Systematic Theology -- Salvation

Glorification III

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 19

Dictation Name: 19 Glorification III

Year: 1970’s

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we thank thee as we gather together in thy name, that thou art he who dost rule, that the government is upon thy shoulders, and thou hast called us not to defeat but to victory. Grant, O Lord, that we be armed by thy word and by thy Spirit, to go forth in thy name as more than conquerors in Jesus Christ, in his name we pray. Amen.

Our scripture for our first study this evening is from Acts 2:1-4. We began in our last meeting, with a study of glorification, and both our studies this evening will be on the same subject.

We saw that glorification is normally considered as something that has only to do with our state in heaven when, in reality, it is a very present fact. Tonight, we’ll go more thoroughly into the subject. Acts 2:1-4. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Now one of the sad facts about Christians is that they isolate their faith in the Bible from the practical realities of the world as though there were no connection, but the fact is that the Bible speaks to the very real problems of our everyday world, to the problems of family life, economics, politics, science, every area, and the Bible comes out of a context of very real events and it does not give us episodes that are casual.

Now, there is one aspect of this verse that is extremely important for us to understand. Most people just read it as nothing significant in of itself, but we are told, “and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” This means nothing to the average minister and church member, but in the day that it happened, in the world of the Old Testament and the New Testament, this was as important in its meaning as anything you can begin to imagine. Why? The meaning of it was it represented glory. Well, what does that mean? The word glory does not have too great a significance for us, but if you had been in Antiquity present when Alexander the Great came by, or Darius, or Cyrus{?}, or any great king or emperor as he appeared in public, someone preceded him holding a torch, a flame, to indicate that the glory of the world, the glory of the ages, the glory of divinity was comprehended in that ruler, that all power and dominion and glory belonged to him.

Thus, the meaning of the flame was extremely important. It could not be used by any but great rulers. It was a claim to being a great king and to being divine. Now, consider what this meant. The possessor of glory, the possessor of the flame was seen in the ancient world as the one with weight, power, authority and dominion. He was the determiner of history, so that when Alexander the Great, after his early conquests, when he appeared, had someone march before his with a flame. It meant “History is shaped by myself. No one else determines the world of my day other than myself,” and now, on the Day of Pentecost, we see the Holy Spirit descending and flames standing over each believer. This is a very dramatic fact. It sets forth to the world that now, the possessors of the glory are the people of God. This is the true meaning of Pentecost. It means that the people of God are now the determiners of history.

Previously, the glory of God had resided in the ark where God’s tabernacling presence was. When the ark was taken from Israel in Eli’s day, and the Philistines captured it, old Eli fell in grief and died, and his daughter in law named her newborn son, Ichabod, which means “The glory is departed from Israel.” The fire or the flame represented the divine glory, but theirs, the claim to glory of the emperors of old, was very different from that revealed at Pentecost, because when Alexander the Great marched with the flame before him at any public proceedings, was a man-lit, man-created flame, but here in the church, it was given by God from heaven. Pentecost thus, is not to be understood in terms of one of the gifts of the Spirit, the speaking of tongues, but in the flame, which meant coronation. The people of God were thus, crowned as kings. The glory of God was present in them. Not as believers collectively as a church, but as individual members of Jesus Christ. For we read, “The glory sat upon each of them.”

Now, the meaning of this was very well-known in the world of that day. This had been predicted previously by John the Baptist. John had declared early in his career, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Nobody who heard John the Baptist speak could miss the meaning of that. Why, Jesus Christ was going to create a world of kings, of rulers, of determiners of history. Do you understand why then, the Sons of Zebedee came to our Lord? Now, they misunderstood, as far as the meaning of their kingship, but they knew they were to be kings, and said, “Can we rule at thy right hand and thy left hand in the kingdom?” They knew what John the Baptist had said and they believed we are now to occupy thrones in the kingdom of God.

This great king, John said, would baptize his people with the fire, or the flame, or glory. With dominion, in other words, with power, and John continued to speak of Christ, saying, “whose span is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” In other words, the fire of God, the glory of God, comes upon his people to crown them, but upon the reprobate to destroy them in judgment.

“God,” says Paul, in Hebrews 12:29, “is a consuming fire.” Thus, he is the life of the living, and death to the reprobate. This is why all of the true bearers of the flame in the early church refused to give glory to Caesar. They refused to put incense in the alter, on the fire, before the image or the insignia of Caesar, which was to give glory to Caesar, and to say, “We are going to be licensed, and controlled, and governed by the word of Caesar. They said, “No, we are licensed, governed, and controlled by the word of God, not of Caesar.” Thus, to give glory to God meant for them, quite accurately, to refuse to submit to Caesar.

Now, baptism in the Bible signified regeneration, an outward witness of an inward grace. It is interesting that, in the early church, baptism was also accompanied by anointing. The oil of anointing. It set forth the membership of all who were baptized in the body of Christ. For a long, long time, the church accompanied all baptismal services with anointing, anointing to make them kings, because now, having entered into Christ, becoming members of Christ, they had entered into glory. So, that to signify that their glorification had begun, they were anointed with oil.

