Systematic Theology -- Salvation

Glorification I

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 17

Dictation Name: 17 Glorification I

Year: 1970’s

Our Lord and our God, we come again in thy presence rejoicing in thy mercies, thy grace, and thy providential care. We thank thee for the victory of Peter Andrew Knobel{?} in Michigan. We pray that thou wouldst give victory to thine embattled saints throughout the world. We pray that though wouldst deliver the churches under persecution in California. Bless us now as we give ourselves to the study of thy word. In Jesus name. Amen.

In Revelation 22:1-5, we read, “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”

Our subject in both our sessions this evening is Glorification. Glorification is the culminating doctrine in the study of salvation. A few days ago, when I was driving home from Southern California, I heard a radio preacher who promised to be quite good. His speaking manner, and his texts, and the earnestness with which he approached it promised a very fine study. His text was 1 John 5:4. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith,” and I thought as he announced his text and began, “This is marvelous. Here is someone I don’t know preaching on Christian reconstruction,” but his treatment of the text was incredible, and he said the world means the world system, and our problem is as long as we are unregenerate, we want to belong to the world system. We want to be members of the fraternity, or the sorority, or the country club, or the “in” group, but when we become Christians, we are delivered from that desire. We have overcome. So we don’t feel it’s necessary for us to be in society, or in a fraternity, or a sorority, or with the “in” group. Can you imagine a more beggarly trivialization of one of the great texts of scripture?

Now, this kind of trivialization marks also the usual treatments of the doctrine of glorification. The popular imagery of what the Bible teaches about the glory is very, very sorry. For example, the idea of the blessed playing harps around eternity. Now, granted that that imagery is not to be taken too seriously even as it is held by many people. All the same, it is revealing. It is true that the Bible does mention harps. In Revelation 5:8, 14:2, and 15:2 harps are mentioned. They are a symbol of the heavenly praise of God. Now clearly, the life of the redeemed does include praise, both in time and in eternity, but the life of the redeemed cannot be reduced simply to nothing but praise ala harp playing. Some of us are not the harp playing type.

Then, many a hymn emphasizes simply an eternity of looking on the face of Jesus. This is a very medieval kind of emphasis. The Middle Ages emphasized the vision of God as glory, and as the goal of eternity, an eternity of the vision of God. Now again, there is some ground for this in scripture, because we read in Revelation 2:4, “And they shall see his face,” but the problem is a false emphasis. We don’t spend eternity playing harps and looking at the Lord. Other aspects of the life of glory are neglected or underestimated.

First of all, it is a life in a new or a renewed creation, a new heaven and a new earth. Now, Platonism held that there were two kinds of being. On the one hand, spirit, mind, form, or ideas, and on the other hand matter. It was held that matter was lower and as you became more holy, as you progressed, you became pure spirit. This doctrine of neo-Platonism was transferred to the church, and it has given people a false view of glory, the idea of glory as a material world being replaced by a purely Platonic, spiritual realm, but the Bible gives us a very material view of glory. It is creation, as Revelation 22:3 tells us, with the curse removed from it. We have a resurrection body. The difference in the Bible is not between the material and the spiritual, but between God and creation. One aspect of that creation is heaven. It is superior to the earth now, not because it is spiritual, but because it is sinless. In the new creation, heaven and earth will alike be free of sin, and that will be an aspect of its glory, to be free of sin and under the dominion of God, perfectly manifesting his law-word and his will.

Then second, we are told that the life and glory is life in the perfection of the New Jerusalem. In Hebrews, it is described in 12:23 as the “general assembly of the firstborn which are in heaven.” It is ruled by God, who is the judge of all. The faithful, we are told, will be ruler over many things; this is our Lord’s word in Matthew 25:23. We tend today, because we live in a democratic, equalitarian age, to resent authority and hierarchy, but this is basic to scripture. One of the simple facts that gives the Christian school an advantage over the public schools is simply that there is authority in the classroom, and that authority is lacking in the public schools, and one of the strengths of the teaching of the Christian school that makes it so appealing to parents is not merely the academic excellence, which is very pronounced, a lot of parents feel that the teachers may be leaning too heavily on the pupils and that sort of thing, but they all like the fact that authority is re-introduced.

Well, the Bible plainly pointed to authority and hierarchy with community in the state of glory. Salvation and glory is not released from responsibility, but rather the entrance into the fullness of it. It is life in community. Revelation 19 gives us a vision of glory, as of marriage, of a banquet, of communion, and community. Life with the Lord means life also with the people of God.

