“To The Glory of God”

 This issue of the Enjoy The Bible Quarterly contains two articles, each dealing with the privilege we have of glorifying God in this dispensation. The first deals with the general glorifying capacity associated with our sanctified position “in Christ.” While the second looks at a particular way that we can glorify God, which unfortunately is often overlooked.

Without a doubt, being “justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” is the most wonderful thing that God has done for us. It is an indescribable joy to know that we have been forgiven all of our sins, have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, and as such have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” and “the hope of the glory of God.” No more wonderful possession could ever be ours than this, especially when we remember that we were guilty sinners by nature and enemies of God, who not only rightfully deserved His wrath but had it coming. God’s grace unto us in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross indeed is astounding, and because of it we possess the wonder of wonders — justification unto eternal life.

If justification is the most wonderful thing God has ever done for us, then our sanctified position “in Christ” is the second most wonderful thing we have from God. In Romans 6 Paul teaches us that God not only justified us unto eternal life the moment we trusted Christ as our all-sufficient Savior, He also sanctified us by His grace through faith. The Holy Spirit baptized us into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and by so doing put us into a sanctified position before God. As Paul declares,…

 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)

 “In Christ” we are now set apart from sin’s automatic mastership over us and we are set apart unto God’s use. We are now freed from slavery to sin’s beck and call being “dead to sin,” and have been put into the position of being able to “live unto God” by being made “alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Hence Paul goes on to say,…

 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:6-11)

 In view of being made “alive unto God” we can now actually “live unto God”; we can do things to “the glory of God.” This is the wonder of our sanctification. As Paul goes on to declare in the remainder of Romans 6, before God justified and sanctified us we were “the servants of sin” and as such we were “free from righteousness.” (Romans 6:20) Therefore, we could not do one thing that honored, pleased, and glorified the Lord. All we could do was bring forth things that provoked God’s wrath as the “children of wrath” that we were. Hence, Paul asks,…

 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. (Romans 6:21)

 But now being justified and sanctified “in Christ” we can ‘yield ourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God.’ Consequently, we now have the capacity to be glorifiers of God instead of provokers of His wrath and displeasure. In view of this, Paul exclaims:

 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Romans 6:22)

 “Servants to God” is what our sanctified position “in Christ” has made us to be, and being so we have our “fruit unto holiness” by which God is actually glorified through us. This wonderful sanctification “in Christ” is put into practice as we “walk in the Spirit,” (i.e. being mindful of who we are “in Christ” by the Spirit’s baptism of us “into Christ” and responding to the details of our lives on the basis of that.) The Spirit of God produces His fruit in us and God is glorified through us.

Hence it is that our sanctified position “in Christ,” with its gracious privilege of being glorifiers of God, is the foundation upon which Paul builds every exhortation he gives to us concerning our conduct and behavior as the members of the body of Christ that we are in this dispensation. We are “saints,” (sanctified ones), and we ought to live consistent with who we are. (See, for example, Romans 12:1-2; I Corinthians 6:9-11; Galatians 5:24-26; Ephesians 4:1,17-24; 5:3; Colossians 3:12; et al.) The doctrine of who we are “in Christ” ought to thrill our hearts, especially as we think about the privilege of being able to live “to the glory of God.” Notice the emphasis Paul places upon this in the following examples.

 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20 For ye are bought with a price: THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY, AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD’S. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all TO THE GLORY OF GOD. (I Corinthians 10:31)

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;

11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, UNTO THE GLORY AND PRAISE OF GOD. (Philippians 1:9-11)

 We have a tendency to think that our capacity to glorify God awaits the time when the Lord comes for us, changes our bodies, and takes us into the realm of our inheritance with Him in the heavenly places. It is true that we will do so at that time in the fullness of God’s plan and purpose for us as His “new creation.” However, our sanctified position “in Christ” has given us the capacity to glorify God right now, even in these mortal bodies. The Holy Spirit, as we “walk after the Spirit,” quickens our mortal bodies making them functionally fit as “instruments of righteousness unto God.” Hence, Paul declares…

 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

 Such is the fundamental grandeur and magnificence of our sanctified position “in Christ.” Being sanctified by grace through faith truly is the second most wonderful thing that God has done for us. The grace of being given the capacity to functionally live “to the glory of God” right now is eclipsed only by the grace of being given the gift of justification unto eternal life.

– K.R. Blades

1999Q2A