The Glorification of Man 01 Morally — James R. Cochrane

Moral Glorification and the Kingdom of God

Now, today our subject is the glorification of man, and we're going to talk this evening about the glorification of man. Sometimes we say physically. I realize that's an inadequate word. It may be better to say bodily.

And perhaps most of us, when we think of the coming glory that God has in store for us, we think of it in terms of a changed body. For Paul tells at the end of Philippians chapter 3 that we will be changed.

He shall change our lowly bodies so that they will be fashioned like unto his body of glory. Well, we will talk about that this evening. This morning I would like to talk to you on another aspect of our coming glory, and that is the moral aspect, that God will glorify us in the moral sense.

Let me read to you this morning just two portions from Romans. Now, many portions could be read, but I would like to read from Romans chapter 14, a verse that we referred to yesterday. Romans chapter 14 and verse 17.

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. May I read it once more? For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Then turn back for that great portion in Romans chapter 8, beginning with verse 31. What shall we say, then, to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that dies, yet rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.".

We trust that God will bless this portion of his word in our hearts today. Now, when we think of the moral aspects of our glorification, the words that you have in Romans chapter 14, I think, are very appropriate.

The kingdom of God is not meat and drink. Rather, it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This is what the kingdom of God is all about, and we have been born into the family of God. We belong to the Lord Jesus, and already today we know something of righteousness, something of peace, and something of joy.

Now, the moral aspect of our glorification is that we will understand and appreciate and know righteousness in its fullness, peace in its fullness, and joy in its fullness. Now, let me take this with you this morning step by step.

Righteousness in the Coming New Creation

When it comes to righteousness, the scriptures unite in telling us that we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness. So, our hope is that we anticipate, even now, new heavens and a new earth in which the atmosphere, unlike the atmosphere of our world today, will be righteousness, perfect righteousness.

Again, Paul reminds us that God has not appointed us unto wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm sure many preachers many times have reminded you that there is a future aspect to our salvation.

You see, God has not appointed us to wrath. That points to the future, but rather to salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. So I would like you this morning to turn with me just for a moment to the fifth chapter of Romans, and you'll notice how our present blessings, in a sense, are linked to our future blessings.

Now, Paul does this many times. I'm only choosing one portion this morning in Romans chapter 5, and we will read verse 8. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Now, on that foundation, Paul goes on to this reasoning, much more than, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Verse 10, For if when we were enemies, that was our present, our former situation here in this world, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his sons, much more being reconciled right now, we shall be saved by his life.

Now, on those two verses we establish this morning that in the grace of God he has come to us, to each one of us, and he has given us, may I use a technical term, eternal juridical exoneration. It doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter who you were.

When you committed yourself to Jesus Christ, he gave you... Now, the emphasis falls in my reasoning this morning on the first word, eternal juridical exoneration. It's not salvation for a moment, a week, a day, a year, a lifetime, but God has made us right with himself forever.

Now, in verses 9 and 10, Paul takes this line of argument. He begins with the greater, and he moves to the lesser. Now, the greater in verse 9 is that right now we have been justified by the blood of God's Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You know, sometimes even as Christians we become so unconscious of how awful sin is that we forget the greatness of this truth, that God has come down to us on a righteous basis, and even though we were sinners, you read all about it in verses 6, 7, and 8, what we were, God came to us in love, and he has made us right, and he's done that right now.

Now, if God can take up a person like you, and a person like me, and justify us now in our present situation right here in the world, then from this great fact we move to a lesser fact, that in the future we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Thus we look out into the future. Many people have fears about coming wrath, about the coming judgment of God, but if God can justify you now, then there is no thought of coming judgment or wrath. Let me read the verse again.

Much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Now, the wrath of God, I always take it to mean God's holiness excited because of our sin. That is the wrath of God.

That is why when the Israelites drew near to the presence of God, God gave the word they must not come any closer, and the boundary was set because the shortcomings, the sins of the people of Israel excited the holiness of God, and the result is wrath, judgment.

But now the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has cleansed us from all sin. We have been justified now. Thus we look out into the future, unknown, and there is no uncertainty because, having been justified, we shall be saved from the wrath to come.

