Sin Removed
Romans 8:28-30
Introduction
Why do people run races? Have you ever been running? Misguided claims about runners highs aside, do you think it is an enjoyable experience? I think it might be better to ask the question this way: which part of the race is truly your favorite? Which feels the best?
I think the easy answer is this: the finish! We all love that part. Even those who would never dare to call themselves runners would agree. Maybe one of the greatest symbols of this phenomenon is the Rocky statue in Philadelphia. This visual, the triumph of perseverance, tells us this: human beings were hardwired for glory. We love glory and we will only find that in God through Christ.
Introduction
Why do people run races? Have you ever been running? Misguided claims about runners highs aside, do you think it is an enjoyable experience? I think it might be better to ask the question this way: which part of the race is truly your favorite? Which feels the best?
I think the easy answer is this: the finish! We all love that part. Even those who would never dare to call themselves runners would agree. Maybe one of the greatest symbols of this phenomenon is the Rocky statue in Philadelphia. This visual, the triumph of perseverance, tells us this: human beings were hardwired for glory. We love glory and we will only find that in God through Christ.
Over the last three Sundays, including today, we have been discussing how the Resurrection impacts major aspects of our salvation in Christ. First of all, we looked at our forgiveness in Christ’s resurrection, then we looked at our victory over sin in Christ’s resurrection. This morning we will focus on the final removal of sin and Christ’s resurrection.
As Pastor Thomas preached from Romans 6 last week, we are freed from bondage or slavery to sin. Yes, now we can choose not to sin and to serve God in doing righteous things, but that does not remove the nature inside of us that tempts us to sin. We still struggle, as Paul says, to do the things that we want to do. And often, even mature believers do what they do not want to do, and sin.
And so we can understand salvation to be something that has different parts of it. Some of it, we experience now, and some of it, we experience later.
"Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:23)
The giving of the Holy Spirit to those who believe on Jesus is like a down payment, or, as Paul puts it, the firstfruits of our redemption. It is a promise that one day we will experience God’s salvation in full and how does he refer to that in verse 23? The redemption of our body, or, we might say, the resurrection. We will come back to that phrase in just a moment.
Later, the same chapter Paul describes this chain of salvation further:
"Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." (Romans 8:30)
He refers to this final removal of sin as being “glorified.” This term is used to describe our ultimate salvation in the resurrection of our bodies because God does all this by giving us a share in His glory. Glorification means being given a share in God’s glory.
Glorification means being given a share in God’s glory.
Now that we understand that glorification means being given a share in God’s glory, the question is what is glory? How would you answer that question? What is the glory of God? Well, I just Googled around to find a good definition. To be honest with you, there really are no adequate definitions of the glory of God. The glory of God is not an object that I could explain to you by telling you how big it is, or what shape it is. It is not even a feeling or an idea that we could fully define. The glory of God describes God’s gloriousness. It emanates from the divine. It is the essence of what, when we experience it, screams to our souls, this is GOD.
The best I could find on the internet was this from John Piper:
“The glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections.” John Piper
Maybe that helps you. It helps me to wrap my brain around what is glorious about God. I think it also helps to think about experiences like we talked about before, the exultation of triumph, beautiful art, grand scenery, the smile of a baby, hard-fought victories, etc. They give us a sense of transcendence, of glory. God has imparted His glory to His creation so that it points back to His own glory.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork." (Psalm 19:1)
Often, this verse might be quickly referenced to help us understand that creation proves God’s existence. Though that is correct, that is not really what David means here. David says that the Heavens shout the gloriousness of God! They say how much better He is than the idols that we worship. He’s better than riches, or drugs, or sex, or power, or reputation, or achievement, or ego. His glory shows that He alone is God.
David looks at creation in awe and wonder, saying “This could only be the work of God!”
And now today on Easter, as we behold the resurrection of Christ, can we see this same glory? Can we see the transcendence of God in raising His own Son from the dead?
"'Death is swallowed up in victory.' 'O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.'" (1 Corinthians 15:54–57)
Do you see the glory in Jesus’ victory over the grave? No matter how much we want to, can we make the person in the casket alive again? No matter how many doctors and money we throw at a disease, when it someone’s time to die, we cannot stop it. And yet, God brought Jesus back. Do you see the glory in that?
We were created for glory. And in the resurrection, we share in the glory of Christ. And in fact, this is what we were made for.
Humans were created for glory.
You see, from the beginning, sin has attempted to deceive us, claiming that the glory of created things is enough to satisfy our hunger for glory. This is the lie that the serpent told to Adam and Eve in the garden. You see the problem with Adam and Eve, you and me, is not that we seek too much glory. It is that we are satisfied with too little.
