Revelation tell
us that the earth is to bereturned to the state it was in
(40:15):
the Garden of Eden.
The earth will be returned toits glory that it had in the
Garden of Eden.
Revelation 22, 3 says, when theearth is renewed, there will be
no more curse.
The curse will be lifted fromthe ground, and our bodies will
be glorified.
The tree of life will be in thenew earth, just like it was in
(40:36):
the Garden of Eden.
And Steve, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00 (40:39):
Think of it this way is that glorification is the
completion, the consummation,the perfection, the full
realization of our salvation.
So in this process, we havejustification where we're
declared righteous before God.
We're given the Holy Spirit,which helps us to be able to
(41:02):
live in this world that we have,in this physical body that we
currently have, learning moreabout Jesus Christ and God,
becoming more separated from theworld itself.
And then the glorification,though, is the pinnacle of it.
It's a new body that we're givenwith our spirit reunited with it
(41:23):
that is going to be able tostand before God during our
judgment.
That judgment is not going to befor salvation.
That judgment is going to be forour rewards and for the things
that we have done here.
Every deed's going to bereviewed, but our salvation is
one which is secured.
So I can't wait for it either,Glenn.
The glorified body andglorification, that's where
(41:45):
we're going, and that's wherewe're headed.
Paul says that we're notcitizens of this world once we
become a believer.
We're citizens of the heavenlyrealm once we become believers.
And where are we going to livethere is going to be in a place
that Jesus says he has gone toprepare for us?
And the bodies that we're goingto have are going to be these
glorified bodies.
(42:06):
That's where we're headed.
This in-between state ofsanctification is one that's
temporary in itself until we getto the point of a glorified body
reunited with our spirit.
And as you've pointed manytimes, I can't wait.
It's just going to be a greattime that we're going to have.
SPEAKER_01 (42:27):
So we opened with this and we'll summarize it
here.
The three areas that we've beendescribing today, justification
is the deliverance from thepenalty of sin when God declares
us right before Him.
And that's by faith and faithalone.
Sanctification is thedeliverance from the power of
sin, where we can liveincreasingly holy lives here on
(42:50):
earth.
And then glorification is thedeliverance from the presence of
sin when we are finally face toface with God.
Oh, what a great day that willbe.
My friends, I trust that youwill also be on this path of
justification, sanctification,and glorification as we are.
If not, then why not today?
SPEAKER_00 (43:09):
So we hope that this has been a help to you.
We could have gone through eachof these sessions on their own
for each of these subjects.
So this really can be classifiedas an overview.
We encourage you to continue toread through the scriptures on
these particular subject areasand learn them a little bit
better.
If you happen to have furtherquestions about any of these
(43:31):
items, write to us at info atreasoningthrough the Bible.com
and we'll work them into one ofour QA sessions that we
periodically have.
SPEAKER_01 (43:41):
Again, hopefully this has been helpful to you.
And with that, we trust that youwill be back with us as we
continue to reason through theBible.
SPEAKER_00 (43:49):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
Today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going
to do a special topic.
We're going to delve into sometheological questions.
I think you'll find this quiteinteresting.
Today we're going to explorethree theological ideas:
justification, sanctification,and glorification.
And God's Word spends a good bitof time talking about each of
(00:38):
these, so therefore we should aswell.
And if we get them confused ormixed up, then we can end up in
a world of trouble around Bibleteaching.
You can get into some really baddirections in your teachings if
you don't understand thedistinctions between these three
terms.
One way to remember these insummary is that justification is
(01:02):
how we are made right beforeGod.
Sanctification is how we aretaught to live increasingly holy
lives.
And glorification happens in themillennium and the final state
when we are given honor that weshould as Christians.
Another way to think of it isjustification delivers us from
(01:23):
the penalty of sin.
Sanctification delivers us fromthe power of sin.
And glorification delivers usfrom the presence of sin.
We're going to go through eachof these.
I think you'll find this quiteinteresting.
And Steve, any comments aboutthis?
These are quite importanttopics.
SPEAKER_00 (01:39):
Yeah, Glenn, one of the reasons why I think it's
good for us to go through thisis I think that in some cases,
some people, some teaching andsome doctrines have conflated a
little bit betweensanctification and the
justification portion of it.
Glorification, I think prettymuch everybody agrees what that
(02:01):
is.
And I would like to, as we gothrough this, to give a little
bit of clarity to that, becauseI think if we get a little bit
of it mixed up of thesanctification over into the
justification part, we end upsometimes thinking that we have
to do things in order to justifyourselves in front of God.