Then third, in many of the false visions of heaven and of glory, heaven is often seen as an eternal vacation. Now, there are superficial grounds for this in the idea of the Sabbath. Hebrews 4:1-11 tells us that the fulfillment of the Sabbath, in the eternal Sabbath, is the life of glory. The new creation, there remaineth therefore rest for the people of God, but the essence of the Sabbath is not rest from work, nor a vacation. Rather, the Sabbath is something very different from a vacation. It is resting in the Lord and his accomplished work. Thus, the man who truly knows the Sabbath rests in the Lord, not only on the Lord’s Day, but every day of the week. He rests in the Lord’s finished work. He depends not upon what our hands have done, nor can do, but upon what the Lord has done. The state of glory therefore, is the Sabbath in the sense that there is a perfection of resting in the Lord, in trusting in him, so that there is no shadow of doubt, but total trust.

Thus, the state of glory does not mean an eternal vacation of idleness. Rather, Revelation 22:3 says, “His servants shall serve him.” The word “servants” means bond servants. It sets forth the fact that, throughout all eternity, we are debtors to the Lord, that our salvation is all of grace. Therefore, all eternity in the service of the Lord will never discharge our debt, but it is not a debt as a burden, but a joyful service, no curse upon our world. “His servants shall serve him.”

Now, the word for “serve” is a word that means both to serve publicly and reverentially, but also to work for hire. So, the idea of a reward is here. We are saved by grace. We are rewarded according to our works, and the work that we have in heaven is a reward. We are given a place in the household of God to serve him. Thus, work is basic to glory, with implications of both debt and reward, and of no curse. To serve a king, to be the humblest member of his household, is a tremendous honor.

Let me cite a humorous example of that. In that days of Louis XIV, any and every office in the court, as a servant, was something that the greatest noblemen of the realm were contending to have, so that even to be the man who carried the royal chamber pot in and out for Louis XIV was a very exalted position. Now, it may not seem so to you, but then, Louis XIV doesn’t mean anything to you. Had you lived then, to be that close to him and that important to him, you would have regarded even that job as a great honor. Certainly men contended fanatically to get positions like that. You see the point? Any kind of service to a king is an honor, and so, work, to be his servants, God’s servants, Christ’s servants, throughout all eternity, is a great privilege. It is grace on his part, and yet it carries with it an eternal reward. Even though we are eternally in his debt.

Then fourth, we are told we are not only bond servants, but also that we have dominion, and “They shall reign forever and ever,” Revelation 22:5 declares. Man was created in Adam to be God’s vice gerent, to rule over the earth, to reign over it, to make of it from pole to pole, the kingdom of God, and the Garden of Eden was to be the trial place where he was to learn how to serve God, and then to apply it to the whole earth, but man’s sin, he tried to rule independently of God and he fell. Jesus Christ, as the last Adam, restores man into that calling to reign in Christ, to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth, and to bring every area of life and thought into captivity to Jesus Christ. Thus, the state of glory is one of continuing service, of dominion through our service to the Lord. Men have trouble seeing this and seeing this fact of continuing service.

Now, it is the essence of God that he is. When at the burning bush, Moses said to God, “What is thy name that I may tell people who sent me?” To name meant to classify, to define, so that names were definitions, and God said, “I have no name. I cannot be defined. I am that I am,” or “I am he who is,” which is the meaning of Jehovah, or Yahweh. So, God said, “I am beyond definition. I am he who is. I define all heaven and earth and all things therein, but nothing can define or limit me. I am the Lord, but I am known by my revelation, for I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” God alone has assaity, self-being, but the idea people have of the state of glory is that man should have assaity, and be complete in himself. It is the dream of man in his fall in Genesis 3:5, “Ye shall be as God, knowing, determining for yourself what is good and evil. You shall be your own world of law, your own universe, your own source of life.”

This is the dream of Marxism. Marxism says that man, when he achieves full communism, will not have to work. He will do just what he pleases. In the morning he can be a shepherd or a fisherman, a brain surgeon in the afternoon, a concert violinist in the evening. Why? Because he shall have assaity, self-being. He will able to be what he chooses to be, because in his being, he will be everything, but this is radically false, and the idea of man in heaven as simply being is a reflection of this sinful idea. Man has no assaity, no self-being. He is, throughout eternity, the servant of the Lord. He was created to be so in the Garden of Eden. His salvation is that, by God’s grace, he has been restored to that calling, and in the state of glory he will fulfill that glory to perfection. For man to be means to be God’s servant, and the state of glory is the eternal fulfillment of that fact.