Verse 10 takes a similar line of argument. Paul says, "'For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,' that's the great fact that even though we were enemies, even though through the representatives of our humanity we stood around Calvary and we clenched our fists in the face of God, and we rejected his Son, and we said we will not have this man to reign over us, well, even when we were enemies, if now we have been reconciled to God by the death of his Son, well then, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.".

His life of intercession today is our guarantee that there will be no future wrath, no future judgment. Having said this, let me take you again then to Romans chapter 8, and follow this great theme that Paul has in the closing verses of the chapter.

In verse 31, Paul writes,. "'What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?'. That means God has come down, and he has made our cause his cause. God was moved by compassion and by love, and seeing us in our need, God made our cause his cause.

So then, if God be for us, who can be against us? And of course, the answer is obvious, no one. There is no obstacle then in the way to future blessing in the thought of righteousness.". And you come on to verse 32, and this is a logical argument.

"'He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?'. Notice again that the line of reasoning moves from the greater to the lesser.

Now, God already has done the greater. What was the greater? He spared not his son. Now, if God did that, then you move down to the lesser. Well, then surely he will give us all things with his son, and of this there is no doubt.

Looking back and thinking what we were in our sin, verse 33 reminds us,. "'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies.'. That is our eternal, juridical exoneration, and because God has done it, no one can come and lay any charge against his people.".

Now, in verse 34, and this is something we must always remember even as Christians, none of us here this morning are justified because of what we are or what we have done. The foundation is always and exclusively the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, verse 34 reads,. "'Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.'. So, we have no boast in ourselves.

We glory in Jesus Christ, and we have the sense of security and of certainty because he died, he rose again, and he lives today at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, the guard, the guarantee of a future in which we will always enjoy eternal, juridical exoneration is the love of God expressed in the Lord Jesus.

Verse 35, "'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sore?'. Paul says, "'As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'".

Let me put it like this. We go back in our communion services to Calvin. Now, beyond the greatest things that men could do, beyond the greatest expression of the evilness of human beings, beyond the greatest power of death or Satan, beyond it all, the ultimate reality is the love of God, and nothing can triumph over the love of God.

Thus, because God has come to us in love, our guard for the future is not ourselves, it is not what we do, it is not what we say. It is the love of God. God has come to us in love. Nothing can go beyond the love of God.

So, we look into the future, and there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God which has come to us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, the kingdom of God is righteousness. We have it now, and we shall have it forever in the person of God's Son, and no one now and no one then will ever come and lay any charge to those that belong to God.

Complete Moral Faultlessness in Glorification

Now, when it comes to our glorification, the emphasis falls not on eternal juridical exoneration. It doesn't fall there. It falls rather on the fact of our complete moral faultlessness in that coming day.

Let me repeat it to you. I hope you can remember, because you never believe it today as we look at each other. Usually, we see the spots and the blemishes and the shortcomings in our brethren and our sisters.

In that coming day, when we stand beside the Lord Jesus, we will be surrounded in all that we are by complete moral faultlessness. There won't be a spot. There won't be a blemish. There won't even be the memory of those things that today cause so much sorrow in our fellowship with each other.

Paul writes in Ephesians, "...according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.". Now, that term without blame is translated in a number of ways in the New Testament.

Sometimes without blemish, Ephesians 5. Sometimes unblameable, Colossians 1. Sometimes, like in Jude and that great doxology, faultless. So, when we look to the future and the coming of the Lord Jesus and our glorification with him, we will stand with him without blame, without blemish, unblameable, and faultless.

Now, the marvel of this is that this is the word that is used of the Lord Jesus when he came into our situation and, as the perfect man, did the great work at Calvary. So, you read in Hebrews that Christ offered himself without spot to God.

When you look at the Lord Jesus, you can't find any blemish, you can't find any stain, there was no sin, there was no fault. Christ offered himself without spot to God, and again Peter writes that as a lamb without blemish, he offered himself in that great sacrifice.

So, we look back this morning and we can read through the Gospels and we see a man, a perfect man, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can study him, the people did of that generation. You can observe him from every angle when you do so, and it doesn't matter how critical you are, you will have to stand beside Pilate and say over and over again, I find no fault in this man.