And those things which we shouldbe doing are really things that
(02:25):
are separating us from thisworld in that sanctification
part that we're going to talkabout.
So that's one of the things aswe go through here is to make
that distinction betweenjustification and
sanctification.
SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
And we'll go through justification first.
It's arguably the mostimportant, but at least most
discussed, I guess would be moreproper.
The Greek word dicaios is alegal term that means to show
justice, to do justice, tovindicate, to cause someone to
be released from legal chargesand to show a person to be
(03:03):
morally right.
If someone were charged with acrime and appeared before a
judge, the judge would eitherdeclare them guilty or declare
them justified before the law.
If the judge declares themjustified, the person would be
freed from the crime and thepunishment of the crime.
In a salvation sense,justification is the word that
(03:26):
is used to show that God hasdetermined a person no longer
guilty of sin and no longerunder the penalty of that sin.
Let's go ahead and look at somescripture to help us determine
exactly what it's saying.
I'm going to read Galatians2.16, that actually mentions
justification three times in oneverse, because the book of
(03:50):
Galatians is primarilyinterested with how we are made
right before God.
Galatians 2.16 says, quote, knowthat a man is not justified by
observing the law, but by faithin Jesus Christ.
So we too have put our faith inChrist Jesus that we may be
justified by faith in Christ andnot by observing the law,
(04:14):
because observing the law, noone will be justified.
So it introduces this termjustification and mentions it
three times.
A person who is justified is nolonger guilty before God.
He is released or vindicatedfrom any claims.
Justification in the Bible meansofficially and legally saved
(04:36):
from the penalty of sin.
So a person, of course, in lifestarts out as a sinner and
guilty of sin, legally deservingpunishment.
A sinner is charged with a crimeof disobeying God and is in need
of justification.
A sinner can have the sinremoved when they're justified.
(04:58):
The Bible talks a lot about howwe are justified by faith in
Jesus.
So, Steve, how important is thisconcept of being justified
before God?
SPEAKER_00 (05:09):
Well, another term that's used in this
justification portion isrighteousness.
How can we be declared righteousbefore a righteous God?
And of course, that's donethrough the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ and through his death,burial, and resurrection.
But it relates to a basicconcept of conversion.
(05:31):
Abraham believed in God and itwas reckoned to him or counted
to him as righteous.
Well, who did the reckoning orcounting?
It was God that did that.
It was declared to him as beingrighteous.
So it's a declaration act byGod, which he establishes a
person as righteous.
So that means the right and truestanding or relationship with
(05:55):
God.
So as we continue to go throughthe definition and look at
justification, it's one keything to look at that once we're
declared righteous, it's a donedeal.
And it's something thatscripture tells us has been
done.
God looks at it and thinks of itas being something in the past,
and we have that righteous orjust standing before God.
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
Let's go ahead and go through some Bible passages
that'll help us to determinewhat the scripture actually
teaches about justification.
Acts 13, 39 says, quote, by him,this is talking about Christ, by
him, everyone who believes isjustified.
It says there categorically,everyone who believes is
(06:39):
justified.
And the justification isdetermined by God.
We don't work our way and wemake the determination of
whether we're justified or not.
No, it is God that determineswhether or not we're justified.
And Acts 13, 39 says, everyonewho believes is justified.
Romans 3.20 says, quote, by thedeeds of the law, no flesh will
(07:02):
be justified.
So we can't be justified byobeying his commands, doing good
works, or acting morally.
The reason is because we'vealready disobeyed.
The Mosaic law is not just asacrificial system, but all the
moral parts of the law as well.
(07:23):
If you violate a law, let's saytheir criminal robs a bank,
appears before a judge, and thecriminal says, Well, judge, I
promise from now on I'm gonna begood and I'll go pick up trash
on the side of the road and I'lluh help old ladies across the
street and I'll say nice thingsto people from now on.
Well, the judge is gonna say,Well, all that's nice, but what
(07:45):
about this bank robbery thatalready happened?
Somebody's gotta pay the pricefor that.
Romans 3.20, by the deeds of thelaw, no flesh will be justified.
Steve, why is it that we can'tbe justified by keeping the
Mosaic law or any moral code forthat matter?
SPEAKER_00 (08:02):
Well, because we cannot keep any of those codes
or the Mosaic law in itsentirety.
That was one of the things thatJesus made clear as he was here
during his ministry.
If we break one, then we'vebroken all of the law.
