.

TCC–1274
1
GLORIFIED BY GOD
A. Introduction: We’re working on a series about why Jesus came into this world. To appreciate why Jesus
came, you must understand the big picture. Eph 1:4-5
1. God created human beings to become His sons and daughters through faith in Him, sons and daughters
who then live in loving relationship with Him.
a. The Lord fashioned us to be more than creatures He created. God made us with the capacity to
receive Him into our being and then reflect Him, represent, and express Him, to the world around us.
b. However, all human beings have chosen independence from God through sin. The essence of sin
is choosing your way above God’s way by putting your will above His will. Isa 53:6
c. Because of our sin, human beings are cut off from God and lost to our created purpose. We are no
longer fit to be sons and daughters or a dwelling place for God. Isa 59:2
1. Before God created the world, He devised a plan to restore us to our created purpose. This
plan is called redemption. According to the plan, God the Son (the Second Person of the
Trinity) incarnated, or took on a human nature, and came into this world to die as a sacrifice for
our sin. Heb 9:26
2. When a man or woman turns to God (repents and believes on Jesus), because of Jesus’ sacrifice,
the Lord can forgive their sin, cleanse them, and indwell them. John 3:16; John 14:17-18; etc.
d. Jesus came into this world to save sinners and restore all who believe on Him to their created
purpose as sons and daughters of God who are indwelled by Him. I Tim 3:15; Luke 19:10; etc.
2. Over the course of Jesus’ three plus year ministry on earth, He gradually revealed the fact that He was
going to indwell men and women by His Spirit and give them eternal life.
a. Jesus told people: Believe in me so that you can have eternal life. I am that life, and I will indwell
you by my Spirit. John 3:36; John 14:6; John 17:3; etc.
1. Words fall short when it comes to describing how a transcendent God can indwell finite human
beings. Jesus used a number of word pictures as He taught people (an unending spring of life,
rivers of living water; bread that quenches hunger and thirst; a life giving vine).
2. All the word pictures point to the fact that the salvation God provides through Jesus means
indwelling life, strength, and provision for His people.
3. Eternal life is God indwelling us by His Spirit to enable us to walk in a way that accurately
expresses God the Father and brings honor to Him.
b. When we believe on Jesus and He indwells us by His Spirit, it is the beginning of a process of
transformation that will ultimately restore us to all that we were created to be—sons and daughters
who are fully glorifying to Him, sons and daughters who bring praise and honor to Him.
c. We have more to say in tonight’s lesson, as we consider what the New Testament says about why
Jesus came. Remember, the New Testament was written by eyewitnesses of Jesus (or close
associates of eyewitnesses).
B. God not only obtained His family through Jesus and His sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus is also the pattern for the
family. Jesus, in His humanity is the standard for our behavior as sons and daughters of God: Whoever
claims to live in him (Jesus) must walk as Jesus did (I John 2:6, NIV).
1. Remember, Jesus is God become fully man without ceasing to be fully God. As a man, Jesus shows us
what it looks like when a son or daughter of God lives a life that is completely pleasing to God the Father
and brings honor or glory to Him. John 4:34; John 5:30; John 6:38; John 8:29; etc.
a. In previous lessons, we’ve pointed out that Jesus personally taught Paul the apostle the message that
he proclaimed (Gal 1:11-12). This is what Paul wrote about God’s plan for His family:
1. Rom 8:29—For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his
.

TCC–1274
2
Son (NIV); For God in his foreknowledge, chose them to bear the family likeness of his Son (J.
B. Phillips).
2. We don’t become Jesus. We become like Him in our character—our motives, attitudes,
words, actions. This change is accomplished by His indwelling power, His Spirit in us.
b. Paul followed these words about being conformed to the likeness of Jesus with a statement about
how God accomplishes this conformity to Christ: Rom 8:30—And those whom he predestined he
also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified
(ESV).
1. God calls us or invites us to come to Him and be cleansed and restored. Jesus specifically said
that He came to call sinners to repentance. Matt 9:13
2. When we respond to God’s call He justifies us. Jesus’ sacrifice made it possible for us to be
justified or “acquitted, declared righteous, and given right standing with God” (Rom 5:1, Amp).
