The Holy Spirit and Our Glorious Future

My first post in this series on the Holy Spirit was on November 3, 2024, and I started writing in late September/early October. I had no idea it would take 18 posts to cover the subject, and there is much more we could study on the topic. Thank you for sticking with me all this time. I pray this study will help folks understand who the Holy Spirit is and what he does and, in the process, realize just how important he is to us.

Today, we close out our study by looking at something the Holy Spirit will do in the future. Back in Part 8, we talked about the “three tenses of salvation,” in which the past tense is our justification, which happened the moment we accepted Christ. At that very moment, we were saved from the penalty of sin and made right with God (Romans 3:23-24). 

The present tense is sanctification, the lifelong process of being saved from the power of sin. This was the focus of that post in Part 8. 

Then there is the future tense of salvation, which we’ll discuss in this post.

The Bible also teaches that there are three aspects of sanctification. Some Bible teachers call these the positional, progressive, and perfected aspects of sanctification. 

The positional aspect focuses on what happens at regeneration and salvation. At that moment, we’re set apart for God and called “saints” (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2). The Holy Spirit is the one who changes us into holy people. We’re no longer slaves to sin, we no longer have to sin, we no longer love to sin (Romans 6:11, 14, 18). This is similar to the past tense of salvation and is a work of the Holy Spirit: 

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5)

Then there is progressive sanctification, which is what most of us think of when it comes to sanctification. It’s the lifelong work of us becoming more and more like Christ, and it comes “from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). He grows us in our maturity and walk with God. This coincides with the present tense of salvation and is also a work of the Holy Spirit. 

Finally, we have perfected sanctification: glorification. 

Glorification is that future tense of salvation when we will be saved from the very presence of sin, obtaining perfect holiness and sinlessness in heaven.  It’s the pinnacle of salvation and sanctification when we’re conformed completely to the image of Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). The entire spectrum of sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit, from the moment we accept Christ to the moment we’re glorified in God’s presence.

Now, while we will reach sinless perfection at the moment of our death, our ultimate glorification will not happen until we experience the resurrection of our bodies, which is another work of the Holy Spirit:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11)

Christians will one day be resurrected through the Holy Spirit and given brand new physical bodies. We won’t be bodiless souls forever. We’ll be given new physical bodies completely free from the effects of the Fall and sin. This is what the entire process of salvation has pointed toward:

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

We’ll receive our new bodies when Christ returns, raises from the dead the bodies of all believers who have died, and reunites our bodies with our souls. At that moment, he will also change the bodies of all believers alive at the time, thereby giving all believers perfect resurrection bodies like his own, all in an instant (1 Corinthians 15:42-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). 

Just like creation groans under the curse and looks forward to the new heaven and new earth (Romans 8:19-22), we, too, groan in our cursed bodies and look forward to this future event. We still live in a cursed creation in cursed bodies that are in the process of decay. We face disease, disabilities, failing health, old age, death, and male pattern baldness (I throw that in there for personal reasons).

Oh, but one day, we’ll be rid of these cursed bodies designed for life on this planet, and we’ll receive brand new bodies meant for life in eternity! Look at Romans 8:23: “Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits – we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (CSB). By “redemption of our bodies,” Paul is referring to the final piece of the salvation/sanctification puzzle when we receive our new glorified bodies, ones designed for life in eternity, where there is no sickness, no death, no decay. I can hardly wait!

But, you may ask, what does the Holy Spirit have to do with all this? It’s important to take a closer look at 1 Corinthians 15:44 when Paul describes our new bodies:

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:44)

When Paul says “spiritual bodies,” he doesn’t mean “immaterial.” He could have used the words “physical” and “immaterial” if he had been saying that. He instead uses “natural” and “spiritual.” These are the same two words he uses in 1 Corinthians 2:14 when he describes the difference between believers and unbelievers: one has the Holy Spirit (“spiritual”) and one does not (“natural”). So in 15:44, Paul is saying that our new bodies will be empowered by and surrendered to the Holy Spirit in ways not possible now. They will be free of sin. 

That’s actually the most important point about our future glorification — not that we’ll have new bodies, but that we’ll be completely free from sin. The overwhelmingly good news for us is that one day, thanks to the Holy Spirit, we’ll finally reach sinless perfection. 

Our salvation and sanctification will one day be complete. Hallelujah and Amen.

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