Somebody trying to keep the lawof Moses, all 613 of those
(08:24):
commands, plus the rules thatthe Pharisees and the other
parts of the leadership added toit in order to make sure that
people kept those 613 rules orlaws.
If you break one of them, thenyou have to start all over
again.
So it's real obvious that you'renot going to be able to continue
(08:45):
to keep all of those laws.
And Jesus even raised the barwhen he was here in his Sermon
on the Mount, he said, You'veheard that you shouldn't murder
anyone.
But I say if you have hatred inyour heart for someone, then
you've already committed murder.
And there were other ones thathe expanded on.
Obviously, his point was thatyou're not going to be able to
(09:07):
keep all of those laws.
And if you can't keep all ofthose laws and statutes, then at
some point you have a penaltyand a price, and there's nothing
that we can do to pay the pricefor breaking those laws.
SPEAKER_01 (09:20):
More Bible passages that'll help us get some nuance
to this term justification.
Romans 3 24 says, quote, beingjustified is a gift by his
grace, unquote.
So we're justified because Godgives us the gift of his grace.
He is gracious enough to providea means for our justification.
(09:43):
God is therefore the only onewho can declare us justified or
not.
Romans 8 30, quote, these whomhe called, he also justified.
Romans 4, 5.
To the one who does not work butbelieves in him who justifies
the ungodly, his faith iscredited as righteousness.
(10:04):
So again, justification happensbecause of belief, not because
of doing righteous work.
God justifies the ungodly peopleby crediting faith as
righteousness.
Why?
Well, because it's a loverelationship and not an earned
work relationship.
We can't even live up to thestandards that we hold ourselves
(10:25):
to, let alone God's standards.
Therefore, he graciouslyprovides a way that says, if
you'll just take Jesus' paymentfor your sin, then I'll consider
you justified.
And we will have a spiritualmarriage that is a love
relationship.
The clear message is thatrighteousness is not earned as
(10:47):
actual righteousness, butcredited to us through faith.
Colossians 1.20, quote, throughJesus to reconcile all things to
himself, having made peacethrough the blood of his cross.
Justification is God takingaction to reconcile sinful
people to himself.
(11:07):
And in the book of Galatians,we've already mentioned that
most of the book, in fact, themain thrust of the purpose for
the book of Galatians is sayingthat we are justified by faith.
Paul says several times thatwe're justified by faith, not by
works.
Chapter three of Galatians, Paulhas very strong, actually very
severe language supportingsalvation by faith, and repeated
(11:32):
the same idea over and over,mentioning faith, belief, and
promises over a two dozen times.
We would just refer you to ourteaching on Galatians, where we
went through that in detail.
Paul made it very clear inGalatians that justification is
by faith.
Paul says that if you thinkyou're justified by doing works,
(11:53):
then you're not justified bygrace.
So, Steve, what otherconclusions can we come to about
this idea of being justifiedbefore God and being justified
by faith?
SPEAKER_00 (12:05):
The basic conclusion, I think, with the
justification is that it's aone-time act.
It's a one-time declarationthat's done by God.
We are declared justified.
We are declared righteous beforeHim.
It's something that He doesbased on our belief in Jesus
(12:25):
Christ.
If we believe in our hearts andconfess with our mouths that
Jesus Christ is Lord, we shallbe saved.
Whenever we do that and we'resincere in doing that, then
we're declared righteous.
We are justified, and it's aone-time act.
There's nothing to do after thatpoint in order to have this
(12:47):
state of righteousness beforeGod or justification.
You mentioned Galatians.
We've also gone throughColossians, and Colossians, I
think, makes it very clear thatthere's not anything else that
we need to do in order to have aright standing before God.
It says that we've beentransferred from darkness over
(13:07):
into light.
It also says that we've beendeclared complete in front of
God through Jesus Christ, thatwe've been qualified.
There's so much characteristicsand attributes that we get
whenever we are justified anddeclared righteous before God.
So a key takeaway from thisportion of justification is that
(13:29):
it's a one-time act done by Godthat declares us justified and
righteous before God.
We no longer have any type of apenalty as far as a payment for
our sin.
Jesus Christ has done that andpaid for it himself.
SPEAKER_01 (13:45):
And that's really the key theological conclusion
about justification is that noamount of future good works can
take away the need forpunishment for past sins.
We can't work off our debt bydoing good deeds in the future
because the past sins have to bepaid for.
(14:05):
Therefore, many times the Biblemakes it very clear that we
cannot justify ourselves beforeGod.
Once we sin, then we can't fixit.