God’s plan was always to give us the glory we were made for. And praise be to God, even sin and death and all of hell could not stop Him. Even those obstacles became platforms for Him to display His glorious love, power and holiness! Now through Christ, His death, and resurrection can we too can glorified, sharing in the glory of God’s glory.
This is the good news of the resurrection, that not only do we share in the death of Christ, but now we also share in His resurrection. And God…
"...will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." (Philippians 3:21)
But for a moment, I want to talk about that transformation. What does that look like? Because of our struggle against sin, many of us resent our (as Paul puts it) “lowly” bodies. We believe that because our bodies have been tainted by sin that they must be completely evil. They might also say that because our bodies hold us back, our true spiritual selves need to be liberated from our bodies.
But is that a part of God’s plan? What does it mean for our bodies to be glorified? Let’s look again at...
"Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:23)
When you come face to face with the immense suffering in this world, when you personally face disappointments, do you groan? Do you have that sense that everything is not right? This is why we look to the future, because God is not finished fulfilling all of His promises yet. And what is it exactly that we wait for? Not to be free of our bodies, but for our bodies to be redeemed.
The resurrection means the glorification, not just of our inner selves, but of all of us.
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:52)
This is a changing of this body. This is not a destruction of our bodies.
Through resurrection, God will glorify the bodies of those in Christ.
This is an important matter for us because it is actually highly relevant to hot button issues today. To many, the human body is a barrier. For them, it can prevent them from being their “true” selves. To a person who claims to be “trans-gender” the body is evil because it holds them back from being who they really are. Abortion is acceptable because the little body in the womb is not a person. “Personhood”, according to abortion advocates, is derived from a certain level of thought or self-awareness.
But we must have a thoroughly Christian (read: biblical) understanding of what a human person is. A human person is a body. Your body is you. This (my body) is as much Will as my thoughts, and feelings, and desires. God created, not just our souls or our spirits, but our bodies, too, in His own image. Yes, our bodies are corrupted now by sin, but God is able to redeem our bodies. When the dead are raised, we shall all be changed. All of us! God has redeemed our entire person.
When we are glorified, God will not remove these bodies and give us new ones. He will give us the bodies we were always meant to have. And what kind of body is that?
"The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:42–44)
In other words...
Glorified believers will be like Christ.
"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2)
Not only does this certainly include the glorification of our bodies, but also, as we have seen, it includes the glorification of our entire person, so that in appearance, but also in our behavior we are like Jesus.
Glorification will finally remove sin from believers.
No longer is there a war going on inside of us, a constant struggle to please God and to seek His kingdom above all else. But now there is peace. Our desires are Jesus’ desires. Our priorities are only His. We will love only what He loves.
Then, we will not settle for any less than the very glory of God. Nothing in us will be deceived by lesser things. We will fully realize that...
"...This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3)
Because we are like Jesus and Jesus loved to do the will of the Father. That was His mission, and He fully completed it.
Sharing in God’s glory is good because it means being with God Himself in a deeper way.
If God’s glory is the radiance of seeing God for Who He is, then getting more of God’s glory means experiencing more of God. In eternity, we will experience God and His glory in a richer, deeper, fuller way.
Now, we see His glory darkly as through a mirror, but then it will be face to face. We will see God. For those of us Who know Him, what can we say, except wow! It is indescribable. To those who do not know Him, we can’t help but invite you to know this God of glory Who made you for this glory too! You were made to share in this!
Conclusion
For those who will turn from sin and choose to trust in our glorious God, they will live for all of eternity in the light of His radiance, glowing. We will sing together praising His name. And our glory, given by the God of glory, will be caught up together in His. He will be all in all.
And so since these things are true, how should we live? Do we hunger for His glory right now? Do we care to know and praise this glorious God? If this is what we truly want, we would take every opportunity to enjoy Him today. We would love to praise Him with the church. We would seek to be transformed, from glory to glory, to be more like His glorious Son. Dig in to the life of the church. Dig in to personal time with God in prayer and the Bible.
"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (1 John 3:2–3)
If we have this hope of one day being like Christ, then we will be like Him today. We will purify ourselves.
Have you ever been excited about something? Maybe your kids were excited about Easter. (Children will do this about anything because they really know how to WONDER about things.) They get the Easter basket ready, and they may even pretend that they are doing the very thing itself ahead of time. They are so excited about it that they just can’t wait.
The promise of glorification in the future should produce in us a desire for Christlikeness right now.