In England, this was continued into the time of Edward VI. In the church of Armenia, the baptismal service clearly included anointing so that after baptism, the pastor would, and let me just quote the service, the directions for the anointing, first the forehead, saying, “A fragrant oil poured out in the name of Christ, the seal of heavenly gifts. Next, the eyes anointed saying, this seal, which is in the name of Christ, may it enlighten thy eyes that thou mayest ever sleep in death. The ears, may the anointing of holiness be for thee unto hearing of the divine commandments. The nostrils, may this seal of Christ be to thee for a sweet smell from life to life. The mouth saying, may this seal be to thee a watch set before thy mouth, and a door to keep thy lips. The palms of the hands saying, may this seal of Christ be, for thee, a means of doing good of virtuous actions and living. The heart, may this seal of divine holiness establish in thee a holy heart and renew an upright spirit within thine interior. The backbone, may this seal which is in the name of Christ be for thee a shield and a buckler, whereby thou mayest be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one, and the feet, may this divine seal guide thy steps aright unto life eternal.”

The rite of anointing in the old days set forth the fact very clearly that the believer entered into glorification. He was now the bearer of the glory of God, called to be a king, a priest, and a prophet. Called, not to defeat, but to victory.

Now, as I said, baptism is the beginning of glorification. When a person is baptized, he is now a member of Jesus Christ, and as a member of Jesus Christ, he puts on Christ, and therefore, the glory of God is manifested in him, the flame, the fire, which sets forth the glory of God, but glorification goes on from there. What happens then to further develop the implications and the growth in glory?

Now, let’s look back for a moment. The flames which appeared upon all believers in Pentecost, their meaning for all men in Antiquity, the flame was carried before emperors to signify that they were the possessors of the glory of power and dominion. We have the use of our flame to our day, although most people have lost its meaning. The Olympic torch, the statue of liberty, the eternal flame before the tombs all over the world of the Unknown Soldiers, and I believe there is an eternal flame at the tomb of John F. Kennedy. Supposedly, these men are the bearers of glory, but these are man-lit flames, but the flames from God in the Day of Pentecost come upon each believer, so that they are now the possessors of the glory of God. Then what are the processes in the glorification of man? Do you remember I said the false doctrine of glory which possesses the church today says that glorification is something that begins when you die, in heaven? But the Bible makes it clear it begins with baptism.

Now, first, after baptism, there is the wearing of the robe of honor or glory. What is this? Well again, by going into Antiquity, we see this, and in the second session tonight, we’ll go into this in greater detail, because it’s an extremely important point. In Antiquity, when a king favored a man, what he did was to bring that man into the royal household as a member thereof. He made him a prince by grace, and the way he made him a prince was to take off a cast-off garment. He might only wear it once or just throw it over his shoulders, in order to make it his, and then he would give it to the man he favored, who would then wear the robe of glory. He was now a relative of the king as long as he wore that robe. He was a member of the body of the king. He was royalty by grace. He was in union with the king.

Now, we have an ugly aspect of this in that, whenever someone tried to seize the kingship, what they tried to do was to possess the royal bride, or the royal wife, because then they would be one body with her, and they would be the king. Thus, in the Old Testament, we read that Abner, when he sought to seize, after Saul’s death, the kingship over the ten tribes, seized Saul’s concubine, Rizpah. Again, when Absalom was in revolt against his father, he seized the ten concubines who were left to take care of the house. Again, Adonijah wanted to take Abishag, which would have meant to take the kingship, but the legitimate sharing of the king’s glory is to wear his cast-off clothing, he as the head of the family, shares his family power with his sons and daughters by grace. He covers them. He clothes them. So he takes the garments, if no more than to handle them, but what a great honor if he puts it on for a moment, throws the cloak over himself, and then gives it to someone who is thus highly favored. The royal family wears the royal garment, the royal robe of glory.

Now, this should be, for us, a very familiar fact if we read scripture alike. The whole of the Bible is full of this, but remember the parable of the wedding feast? All of the kings were clothed by the king, but one sat there at the table clothed in his own garments, in his own righteousness. He refused to put on the king’s robe of glory, the kings grace. He refused. He said, “I on my own am capable of sitting as an equal with the king, or having communication with him, on my terms,” and so h e was cast out. This is not all. The cross is presented in scripture as the cast-off garment of the king. It is so spoken of in apostolic literature. It is the cast-off robe of glory, so when our Lord says, “Take up your cross and follow me. It is my atonement that saves you. Take up the reproach of the cross. Take up the fact that you stand not in your righteousness, but in my righteousness, in my atoning work, and stand before the world, not in and of yourself, but in me and in my power, and in my righteousness.” It’s wrong for us to say taking up the cross means suffering. That’s incidental and not always true. What it does mean is to put on the righteousness of Christ as our garment, his atonement as our covering. Paul tells us to cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the amour of light. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