Rather, God must do something todeclare us justified.
All who truly believe in Jesusare declared justified by God.
(14:26):
Justification happens prior toand apart from actual
righteousness on our part.
When we're justified, we arereconciled and have peace with
God.
Romans 4, 5 says, quote, to theone who does not work but
believes in him who justifiesthe ungodly, his faith is
(14:47):
credited as righteousness.
So the primary passages thatdeal with how we are made right
before God, how we arejustified, is Romans chapter 4
and 5 and the book of Galatians,specifically chapters 2 and
parts of three.
They make it very clear over andover again that we are justified
(15:07):
not by our own efforts, but byfaith.
If we're justified by faith, wecan't lose justification nor
regain it again by human effort.
Some teach a false idea, it's avery false idea, that people are
saved initially by faith, butwhen they sin, they become
(15:27):
condemned again and then mustwork to regain the
justification.
God says it is foolish to teachthat we can be perfected through
human effort.
Galatians 3:3, quote, are you sofoolish, having begun by the
Spirit, are you now being madeperfect by the flesh?
(15:49):
So justification is on all whobelieve, not merely those who
believe and live a righteouslife.
Therefore, justification is byfaith alone.
We are saved by grace throughfaith, it says in Ephesians 2.
The Bible repeatedly speaks ofChristians being saved through
faith, is the term it uses.
(16:10):
Therefore, it is the faith thatis the means by which we are
saved, not the results of oursalvation.
SPEAKER_00 (16:17):
Another thing, Glenn, thinking about it as
you're going through that lastpart, is that the justification
is done by God.
The declaration of beingjustified or righteous before
God is not done by any type of ahuman agent or human
organization.
So our dependency on beingjustified before God is not
(16:39):
dependent on some human personor organization declaring us
that we're justified.
Because all humans want to thinkthat they have to add certain
things.
And whenever you add the humanelement of a person or
organization, usually with that,they have a listing of here's
certain things that you have todo in order to have a right
(17:04):
standing with the organizationor the church that you're belong
to.
And if you have a right standingwith the church, then therefore
you'll have a right standingwith God.
And that's not that's notbiblical.
Let's say it that way.
God is the one that gives thedeclaration of righteousness and
justification.
(17:25):
We should look to a biblicalunderstanding of our
justification and also know andcome to within ourselves of
knowing that it's God that givesus the justification.
It doesn't come from any type ofman, person, or a man-made
organization.
SPEAKER_01 (17:41):
And in answering this question, how we are made
right before God, how we arejustified before God,
theologians over the centurieswrestled with this concept.
I feel like we have to at leasttouch on a major disagreement
that happened in the past.
In the 1500s, was what is calledthe Protestant Reformation.
(18:03):
One of the primary issues therewas how we are justified.
The Protestants held to a systemand disagreed with the Roman
Catholics, and the churchesseparated over justification
primarily.
There were other issues also.
But Protestants in theReformation held to what's
called forensic justification,which just means a legal
(18:26):
declaration, as we've beenexplaining here.
While the Roman Catholics heldthat people have to actually be
righteous in order to be rightbefore God, the Catholics would
hold you have to actually dorighteous deeds before you can
actually appear before God inheaven.
Whereas the Protestants held tothis legal declaration, forensic
(18:48):
justification, that would saythat God declares us righteous
because of our faith.
Arguments were given on bothsides.
We would fall, of course, to theProtestant justification by
faith alone.
I would refer you to ourteachings on Galatians, but
Galatians 2.16 three times saysthat we're justified by faith,
(19:09):
by belief.
If God would have intended thisto mean that we are justified by
faith plus anything else, suchas good works or behavior, it
would have been there.
It would have been in theprimary passages that deal with
justification, namely Romans 4and 5 and in Galatians.
But the absence of any additionsin those passages leave us on
(19:33):
very solid ground that we aresaved by faith and faith alone.
Paul was too careful, toothorough, and felt this too
important to have left outanything essential to
justification.
If he would have intended thereto be works mixed in with being
made right before God, he wouldhave put it in Romans 4 and 5
(19:56):
and in Galatians.
We have to bring in a lot ofoutside baggage into those
passages to hold to an actualjustification.
That's why we would hold to theforensic justification.
We are declared righteous beforeGod.
And actually, in Galatians, ifyou look at the passages there,
Galatians 2.16, there's nodefinite article before the word
(20:19):
law, so that it literally says,faith in Christ and not by works
of law.
So it's not just talking aboutthe Mosaic law, it's talking
about any moral commands ofobedience.