Discussion Questions
As Pastor Thomas preached from Romans 6 last week, we are freed from bondage or slavery to sin. Yes, now we can choose not to sin and to serve God in doing righteous things, but that does not remove the nature inside of us that tempts us to sin. We still struggle, as Paul says, to do the things that we want to do. And often, even mature believers do what they do not want to do, and sin.
And so we can understand salvation to be something that has different parts of it. Some of it, we experience now, and some of it, we experience later.
"Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:23)
The giving of the Holy Spirit to those who believe on Jesus is like a down payment, or, as Paul puts it, the firstfruits of our redemption. It is a promise that one day we will experience God’s salvation in full and how does he refer to that in verse 23? The redemption of our body, or, we might say, the resurrection. We will come back to that phrase in just a moment.
Later, the same chapter Paul describes this chain of salvation further:
"Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." (Romans 8:30)
He refers to this final removal of sin as being “glorified.” This term is used to describe our ultimate salvation in the resurrection of our bodies because God does all this by giving us a share in His glory. Glorification means being given a share in God’s glory.
Glorification means being given a share in God’s glory.
Now that we understand that glorification means being given a share in God’s glory, the question is what is glory? How would you answer that question? What is the glory of God? Well, I just Googled around to find a good definition. To be honest with you, there really are no adequate definitions of the glory of God. The glory of God is not an object that I could explain to you by telling you how big it is, or what shape it is. It is not even a feeling or an idea that we could fully define. The glory of God describes God’s gloriousness. It emanates from the divine. It is the essence of what, when we experience it, screams to our souls, this is GOD.
The best I could find on the internet was this from John Piper:
“The glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections.” John Piper
Maybe that helps you. It helps me to wrap my brain around what is glorious about God. I think it also helps to think about experiences like we talked about before, the exultation of triumph, beautiful art, grand scenery, the smile of a baby, hard-fought victories, etc. They give us a sense of transcendence, of glory. God has imparted His glory to His creation so that it points back to His own glory.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork." (Psalm 19:1)
Often, this verse might be quickly referenced to help us understand that creation proves God’s existence. Though that is correct, that is not really what David means here. David says that the Heavens shout the gloriousness of God! They say how much better He is than the idols that we worship. He’s better than riches, or drugs, or sex, or power, or reputation, or achievement, or ego. His glory shows that He alone is God.
David looks at creation in awe and wonder, saying “This could only be the work of God!”
And now today on Easter, as we behold the resurrection of Christ, can we see this same glory? Can we see the transcendence of God in raising His own Son from the dead?
"'Death is swallowed up in victory.' 'O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.'" (1 Corinthians 15:54–57)
Do you see the glory in Jesus’ victory over the grave? No matter how much we want to, can we make the person in the casket alive again? No matter how many doctors and money we throw at a disease, when it someone’s time to die, we cannot stop it. And yet, God brought Jesus back. Do you see the glory in that?
We were created for glory. And in the resurrection, we share in the glory of Christ. And in fact, this is what we were made for.
Humans were created for glory.
You see, from the beginning, sin has attempted to deceive us, claiming that the glory of created things is enough to satisfy our hunger for glory. This is the lie that the serpent told to Adam and Eve in the garden. You see the problem with Adam and Eve, you and me, is not that we seek too much glory. It is that we are satisfied with too little.
God’s plan was always to give us the glory we were made for. And praise be to God, even sin and death and all of hell could not stop Him. Even those obstacles became platforms for Him to display His glorious love, power and holiness! Now through Christ, His death, and resurrection can we too can glorified, sharing in the glory of God’s glory.
This is the good news of the resurrection, that not only do we share in the death of Christ, but now we also share in His resurrection. And God…
"...will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." (Philippians 3:21)
But for a moment, I want to talk about that transformation. What does that look like? Because of our struggle against sin, many of us resent our (as Paul puts it) “lowly” bodies. We believe that because our bodies have been tainted by sin that they must be completely evil. They might also say that because our bodies hold us back, our true spiritual selves need to be liberated from our bodies.
But is that a part of God’s plan? What does it mean for our bodies to be glorified? Let’s look again at...
"Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:23)
When you come face to face with the immense suffering in this world, when you personally face disappointments, do you groan? Do you have that sense that everything is not right? This is why we look to the future, because God is not finished fulfilling all of His promises yet. And what is it exactly that we wait for? Not to be free of our bodies, but for our bodies to be redeemed.
The resurrection means the glorification, not just of our inner selves, but of all of us.
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:52)
This is a changing of this body. This is not a destruction of our bodies.