Now, the wonder of God's grace and love and marvel to us is that in that coming day we are going to stand with the Lord Jesus and we will be without blame. No one will see any spot or any blemish. Again, the word that is often used of the Christian in that sense is the word holy, for we will be presented before God in holiness to the degree that will completely satisfy the holiness of God.

Now, dear Christian friend, this morning, unless I am very different than you are, I am often aware, acutely aware, of things that are not right in my life, of shortcomings, the longing to be more like the Lord Jesus.

I remember once, as a young man years ago in Vancouver, I quoted the words of Paul in a little sermon I gave, and in the audience my father was there. The words of Paul that I used were those well-known words, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

I said it, I guess, rather lightly. When I went home, my father took me into his study. He said, Jim, there are not very many people who can really say with great honesty and sincerity what Paul wrote in those words.

Not many of us really believe it. You see, we're often offended. We know a great deal about pride, but Paul knew what he was without God, and Paul says, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

The more we come into a knowledge of God, the more we come into a knowledge of ourselves. May I turn that around? If we have great thoughts about ourselves of pride and selfishness and self-interest, it only goes to say how little we know of the glory and the holiness of God.

The more you know about him, the more you know about yourself. So, then you come back, as I do day by day, and I thank God that in virtue of the blood of the Lord Jesus, I have been given eternal, juridical exoneration.

No one will ever point the finger because of what Christ did. But not only that, I anticipate the moment with great longing when I shall see the Lord Jesus and will be transformed and surrounded with complete moral faultlessness.

Then I will be truly Christ-like, and no one will point the finger, no one will see a spot, there will be no blemish, and thank God there will not even be the memory of all those things we have experienced in our lives and in our relationship with each other.

Peace as Wholeness, Order, and Stability

So, the kingdom of God is righteousness, and part of our moral glorification is that we will have righteousness not only in the sense of exoneration, but also in the sense of moral faultlessness. Now, the kingdom of God is righteousness, it is also peace.

We experience today something of peace. The Jewish people, with that famous word shalom, they used it in connection with the individual of a healthy, good life. So, when they would say peace, as they did in their common salutation, they were wishing to a friend a healthy and good life.

When they used it in the national sense, they were speaking of the desire, the longing for national prosperity and security. You read through the Old Testament, and of course peace blows through the whole book.

And so you can understand that the messianic longing of the people of Israel, individually and nationally, was for peace. Now, the Lord Jesus came, and he said, as you know, on that great occasion, My peace I leave with you.

My peace. I give not as the world gives, but I give you my peace. That was the messianic peace. That was the wholeness, the stability, the order, the prosperity that the people of Israel longed for. Now, we who have come into a knowledge of the Lord Jesus, we have in a measure that peace today.

I would like to put it like this. You live, even here in Keystone Heights in Park of the Palm, in a little part of the world which is characterized by chaos and disorder. You came to God sometime in your life, and when you came to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, he gave you peace.

That is, he gave you order, and the longing of God's heart today is that you, wherever you live and whatever you do, will manifest in your life something of the order, the stability that comes from God.

That reminds you of Paul's words again, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. For in contrast to all the confusion and chaos of the world is the peace of God, the order, the stability of God.

Now, how do we understand peace today? Well, we have it in a measure, and one has defined peace negatively and positively, and I would like to share it with you. I do this this morning, acutely aware of how much in my own life right now I understand this.

Negatively, peace is the absence of all that disturbs and distress. Now, you may not know it, but I'm deeply disturbed and distressed this weekend to have someone that is so close to you, and that you love so much, and for whom you feel so weak and unable to do anything to alleviate the situation.

One is deeply disturbed and distressed. Now, peace in its fullness is the absence of all that disturbs and distress, but positively peace is the presence of everything necessary for the completeness and the wholeness of life.

You see, peace is not just removing that which distresses and disturbs, but it's also the bringing into our lives all that is necessary for perfection and wholeness. Now today, in a measure, we enjoy peace, but even because of our present situation in the world, there are things that distress and disturb, and there is the absence of that which we need to make life full and whole.