3. Then God glorifies us. Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice for sin to open the way for human
beings to be glorified. What does it mean to be glorified?
2. The word glory (along with glorify) is used in a number of ways in the Bible (lessons for another day).
I’ll mention two ways that are related to the point we’re going to make in this lesson.
a. To glorify means to ascribe honor to someone. We glorify or praise and honor God for who He is
and what He does (His attributes and His actions).
b. The word glory is also used when God reveals Himself (His nature and His acts) in whatever way He
desires (like the cloud of glory that people saw in the Old Testament, Ex 40:34). Jesus is the
fullest revelation of God’s glory, or who He is and what He does.
1. Heb 1:3—(Jesus) is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he
upholds the universe by the word of his power (ESV).
2. John 1:14—And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory
as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (ESV).
3. God’s plan for man is that we be saturated with Him (His life nature, essence, and substance) and express
Him. To be glorified means to be made alive with God in every part of our being so we can express
Him and His glory. Note what Peter and Paul (eyewitnesses of Jesus) wrote about God indwelling us.
a. Peter recorded that through God’s promise of salvation, we escape the corruption that is in this
world because of sin “and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature” (II Pet 1:4, Amp).
b. Paul wrote: For in Him (Jesus) the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in
bodily form—giving complete expression of the divine nature. And you are in Him, made full and
have come to fullness of life—in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, and reach full spiritual stature (Col 2:9-10, Amp).
1. When Almighty God indwells us by His Spirit, every part of us is infused by God. We (our
human nature) are (is) saturated with God, the glory of God. He’s in us by His Spirit, but He
doesn’t take up space. Words fall short, when we talk about a Transcendent Being indwelling
finite people, since this is truly beyond our full comprehension.
2. The Divine nature doesn’t become ours. We are permeated by it (Him), nourished by it (Him).
We don’t become God. We don’t lose our individuality. You’re still you. He’s still Him.
He is the Creator, we are the created.
A. Glorification (being glorified) gives us new life and raises us to an exalted position as sons
and daughters of God. God raises us to a position of honor and glory by indwelling us:
And those whom He justified He also glorified—raising them to a heavenly dignity and
condition [state of being] (Rom 8:30, Amp).
B. Glorification (being glorified) means our ultimate complete deliverance from every trace
and effect of sin and death by an infusion of eternal life (God by His Spirit).
.

TCC–1274
3
1. Our death-doomed (mortal) bodies will one day be glorified and made incorruptible
and immortal like Jesus’ resurrected body.
2. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly
waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours
and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that
he will use to conquer everything everywhere (Phil 3:20-21, NLT).
C. The Cross was a means to an end. Jesus died so that: “Just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4, ESV).
D. The same power that reanimated Jesus’ dead body is now in those who believe on Jesus to
progressively transform and restore us to sons and daughters who express God’s glory
(express Him) and bring honor or glory to Him.
4. Glorification, or full conformity to the image and likeness of Jesus, is a process that will not be fully
completed until we see Him face to face.
a. Note what John wrote: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called
the children of God; and so we are (I John 3:1, ESV). Notice that God’s motivation behind creation
and redemption was and is love.
1. John went on to say: Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet
appeared; but we know that when he (Jesus) appears we will be like him, because we shall see
him as he is. (I John 3:2, ESV).
2. Right now, we are finished works in progress. We are now God’s sons and daughters through
faith in Him, and He has indwelled us by His Spirit and life. But we are not yet fully
conformed to the image of Jesus (fully glorified) in every part of our being.
b. Paul wrote: And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of
God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image
in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord
[Who is] the Spirit (II Cor 3:18, Amp).
1. As we behold God’s glory (His nature and His acts) by looking at Jesus,who is the visible
expression of God’s glory (the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,
Heb 1:3, Amp) we are transfigured or changed into His image.
A. We see or behold Jesus, the Living Word of God, in and through the Bible, the written
Word of God.