We know that this passage,justification by faith, equals
righteousness before God becauseof Galatians 2.21, which says,
(20:41):
quote, if righteousness comesthrough law, then Christ died
needlessly.
He's saying that if we getrighteousness by obeying God's
commands, doing good works,obeying God, or by cooperating
with God, or by doing goodthings, then Christ did not have
to die.
Again, if we are to be justifiedbefore God by actual
(21:06):
righteousness of our own, thesepassages would have said so, but
they don't.
Steve, I just feel that's a verycritical thing.
I think that the New Testamentbears that out.
One last thing on justificationis what we would call eternal
security.
Once we are justified, ourjustification is not lost to
sin.
(21:27):
Jesus said, quote, I giveeternal life to them and they
will never perish, John 10, 28.
And 1 John 5 teaches that weknow that we have eternal life.
So once we are justified byfaith, just like Abraham was,
then we are declared righteousbefore God.
That is justification.
SPEAKER_00 (21:47):
As a final comment on that, Glenn, is to again give
this concept that we've beentalking about, that if there's
no works that we can do in orderto be justified before God, that
it's our expressed faith,belief, and trust in Jesus
Christ, and it's a declarationof righteousness given by God, a
(22:08):
one-time act, then it's also alogical conclusion on the other
side that there's nothing thatwe can do from a work standpoint
to undeclare ourselves as beingrighteous or undeclare ourselves
as being justified.
That's what we've been saying.
It's a one-time act by GodHimself.
(22:30):
We didn't work our way into it,therefore, we can't work our way
out of it.
We'll discuss a little bit moresome of the problems and issues
that I think that come up thatpeople put over into this
sanctification area that theytry and move that into the
justification area.
Because in sanctification, yes,we are doing things to become
(22:52):
more Christ-like there, but ithas nothing to do with God's
declaration of righteousness andjustification before Him.
SPEAKER_01 (23:01):
Next in our list of three terms is the word
sanctification or sanctify.
That word means to set apart,and more specifically, to be set
apart for a holy purpose.
The word is similar to the wordconsecrate.
Often when churches build a newbuilding, they will have a
(23:23):
consecration ceremony todedicate the building for God's
use and his glory.
Inanimate things in the templein the Old Testament were
sanctified, which means theywere to only be used in the
temple ceremonies.
In and of themselves, they werejust utensils and pots and pans.
But because they were set apartto only be used in God's
(23:47):
sacrificial system, then theywere sanctified.
That's what made them holy andseparate.
The actual mountain of MountSinai was sanctified at the
coming of the law because thepeople were not allowed to come
upon it.
It was set apart.
Before Moses met with God to getthe Ten Commandments, God tells
(24:09):
Moses to sanctify the people fortwo days.
It just meant to set them apartso that they're not doing common
things.
The people were to be sanctifiedbefore God appeared.
Sanctification just means to setapart from that which is unholy.
Therefore, Christians are to beset apart from unholy things so
(24:30):
that we are dedicated to theholy things of God.
Steve, how important issanctification?
SPEAKER_00 (24:36):
I think that it's a key part of our spiritual lives,
that process of becoming moreChrist-like.
Because if we're not doing that,if we're not becoming more
Christ-like, then we're missingout on a portion of our
spiritual life and getting toknow God, who He is, and working
up that relationship with Him.
(24:58):
So this whole process ofsanctification is one of
becoming more Christ-like.
We are set apart, we becomesanctified from a definitive
standpoint in a way, but we alsoare working through becoming
more Christ-like, as Paul likesto put it.
(25:18):
What does that look like?
It looks like learning moreabout God, learning more about
his ways, learning more aboutthe will that he has for our
lives.
Those are the things that haveto do with this sanctification
and setting ourselves apart fromthe world.
We've been justified, one timeact.
(25:40):
Now we are moving into an areawhere we are becoming more
separated from the world.
The justification happens withour spirit.
The sanctification is more to dowith not just our spirit of
becoming more Christ-like andknowing who God is, but it's
also the process of fighting ourbody to become separated from
(26:01):
this world.
Paul says, I do the things Idon't want to do, and I don't do
the things I do want to do.
That I think is a gooddefinition of the battle that
goes between the spirit and thebody.
I think that's also a gooddefinition of the sanctification
process, the process that we'reinvolved with to become
separated from this world and tobe a holy vessel, we can put it
(26:24):
that way, also to be used byGod.
So it's a process.
And I think it's a key thing torecognize that as we continue to
talk about this area ofsanctification.