Through resurrection, God will glorify the bodies of those in Christ.
This is an important matter for us because it is actually highly relevant to hot button issues today. To many, the human body is a barrier. For them, it can prevent them from being their “true” selves. To a person who claims to be “trans-gender” the body is evil because it holds them back from being who they really are. Abortion is acceptable because the little body in the womb is not a person. “Personhood”, according to abortion advocates, is derived from a certain level of thought or self-awareness.
But we must have a thoroughly Christian (read: biblical) understanding of what a human person is. A human person is a body. Your body is you. This (my body) is as much Will as my thoughts, and feelings, and desires. God created, not just our souls or our spirits, but our bodies, too, in His own image. Yes, our bodies are corrupted now by sin, but God is able to redeem our bodies. When the dead are raised, we shall all be changed. All of us! God has redeemed our entire person.
When we are glorified, God will not remove these bodies and give us new ones. He will give us the bodies we were always meant to have. And what kind of body is that?
"The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:42–44)
- The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. - Our bodies now break down, but then, they will never do that. We will be free from disease and aging.
- It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. - Our bodies now can be unsightly or unattractive, but then, they will be beautiful as God intended.
- It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. - Our bodies here are frail, but then, we will be as strong as God intended for us to be when He made us.
- It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. - This is an interesting one. Does this then prove the case that we will have immaterial bodies, floating around in the clouds? Is this what glorification means? Notice, that Paul does not say now we have physical bodies, but natural. Sometimes, when we use the word spiritual, we mean of a spiritual, immaterial essence. Spiritual, in this sense, is a reference to the unseen realm. But most of the time, Paul actually uses the word spiritual to describe those who are led by the Holy Spirit. So, now, we have bodies that are subject to a sinful nature, but then we will have a body entirely subject to the Holy Spirit.
In other words...
Glorified believers will be like Christ.
"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2)
Not only does this certainly include the glorification of our bodies, but also, as we have seen, it includes the glorification of our entire person, so that in appearance, but also in our behavior we are like Jesus.
Glorification will finally remove sin from believers.
No longer is there a war going on inside of us, a constant struggle to please God and to seek His kingdom above all else. But now there is peace. Our desires are Jesus’ desires. Our priorities are only His. We will love only what He loves.
Then, we will not settle for any less than the very glory of God. Nothing in us will be deceived by lesser things. We will fully realize that...
"...This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3)
Because we are like Jesus and Jesus loved to do the will of the Father. That was His mission, and He fully completed it.
Sharing in God’s glory is good because it means being with God Himself in a deeper way.
If God’s glory is the radiance of seeing God for Who He is, then getting more of God’s glory means experiencing more of God. In eternity, we will experience God and His glory in a richer, deeper, fuller way.
Now, we see His glory darkly as through a mirror, but then it will be face to face. We will see God. For those of us Who know Him, what can we say, except wow! It is indescribable. To those who do not know Him, we can’t help but invite you to know this God of glory Who made you for this glory too! You were made to share in this!
Conclusion
For those who will turn from sin and choose to trust in our glorious God, they will live for all of eternity in the light of His radiance, glowing. We will sing together praising His name. And our glory, given by the God of glory, will be caught up together in His. He will be all in all.
And so since these things are true, how should we live? Do we hunger for His glory right now? Do we care to know and praise this glorious God? If this is what we truly want, we would take every opportunity to enjoy Him today. We would love to praise Him with the church. We would seek to be transformed, from glory to glory, to be more like His glorious Son. Dig in to the life of the church. Dig in to personal time with God in prayer and the Bible.
"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (1 John 3:2–3)
If we have this hope of one day being like Christ, then we will be like Him today. We will purify ourselves.
Have you ever been excited about something? Maybe your kids were excited about Easter. (Children will do this about anything because they really know how to WONDER about things.) They get the Easter basket ready, and they may even pretend that they are doing the very thing itself ahead of time. They are so excited about it that they just can’t wait.
The promise of glorification in the future should produce in us a desire for Christlikeness right now.
Discussion Questions
- How would you explain God’s glory to someone who is not very familiar with the Christian faith?
- What in the created world has given you a sense of glory?
- Why do we use the term “glorified” to describe what God will do to believers when their full redemption is complete?
- How does our hunger for glory affect our living?
- How does the glorification of our current physical bodies help us to see the importance (glory, even) of “menial” tasks in this life?
- Does God view the “physical” as less than the “spiritual?”
- How can we seek to experience God’s glory in this life before our glorification?
- Explain how the hope of full Christlikeness motivates pure or righteous living for us? (1 John 3:2-3)
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