Well, in that coming day of our glorification, we will have peace in its wholeness, in its completion, and there will be nothing to disturb and distress, and all will be present for a full and active life in the service of God, and in the worship of God.

Joy in Fellowship With God

Then our moral glorification is peace. It is also righteousness, and it is joy. Now, I've got two girls, and we gave them special permission not to be here this morning. They're down in the swimming pool.

You'll forgive them, but they have a very close friend, and they're with her just for a day or two, and they're taking advantage to be together. These two teenage daughters of mine, because they're not here this morning, I can tell you this.

Sometimes in our home, the radio is on, or there may be a record, and if there is music with just a little life or beat, as they say, they are quite capable as two young teenagers to move in rhythm with the music.

And then they'll turn, and they'll look at me, and they'll say, "'Dad, you sure are square and conservative. You never move. You sit there reading all the time, and there's never any movement in your life.'".

Well, you know, when you come back to the Old Testament, you'll find that men who walked in fellowship with God were men who expressed joy in their lives. Now, you won't misunderstand me this morning.

David comes with the people of Israel and with the ark of the Lord, and he brings it up to the place where it ought to be, and David is leaping and jumping. He is dancing before the Lord. He is filled with the joy of the Lord.

Now, I'm not suggesting to you folks this morning that we should jump and leap in that thing, but I am suggesting that there is a joy that ought to be in our lives that is far deeper and far richer than any movement in our bodies.

And so, you read in that portion in Ephesians chapter 5, and I will read it to you. Verse 18, "'Be not drunk with wine, for in his excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.'.

There must be joy if you walk in fellowship with God. I'm sure here at the Park of the Frogs you wouldn't have in this beautiful situation any like a friend of mine in Vancouver whom I have known as long as I can remember, though not a member of the family.

We call him Uncle Bill, and every time we ask him how he is, he always speaks of his complaints and his problems, and he gives the attitude, the impression that he lives a life of despondency and of sorrow.

Some people, perhaps, are naturally built like that, but when you walk in fellowship with God, there must be joy. Now, we experience joy. We experience it in our singing this morning. We experience it in our fellowship with each other.

But, dear Christian friend, I don't know what you consider the greatest pinnacle of your Christian joy so far in your Christian life, but whatever that pinnacle may be, I assure you this morning that on that day of our coming glorification, we will experience joy in a measure that really today is beyond our comprehension.

That is part of our glorification. We will be fully, morally righteous. We will be at peace with God and with each other, and we will experience the joy of God in a measure we have never yet been able to understand or experience.

I think the Lord Jesus knew, of course, of that joy when you read in Hebrews that, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame. The reason I quote the verse is that it gives you the sense that that joy which he knew and could anticipate was far, far greater.

It, so to speak, overwhelmed all that he was about to experience in the horror of the cross and the shame that men heaped upon him. And so, for that joy, he endured the cross and he despised the shame.

That gives us just a little insight into how great and wonderful it would be. So, we will be glorified morally in righteousness, in peace, and in joy. Now, as I close this morning, I would like to leave with you one other aspect of that moral glorification that awaits us, and I can think of no better word than the word freedom.

Freedom From Sin's Power and Compulsion

I know it's a great word in the world today. It's a word that is greatly abused, but in the Bible it is a very important word, the word freedom. Let me put it like this. The Lord Jesus, when he was here, he said, Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin.

Then he added, If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now, in our flag in the Dominican Republic, right in the center is the National Coat of Arms. In the very center of the National Coat of Arms is a white cross on which there is an open Bible, and the Bible is open in John's Gospel, chapter 8, and the verse that appears in that page is this, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Now, it's ironic, but truth and freedom have been conspicuous by their absence in the history of the Dominican Republic, but there it is in the center of our flag and our National Coat of Arms. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Now, that's not abstract truth. You read that in the context here of John 8. It is to know the Son, the Lord Jesus, and if you know him, then he will make you free indeed, and that freedom is freedom from the power and the authority of sin.

For the Bible says in that chapter, Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin. Now, when we came to the Lord Jesus, we were given in a measure that freedom from sin and the authority of sin. But I doubt if there's a person here this morning who has not sensed in their Christian life many times the compulsions of sin, and those who in all honesty recognize before God that as Christians they have sinned.