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
Sanctification does not mean that we've lived a
sinless life up to this point intime, nor does it mean that we
are sinless right now, that wehave reached sinless perfection.
And I would point to the book ofFirst Corinthians, the second
verse in the entire book, Paulis just in his introduction, and
Paul writes to the church atCorinth in 1 Corinthians 1 2, he
(26:59):
says, quote, who have beensanctified in the Lord Jesus.
So he writes to this church whohas been sanctified in Christ.
But if you look at the book of 1Corinthians, most of the book is
this long series of correctionsfor sins and problems they have.
Some of it was just downrightsin.
(27:20):
They hit a lot of fleshly thingsthat had happened.
Yet when he writes to them, thesecond verse in the book is, I'm
writing to this church atCorinth who's been sanctified.
So they have been set apart.
So sanctification is a processof becoming more holy.
Justification and sanctificationare really works of God.
(27:40):
Justification has to be declaredby God.
And sanctification, it's notsomething we can just have a
whole lot of human effort and dosimply because, as humans, we're
so flawed with our desires.
Sanctification means we have toallow God's Holy Spirit to lead
us.
And God has to teach us throughthe Holy Spirit to avoid things
(28:05):
and to gravitate towards holythings.
We have to follow the leading ofthe Holy Spirit, but without
that, we couldn't sanctifyourselves.
Justification is instantaneous.
Sanctification is a processwhere we have to learn more of
God's ways.
We have to yield to the stillsmall voice of the Holy Spirit,
(28:26):
where he leads us into pathwaysthat are increasingly holy.
Sanctification is in Christ, notjust through human effort.
Acts 13, 2, quote, the HolySpirit said, this is when Paul
and Barnabas were set apart.
He says, the Holy Spirit said,set apart for me, Barnabas and
(28:48):
Saul for the work which I havecalled for them.
So the Holy Spirit was settingthem apart for a good work.
Romans 1:1, Paul says that he isa bondservant of Christ Jesus,
called to be an apostle, setapart for the gospel of God.
The apostle Paul was set apartfor a particular role in the
(29:10):
church.
We already mentioned 1Corinthians 1.2 speaks of all
Christians saying we aresanctified in the Lord Jesus,
called to be saints.
1 Corinthians 6 11 speaks ofChristians as formerly being
sinners, but now are sanctified,washed, and justified.
(29:30):
1 Thessalonians 4.3 says, it isGod's will that we have, quote,
sanctification, that is, youabstain from sexual immorality.
So sanctification is thisprocess where God has to work on
us.
Jesus talked about him pruningthings out of our lives.
Those he loves, he prunes sothat we can bear more fruit.
(29:53):
So sanctification is thisgradual process where we become
increasingly more Christ like.
He has to teach us thingsthrough experiences, prick our
conscience, and lead us towardssome things and away from
others.
Justification is instantaneousat the point of salvation.
Sanctification takes a littlewhile.
(30:14):
And Steve, God is still workingon me to help me be more
sanctified.
And I pray that people wouldhave patience.
SPEAKER_00 (30:21):
That's a good point that you have made, Glenn, and
that through God's power andstrength of the Holy Spirit,
that's how we can go throughthis process of sanctification.
Without the Holy Spirit in us,it would be really, I think,
nearly impossible to do thatbecause the Holy Spirit is the
(30:42):
one that tells us you're not onthe right path, you're not going
in the right direction.
And I'm speaking on that fromexperience.
My personal testimony is I cameto salvation and belief in Jesus
Christ at the age of eight.
But as much as I tried to live agood life as a boy and be
obedient to my parents, I stilllied to them from time to time.
(31:06):
I still went places where Iwasn't supposed to go and play.
And as I entered into my teenageyears and my 20s, I was not
living a, you know, Christianlife of going to church and
learning more about God andthose types of things.
But all through that time, theHoly Spirit was there telling me
what you're doing, Steve, is notright.
(31:28):
And you need to get back into arelationship with Jesus Christ.
And that happened in my early30s.
Since then, I have built myrelationship up with Jesus
Christ.
So we can't do it without theHoly Spirit.
And that is when we're given theHoly Spirit, is at the time that
we're declared righteous in thejustification, we receive the
(31:51):
Holy Spirit.
Jesus told the disciples whenthey were questioning him,
going, he says, Don't worry, I'mnot going to leave you alone.
I'm going to send one that'sgoing to come after me.
In the Greek, it's paraclete.
It means someone that's going tocome alongside of you and that's
going to help you.