Are there any questions now? We shall be dealing further with glorification in our next session, and again, at our next meeting, because it is an extremely important doctrine which has been under stressed and all too often misrepresented. Yes?

[Audience] Do I understand that you said that the work now will reflect our rewards in heaven?

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] And that meaning of some type of work in eternity?

[Rushdoony] Yes. You remember the parable, and I shall refer to it in the next session, where our Lord says to the faithful servant, “Be thou ruler over ten cities. Be thou ruler over five cities.” In other words, in relationship to their faithfulness, they are given work and responsibility in the world to come.

[Audience] So you see it as domain over certain area or certain specific {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. In the new creation, we will all have a work to do, and it will all be glorious. Yes?

[Audience] Will we be like perfect, or how so? Okay, the one {?} how close will we be to perfection?

[Rushdoony] Well, we will be perfect as creatures. Our perfection will be a creaturely perfection, not the perfection of God, you see, and our perfection will be in terms of what we are. So that the perfection, let us say, of a musician and the perfection of a scientist will be different. Our perfection will be in terms of our calling and our nature. Yes?

[Audience] Is this ground now a sort of testing ground for our responsibility, for when we respond in a sin-cursed world verses the way we respond in a non-sin-cursed world?

[Rushdoony] Yes. This world is a place of testing, of development, and we will have an eternal place in terms of what we do here and now. Yes?

[Audience] When does this new heavens and new earth begin, or have {?}

[Rushdoony] Very good question. What do the new heavens and the new earth begin? They began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are told in scripture that he is the firstfruits of the new creation. We are also told that if any man be in Jesus Christ he is a new creation, so that whenever anyone is saved, he is transferred from the old world into the new creation. Now, we do not have the fullness and the perfection of that creation until our Lord’s coming again. Yes?

[Audience] So, would you say that Revelation 22 is saying, kind of describing partially what is happening to us now, and then what will be the completion?

[Rushdoony] Very good point. Revelation 22 describes what has already begun, and also the fullness of it after his coming again. Yes?

[Audience] Well, it seems to me that one of the biggest problems with theologians today is they completely separate this whole idea of the new creation and so forth to totally future. In other words, especially your pre-millennial {?}, that they make it totally future.

[Rushdoony] Yes. If we make the new creation totally a thing of the future, we are denying the meaning of regeneration. Regeneration makes us a new creation. You then undercut that doctrine. Then you develop doctrines like the carnal Christian, which render being born again meaningless. The carnal Christian is no better than a sinner. Yes?

[Audience] Will this world be consumed, and if so, where does {?}

[Rushdoony] The question is, will this world be consumed at his coming again? The Bible both tells us it will be renewed, and it also speaks of fire. Now, we’re not given specifics, but as nearly as can be determined, I believe, the imagery of the fire at the end of the world is that all the imperfection, the dross, will be destroyed. Just as over and over again the Bible speaks of sanctification as a purging by fire, so that the dross may be taken out of our system. So, we are given the imagery of a burning out of all the dross, of a renewal of the existing creations, but we are also given a picture of a tremendous difference, as between, let us say, an acorn and an oak. So that the new creation will be so magnificent that it will be as difficult to imagine it as you can imagine if you’ve never seen an oak, that an acorn can be a tremendous and a gigantic oak. So, it is beyond our imagination, in other words, to grasp the full extent of that new creation.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Of, yes?

[Audience] {?} and I wonder, and I’ve thought of this sometimes, {?} my services {?} in glorifying image{?}

[Rushdoony] I couldn’t quite hear, how should you anticipate your services as an architect in the kingdom of God. Yes. Now, there would be some people who would say the only way a Christian architect could function is to build churches. That’s nonsense. Church construction, by the way, is important, and in March, I believe it is, that I will have, in my portion of the Chalcedon Report, an article about architecture in the early church, and how important it was, and some doctrines that were emphasized in the architecture. However, every area of life is to be brought under the dominion of our Lord, and in every area, we are to manifest order, purpose, meaning, design, function, so that it would really be very wrong and contrary to the Reformed faith to limit architecture to ecclesiastical architecture.

Well, we will have a recess for awhile, and then resume our study of the doctrine of glorification.

End of tape