Well, when we talk about our moral glorification, we will have freedom from sin. That is, freedom from the compulsion to sin. There will no longer be any compulsion in us to do that which is displeasing to God.

Freedom From the Deception of Sin

But not only freedom from the compulsion to sin, but there will be freedom from the deception of sin. You know, Philippians chapter 3, you have the story of Paul. Paul was a man who believed. He tells in the chapter that he was righteous.

When outside of Damascus his eyes were opened, he realized he was the chiefest of sinners. Now, how can a man honestly believe he is righteous, only to have his eyes opened to find that he is a great sinner?

Well, the answer is simply, he has been deceived by sin. Paul goes on in that chapter to tell us that he believed he was blameless. Then his eyes were opened, and he realized that his whole life was a series of faults before God.

Now, how can that happen? Because a man was deceived by sin. And, of course, the greatest sorrow in Philippians chapter 3 is that you have Paul persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ and honestly believing he was doing a great service for God.

Then his eyes were opened to find out that it was a tragic disservice for God. Now, how can that happen? He was deceived by sin. Now, not only can the natural man be deceived by sin, but the Christian can be deceived by sin.

Let me share with you some of my experiences without being specific. Many times in my life as a Christian, I have come to the word of God, and I've come to some verse, some portion, some truth, and I have seen it as I have never seen it or understood it before, and it has changed my thinking.

And I have recognized that for a period of time I was under the deception of sin. I had erroneous thoughts about certain things, for sin is so subtle it can come in even to the Christian's life and deceive him.

And that's why we come back to the word of God, because it has that continuing corrective influence in our lives. Well, in that coming day we will be freed forever from the deception of sin, and the last thought leads us now into our theme for this evening.

Freedom From the Consequences of Sin

We will have freedom from the consequences of sin. The wages of sin is death, and so our Christian friends, they slip away one by one. And I think I can be honest and open with you this morning. I've been away from Park of the Palms less than two years, and since coming back this weekend and in talking with the friends and noticing in the audience the absence of people we knew before, I have understood and been told that some who were here less than two years ago have now gone through the experience of death, and they have left us, and their presence have gone.

Thank God that on that day of coming glory we will be free, not only from the compulsion to sin, not only from the deception of sin, but forever from the consequences of sin. No more separation caused by death, but that great united fellowship around the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ forever.

So, I summarize. Our moral glorification means that we will have righteousness in its fullness, peace in its fullness, joy in its fullness, and freedom in its fullness. That will be a glorious day. Charles Spurgeon once said, as for me, I cannot say that I will speak of the glory, but I will try to stammer about it for the best language to which a man can reach concerning glory must be a mere stammering.

Becoming Like Christ in Glory

So, speaking to you this morning of our moral glorification, I have only stammered, for Paul says, he saw things for which there is no adequate language on earth to describe. All we know is that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, not just in the bodily sense, but in the moral sense.

And I think the psalmist, and you read in some of the psalms those truths that are really New Testament truths, but they appear in the Old Testament, and especially in the psalms. The psalmist wrote, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness.

I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. I never take that to mean exclusively any bodily likeness of the Lord Jesus, though that, no doubt, is inferred, but I take it in the moral sense. The mature Christian, the spiritual Christian, knows what the psalmist means.

I shall be satisfied when I awake in his likeness. Let us sing just two verses as we close this morning with a beautiful hymn, hymn number 413, A Little While Our Lord Shall Come and We Shall Wander Here No More.

He'll take us to our Father's home where he for us has gone before, to dwell with him, to see his face, and sing the glory of his grace. Let's remain seated, and I suggest we sing the first and the last verses of hymn number 413.

We shall remain seated. We have expressed in song the longings of our hearts today, and we thank you for that blessed hope that we shall see the Lord Jesus face to face, and on that glorious moment we shall then be like him forever.

In the meantime, we pray that you will give us the grace to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we wait for that great moment, Lord, do give us the interest, the inner courage, and the grace to become more like him day by day while we wait for his coming.

And now we pray for a good day. We pray that you will bless our fellowship together, and bring us back this evening for another message from your Word, and we give you our thanks now in his worthy and precious name.

Amen.