John Bowering, when he wrote in 1825 the hymn, “In the Cross of Christ I Glory,” understood the meaning of the robe of glory. The historian, Buckler, a great orientalist, wrote concerning this matter, and Buckler is, by no means, anything you would call orthodox Christian, if he was a Christian. He was very definitely a liberal, but he wrote, “The cross of shame is the Christian’s robe of honor. To take up the cross has the same significance as to accept the robe of honor. Likewise, the reverse, to reject the cross is to declare one’s independence. As a robe of honor constitutes the recipient the vice gerent of the king, in his own proper sphere of action, so the acceptance of the cross constitutes to him who receives it, to be the member or limb of our Lord, in his sphere of action.” Thus, the heart of the meaning of Pentecost is that our Lord brings his redeemed people into his glory. Therefore, we cannot now give glory to any man, including ourselves, nor to the state, nor to Caesar. The glory is God’s alone, and we are his family, called to exercise dominion in and under him.

Then second, having been given the robe of glory, we are then invited to the wedding feast, and to the daily table of our Lord. No one could sit at the king’s table unless he was first made a member of the king’s family. To be invited into the king’s presence, to eat at his table, meant that he made you a member of his family. First he clothed you, then he put you at his table. Until very recent years, in many parts of the Middle East, if anyone went into an area and someone of importance invited him to his table, it meant he was, from that time on, under the protection of that man. If you dealt with that stranger, you dealt with the man who was his host, because he had made him a member of his family by having him at his table.

Now, the royal feast of our king is set forth in the communion table. To partake thereof is to declare and avow one’s self to be a member of the king’s family, his body. The real presence of Jesus Christ thus, is not in the elements, but in those who manifest his glory and dominion, who manifest the power of God on earth. Thus, to partake of the elements at communion is to say that, it’s more than to say, it’s to vow that we are the king’s person, his member, wherever we are, to apply his law-word to every area of life and thought, and to defend the king’s realm as our own.

In John 15:14, our Lord says, “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you,” and the word “friends,” as I have pointed out on other occasions, means here “princes,” as in Esther 1:18 in the Septuagint. Princes of grace. Ye are princes of the realm if ye keep my commandments.

Then, there is a third factor with regard of the glory. The bearers of the king’s glory manifest royal righteousness, not servile righteousness. There’s a difference. Our Lord, in John 15:15 speaks of household slaves, they obey because they’ve got to. That’s servile righteousness, but those who practice royal righteousness do so because, as members of Jesus Christ, they say, “This is my law because it is God’s law.” They are not servile nor, like the Pharisees, self-righteous. Moreover, royal righteousness acts from a position of strength, from a position of power.

Let me illustrate. If I feel that I’m very, very poor, and I don’t know where my next meal is going to come from, I’m likely to be niggardly and stingy if you hit me for money for a meal, or if, as a fellow believer, you have problems and you come to me for help. I’m not going to share what I have, but if I feel I am one of the kings of creation, I have untold wealth, I’ll behave differently. Now, that’s the difference between servile and royal righteousness. This helps us to understand what our Lord is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:42-48. He’s talking about royal righteousness. What does he say? “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Now, this is a very important verse because what it shows us is that our Lord, very definitely, is telling us that we are members of the king, that as members of the king, we share in the wealth of the king, and we are to act from a position of strength as kings, from a position of power, a position of wealth, because we are bearers of the robe of glory. This is the meaning of the flames of Pentecost. Royal righteousness, by the way, has a good illustration from our Lord in the parable of the Good Samaritan. [

Now, the emphasis thus, in the Pentecost experience, is not on experience, but on our relationship, on our obedience to Christ, who is God’s manifest glory. “For the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” John tells us that Jesus is the true light and the glory of God. Our Lord says it himself, “I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of the life.” Have the light of life. Have the glory. That’s the meaning of that verse.

One final thing. December 25th, in the Hebrew calendar, was the date of the Festival of Lights, or as it was also called the Feast of Dedication. Under Antiochus Epiphanes, the Tyrant, the temple had been polluted. It was rededicated after being purged and cleansed, at 164 B.C. on what is, for us, the 25th of December, and it is fitting that our Lord’s birthday is celebrated by the church on that day, because he is the true temple of God, and the manifest glory of God.

Are there any questions now?

[Audience] When you say the glorification begins in this life, many people would understand you to, or might get the idea from that you are saying that we can be perfect, and you’re certainly not saying that.

[Rushdoony] No. What it does mean is that we have been empowered as kings, priests, and prophets in Christ, and we’ve been sent forth to go forth in power. You see, the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,” the culminating fact. Yes?

[Audience] Does Romans 8:48 say, “All things work for good,” guaranteed?

[Rushdoony] Yes, because we serve the great King. Therefore, how can we lose in this world? He makes all things work together for good to them that love him, to them that are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:48 rests on this fact. Yes?

[Audience] Why do church denominations who are ostensibly Christians, how they miss the dominion factor when it’s all through the Bible?

[Rushdoony] They miss it because of false eschatologies which postpone dominion, either beyond the Rapture, or into the world to come, and the result is they surrender the world to the Devil. Any other questions or comments? Well, we will then have a brief recess and resume after about five or ten minutes.

End of tape