On Glorification

     The ultimate choice, or use of free will, is the notion of pleasure or treasure. Which shall it be? Yesterday’s commentary was on TREASURE. It was identified as “glorification.” Let’s take a look at that concept.

     Glorification is recognizing God for whom He IS! Glorification is God-focused, not person-focused. Nobody can be glorified without first glorifying God. If anyone searches for “glorified” in the entire Bible, 95% of all the hits will be God glorified. More, precisely, “glorification” is God’s suffering on the behalf of humanity, as Paul wrote, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom 8:17). That idea was validated by the apostle John:

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:38-39). 

     Glorification has an added component, it is not only suffering on the behalf of the creatures, but dying in their place. Jesus, was glorified by dying; he propitiated his own blood to redeem mankind. This is difficult to understand in that Jesus is God, but he glorified Himself when His own Flesh suffered for mankind. John 3:16 indicated why: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God was glorified in substituting His flesh for ours so that we could be regenerated immortal. Not just with eternal life, but eternal TREASURE. As mentioned yesterday, our treasures are in Heaven (Mat 6:20). “The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field.” (Mat 13:44).

     Treasure, for Christians, is when they return to the condition as in the Garden Paradise. In order to obtain glorification, consider this, “Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:20-21). If Christians live like Christ, just as Christ, in the end, they will be glorified. They will gladly suffer for God by taking up their own cross by denying themselves and following Jesus (Mat 16:24).

Paul, Peter, and all the apostles glorified God by either suffering for, as in the case of John, or dying for Jesus. Their “cross” was dying for the Doctrine of Jesus. They did for Jesus what he did for mankind. Their deaths did not propitiate for the sins of mankind or even themselves, but glorified God.

     Glorification, for God, is being Himself. When Christians glorify God, it is for Him being as He is. We thank God for who He Is in our prayers. That is glorifying God. Because God loves the aroma of incense, in this case, our praise, He in return glorifies Christians who are sincere. The Third Commandment is essentially a command against the refusal to glorify God by taking Jesus’s Purpose with apathy. He died that we might live on, yet people trivialize God. Jesus sweated blood in agony for us (Luke 22:44), but what do most do for him? Minimize the profundity of him dying in our place!

    Jesus, as God, made Himself glory-worthy first for generating mankind (Gen 1:1). Mankind owes their lives to Jesus because his hand did the creating. Jesus glorified us when he made flesh from dust and breathed life into inanimate, formed clay. Jesus was shown to be glory-worthy again when he died that man could be regenerated. That is back to the original condition in the Garden. What is that? Doing freely the will of God! The first time around, Eve did Satan’s will, and Adam did his own because God told him His Will, not Eve.

    Jesus returned as Spirit as he was in the Garden (Acts 2). He was glorified. I believe that Jesus’s glorification commenced at the transfiguration on the mountain so that he could be powerful enough to redeem all the sins of mankind and face Satan on his own turf.

     The transfiguration was complete when Jesus said, “It is finished” and “gave up the ghost.” (John 19:30). A transition was made when the transfiguration was finished: Jesus was transformed from the Flesh of God into the Ghost of God’s Flesh. His “Ghost” went to Hell and dropped off the sins of mankind as his body rested in the tomb. When sin was defeated, Jesus’s Ghost came back to the tomb and Jesus’s flesh was resurrected. His glorification of God was finished! Look at that claim:

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John 17:3-5)

     Jesus glorified the Father, “That they might know thee the only true God.” That’s how Christians are to glorify God, and by so doing, God shall glorify us! Why would God do that? Examine the following scripture:

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Rom 8:16-17) 

     Christians must suffer tribulation for God as He did for us. The apostles did that, and we are expected to as well. If we are ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us (Mark 8:38). We must be not “ashamed of the gospel of Christ” (Rom 1:16). That is our tribulation, and those who are not ashamed, glorify God by doing His will rather than Satan’s or our own! God’s will for mankind before we were ever generated had a purpose:

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:29-31). 

     Mankind was meant to be glorious. He created us for eternal life with imperishable flesh in a place without suffering or death!  “Very good” (Gen 1:1) is GLORIOUS! Ultimately the final stage of glorification is the resurrected body. Resurrection is having life breathed unto the creature again and remade a living glorious soul just as at the beginning. Regeneration and resurrection both result in glorification. We are remade in the image of God just as back in the Garden. Jesus, himself was not to be glorified as a high priest like Aaron, but Melchesidec (Heb 5:4-6).  Glorification, then is like Melchisedec. Look at him:

For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. (Heb 7:1-3) 

     Glorification is being like Melchesedec, who, it is clear, was the identity of preincarnate Jesus. Abraham glorified Melchesedec with tithes, glorified him as “King of righteousness,” and as “King of Peace,” which is Jesus, because his purpose was to bring spiritual peace in Earth.

Abraham glorified God. Scripture then explains glorification of God: (1) without father, (2) without mother, (3) without descent, (4) no beginning, (5) no end, and (6) continuous Existence. Melchesedec was a manifestation of God, and anytime that God manifests Himself, that Person is Jesus!

     Glorification is the ever-present eternal image of God. Jesus was without Father or mother because he is God in the Flesh. He is called “the Son of God” because his flesh was generated by God for a purpose. He was to be glorified, and as I have shown, that is His purpose for us! The “treasure” which Abraham sought was not the land of Canaan, but glorification in Paradise – to be made again in the image of Jesus!