And then later at another point,Jesus said, I must go so that
(32:14):
the Spirit might be sent to you.
So this process ofsanctification is one that is
empowered by the third person ofthe Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
And it is through the HolySpirit that we have the
enablement and the power and theability to be able to learn more
(32:35):
about God and Jesus Christ, butalso to be able to stay away
from the things of the world andresist the temptation of the
world that we have here on adaily basis.
So I think this is a veryimportant part of sanctification
that you've pointed out, Glenn,is the reception of the Holy
Spirit.
We wouldn't be able to do it onour own without the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01 (32:57):
The first area was justification, and that is a
declaration by God at one pointin time upon our faith and trust
in Christ.
We then enter the period ofsanctification, which is a long
process of becoming more andmore set apart for God's use.
The final state isglorification.
(33:17):
Glorification is where we willbe exalted.
Romans 8:30 says, quote, thosehe justified, he also glorified.
So in the end, we will beglorified.
Our physical bodies will beglorified when we are
resurrected from the dust of theearth and glorified to be like
(33:37):
Jesus' resurrected body.
Philippians 3.21 says, quote,the Lord Jesus Christ will
transform the body of our lowlystate into conformity with his
glorious body, unquote.
In 1 Corinthians 15, starting inverse 42, it has a long section
(33:59):
that where it talks about ourphysical bodies being raised to
a glorified state.
It says in there that ourphysical body dies perishable
and it is raised imperishable,dies in dishonor, raised in
glory, dies in weakness, raisedin power, dies natural, raised
(34:21):
spiritual.
And in this sense, the spiritualthere is physical as well,
simply because in the same book,1 Corinthians, it talks about
the manna in the wandering inthe wilderness years being
spiritual food.
So our bodies will be raisedimperishable, glorious, in
power, and a spiritual body thatis like Christ.
(34:45):
That's our glorified state.
We're told there in 1Corinthians, quote, the dead
will be raised imperishable, andwe will be changed, for this
perishable must put on theimperishable, and this mortal
must put on immortality.
Perhaps the greatest sectionwhere it talks about our
(35:06):
glorified state is in the end ofthe book of Revelation, where
Revelation 22 2 says, the treeof life there will give fruit
every month, quote, for thehealing of the nations.
So there will be no more death,Revelation 21:4.
Therefore, we will be in a statewhere our bodies are going to be
(35:26):
like Jesus' resurrected body.
There will be no more strife, nomore sickness, no more death, no
more wars between nations.
He says he's going to dry everytear, and we'll be able to live
in a state where our physicalbodies are glorified.
And Steve, I can't wait for thatday.
SPEAKER_00 (35:46):
I can't wait for that either.
It's going to be a great daywhenever our spirit is united
with a glorified body and we'refreed from the body that we have
here that we're living in inthis earth.
And this glorified body is goingto be living in a redeemed
creation.
And of course, in the end state,we're going to have a new
(36:07):
heavens and a new earth.
So our glorified body is goingto be one that's going to be
created to be and exist in thatglorified period of time.
We see through Jesus that he wasthe first one, the first
prototype of this glorified bodythat he had.
Whenever he came back, we seedifferent characteristics that
(36:28):
he had.
He also was able to physicallyeat something.
He was cooking fish on theseashore whenever they
recognized him by the Sea ofGalilee.
It also had some physicalcharacteristics in that Thomas
(36:50):
and others were able to touchhim and to feel of him as well.
So this isn't going to be somesort of a ghostly ethereal type
of a body.
No, it's going to be an actualphysical body, albeit that it's
going to be glorified and onebuilt to exist in the glorified
and eternal state with God, onethat's going to be able to be
(37:13):
with and stand in the presenceof God Himself.
It's just going to be a greatthing.
SPEAKER_01 (37:18):
First Corinthians 15, as we said, talks a lot
about this glorified body.
It's the same one that was putin the ground, will be raised
and glorified.
It'll be fixed this time, butit's a very physical body that
is glorified.
It's the same one we have now.
But not only is our body goingto be physically glorified, but
(37:40):
our position in Christ is goingto be glorified and elevated.
Revelation 19:9, we are invitedto the marriage supper of the
Lamb.
Imagine we will be in the king'spalace, able to sit at the
king's table, eat the king'sfood.
We are in a glorified state.
And he says in 1 Corinthians 6,2, quote, do you not know that
(38:04):
the saints will judge the world?
And the very next verse says, Doyou not know that we will judge
angels?