B. The word image in II Cor 3:18 is the same word that is used in Rom 8:29 which states that
we are to be conformed to the image of Christ). The word means to be like, to resemble.
2. The Greek word that is translated transfigured means to change form or to transform. This
same word is used to describe what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus was
transfigured in front of Peter, James, and John.
A. Matt 17:2—And His appearance underwent a change in their presence, and His face shone
clear and bright like the sun, and His clothing became white as light (Amp).
B. In that event, what was in Jesus, but up to that point veiled to people, shown through—the
radiant glory of God. Jesus was and is fully God at the same time He was and is fully man,
and on this mountain, His glory as God fully shown through His humanity.
4. We are not God and never will be. But there is a point in this for us. What is on the inside of
us—God by His Spirit and life—should progressively be expressed through us as we become
increasing Christ-like (or glorified) in our character (motives, attitudes, thoughts, words, and
actions).
5. Paul wrote that God commissioned him to “present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery
that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but now is disclosed to the saints. To them God has
.

TCC–1274
4
chosen to make known among (believers) the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you the
hope of glory” (Col 1:25-27, NIV).
a. Christ in us by His Spirit is the earnest or assurance that the process of glorification (conformity to
Christ) will be completed: Christ in you the hope of glorification (Williams); Christ within and
among you, the hope of [realizing] the glory (Col 1:27, Amp).
1. Sinful men and women need more than forgiveness to be restore to our created purpose. We
need transformation and restoration (glorification and conformity to the image of Christ).
2. Glorification is a process that begins when we become followers of Jesus. If we stay faithful to
Him, He who began a good work in us will complete it. Phil 1:6
b. Paul prayed for Christians: And now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the
power of Jesus Christ, all that is pleasing to Him (Heb 13:21, NLT).
C. Conclusion: The New Testament emphasizes that the awareness of what God has made you and is making
you (a son or daughter who is glorified, fully conformed to the image of Christ) should have a purifying effect
on the way that you live.
1. John wrote that even though we are not yet fully glorified, the fact that we are now sons and daughters of
God who will one day be like Him (be glorified), should inspire us to live lives of purity: And all who
believe this will keep themselves pure just as Jesus is pure (I John 3:3, NLT).
2. Paul, in the context of urging Christians not to commit sexual sin, made the argument that you are joined
joined to Christ, and your body doesn’t belong to you anymore. I Cor 6:13-20
a. (Your body) was made for the lord, and in the Lord is the answer to its needs (v13, J. B. Phillips)
…Have you not realized that your bodies are integral parts of Christ himself (v15, J. B. Phillips).
1. Paul noted that when you join yourself to someone in sex, it makes a physical union: On the
other hand the man who joins himself to the Lord is one with him in spirit (v17, J. B. Phillips).
2. Have you forgotten that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and is
God’s gift to you, and that you are not the owner of your own body? You have been bought,
and at a price! Therefore bring glory to God in your body (v19-20, J. B. Phillips).
b. In the context of urging believers to act like Jesus (who was an obedient Son and a servant of His
fellow man) Paul wrote:
1. Phil 2:12—Work out—cultivate, carry out to the goal and fully complete—your own salvation
with reverence and awe and trembling [self-distrust, that is with serious caution, tenderness of
conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend
God and discredit the name of Christ (Amp).
2. Phil 2:13—[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in
you—energizing and creating in you the power and desire—both to will and to work for His
good pleasure and satisfaction and delight (Phil 2:13, Amp).
3. God is now in us by His Spirit to restore us to our created purpose as sons and daughters who are like
Jesus, the Perfect Son. As this process of transformation and restoration is underway, God is in us to
change us and empower us to act like Jesus as we exercise our will and obey God.
a. As we keep our focus on Jesus and choose to follow His example in character and conduct He, by
His Spirit in us, increasing works in us to restore us.
b. And, as He increasingly conforms us to His image (progressively glorifies us), we bring glory and
honor to our Father in Heaven, just as Jesus did. More next week!