So Christians, followers ofJesus Christ that are born
again, our bodies are going tobe glorified, but we're also
going to be elevated into aglorified position of authority
and reverence where we can sitat the king's table.
(38:25):
So we will have a glorifiedposition.
Only those who are born again inChrist will be able to be
glorified this way.
Further, all of our problems aregoing to be solved and perfect
justice will prevail.
It says in Revelation 21:4,quote, He will wipe away every
tear from our eyes, and therewill no longer be any death.
(38:48):
There will no longer be anymourning or crying or pain.
The first things have passedaway, unquote.
So we're told there's no moredeath.
Our glorified bodies will notdie again.
They will not hurt again.
There will be no tears.
We're also going to be able tosee God face to face in all his
(39:09):
glory.
Quote, the dwelling of God isamong men, and he will dwell
among them, it says inRevelation 21:3.
Over in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, itsays, For we now see in a mirror
dimly, but then face to face.
Our bodies are going to beglorified, and as such, we're
going to be able to see Goddirectly in all of his glory.
(39:32):
We're going to be in a glorifiedstate where we can be with him.
If we were to see God's fullglory now, it would probably
strike us dead.
Remember when Christ revealed alittle bit of his glory on the
Mount of Transfiguration, Peterand James and John had to hide
their eyes.
So remember, the Bible speaksabout salvation of the
(39:55):
individual, but that's not theonly thing it talks about.
It talks about the redemption ofpeople, talks about the
redemption of the earth and theredemption of nations.
So in the end, the last coupleof chapters in Revelation tell
us that the earth is to bereturned to the state it was in
(40:15):
the Garden of Eden.
The earth will be returned toits glory that it had in the
Garden of Eden.
Revelation 22, 3 says, when theearth is renewed, there will be
no more curse.
The curse will be lifted fromthe ground, and our bodies will
be glorified.
The tree of life will be in thenew earth, just like it was in
(40:36):
the Garden of Eden.
And Steve, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00 (40:39):
Think of it this way is that glorification is the
completion, the consummation,the perfection, the full
realization of our salvation.
So in this process, we havejustification where we're
declared righteous before God.
We're given the Holy Spirit,which helps us to be able to
(41:02):
live in this world that we have,in this physical body that we
currently have, learning moreabout Jesus Christ and God,
becoming more separated from theworld itself.
And then the glorification,though, is the pinnacle of it.
It's a new body that we're givenwith our spirit reunited with it
(41:23):
that is going to be able tostand before God during our
judgment.
That judgment is not going to befor salvation.
That judgment is going to be forour rewards and for the things
that we have done here.
Every deed's going to bereviewed, but our salvation is
one which is secured.
So I can't wait for it either,Glenn.
The glorified body andglorification, that's where
(41:45):
we're going, and that's wherewe're headed.
Paul says that we're notcitizens of this world once we
become a believer.
We're citizens of the heavenlyrealm once we become believers.
And where are we going to livethere is going to be in a place
that Jesus says he has gone toprepare for us?
And the bodies that we're goingto have are going to be these
glorified bodies.
(42:06):
That's where we're headed.
This in-between state ofsanctification is one that's
temporary in itself until we getto the point of a glorified body
reunited with our spirit.
And as you've pointed manytimes, I can't wait.
It's just going to be a greattime that we're going to have.
SPEAKER_01 (42:27):
So we opened with this and we'll summarize it
here.
The three areas that we've beendescribing today, justification
is the deliverance from thepenalty of sin when God declares
us right before Him.
And that's by faith and faithalone.
Sanctification is thedeliverance from the power of
sin, where we can liveincreasingly holy lives here on
(42:50):
earth.
And then glorification is thedeliverance from the presence of
sin when we are finally face toface with God.
Oh, what a great day that willbe.
My friends, I trust that youwill also be on this path of
justification, sanctification,and glorification as we are.
If not, then why not today?
SPEAKER_00 (43:09):
So we hope that this has been a help to you.
We could have gone through eachof these sessions on their own
for each of these subjects.
So this really can be classifiedas an overview.
We encourage you to continue toread through the scriptures on
these particular subject areasand learn them a little bit
better.
If you happen to have furtherquestions about any of these
(43:31):
items, write to us at info atreasoningthrough the Bible.com
and we'll work them into one ofour QA sessions that we
periodically have.
SPEAKER_01 (43:41):
Again, hopefully this has been helpful to you.
And with that, we trust that youwill be back with us as we
continue to reason through theBible.
SPEAKER_00 (43:49):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
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