Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine

by Wayne Grudem

The stage in the application of redemption when we receive resurrection bodies is called glorification.

some who remain alive when Christ returns will simply have their bodies instantaneously changed into new, resurrection bodies that can never grow old or weak and can never die:

only makes sense if it is the souls of believers who have gone into Christ’s presence who return with him and if it is their bodies that are raised from the dead to be joined together with their souls and then to ascend to be with Christ.

“What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. . . . Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Cor. 15:42–44, 49).

Some evangelical Christians hold that believers and unbelievers will be resurrected at the same time (this is the position taken by amillennialists). Others (especially premillennialists) hold that the resurrection of believers occurs before the millennium and the resurrection of the unbelievers for judgment occurs 1,000 years later, after the millennium. See chapter 55 for a discussion of the issues involved, and of this particular verse.

Union with Christ What does it mean to be “in Christ” or “united with Christ”?

every aspect of God’s relationship to believers is in some way connected to our relationship with Christ.

These relationships include the fact that we are in Christ, Christ is in us, we are like Christ, and we are with Christ.

1. We are in Christ. 2. Christ is in us. 3. We are like Christ. 4. We are with Christ.3

During Our Lives Now

1. We have died and been raised with Christ. 2. We have new life in Christ. 3. All our actions can be done in Christ. 4. All Christians together are one body in Christ.

we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

the boldest analogy of all is used by Jesus, who prays for believers “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” (John 17:21). Here Jesus prays that our unity would be like the perfect unity between the Father and the Son in the Trinity.

in all of this we never lose our individual personhood. We become perfectly like Christ, but we do not become Christ, and we are not absorbed into Christ or lost forever as individuals. Rather, it is we as real individuals who shall still know as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12);

CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP SONG “Glorious Day”

And I ran out of that grave.

PART 6 The Doctrine of the Church

The Church: Its Nature, Its Marks, and Its Purposes

The definition that seems preferable to me is this: the church is the community of all true believers for all time.

The other definition is this: the church is the community of all true believers since Pentecost.

The Church Is Invisible yet Visible

the invisible church is the church as God sees it.

the visible church is the church as Christians on earth see it. In

Realizing this distinction between the church invisible and the church visible, Augustine said of the visible church, “Many sheep are without and many wolves are within.”

The Church Is Local and Universal

Sometimes critics will focus on the harmful things that Christian churches have done in past generations, such as the horrors of the Inquisition or the “wars of religion” in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We must admit that people who professed to be Christians have made terribly harmful mistakes, and these do not represent the advance of the kingdom of God or the reign of God in people’s hearts and lives.

historian Alvin Schmidt points out how the spread of Christianity and Christian influence on government was primarily responsible for many significant and beneficial changes in church history,22 such as the outlawing of infanticide, child abandonment, and abortion in the Roman Empire (in AD 374);

the abolition of the brutal battles to the death in which thousands of gladia...

the ending of the cruel punishment of branding the faces of ...

the institution of prison reforms, such as the segregating of male and fem...

the discontinuation of the practice of human sacrifice among the Irish, the Prussians, and the Lithuanians, as well as ...

the end of the painful and crippling practice of binding young women’s feet in China (in 1912);32 persuading government officials to begin a system of public schools in Germany (in the sixteenth century);

Christians have had a decisive influence in opposing and often abolishing slavery in the Roman Empire, Ireland, and most of Europe

In England, William Wilberforce, a devout Christian, led the successful effort to abolish the slave trade and then slavery itself throughout the British Empire by 1840.36

There Are True Churches and False Churches

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon Church) does not hold to any major Christian doctrines concerning salvation or the person of God or the person and work of Christ

It is clearly a false church. Similarly, the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach salvation by works, not by trusting in Jesus Christ alone. This is a fundamental doctrinal deviation

If we again look at the two distinguishing marks of the church, in the judgment of this present writer it seems appropriate to say that many liberal Protestant churches are in fact false churches today.

THE PURPOSES OF THE CHURCH

Ministry to God: Worship

Ministry to Believers: Nurture

Ministry to the World: Evangelism and Mercy

all three purposes of the church are commanded by the Lord in Scripture;

a strong church will have effective ministries in all three of these areas.

CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP SONG “Build My Life”

The Purity and Unity of the Church What makes a church more or less pleasing to God? What kinds of churches should we cooperate with or join?

there are “true churches” and “false churches.”

among true churches, there are more pure and less pure churches.

the purity of the church is its degree of freedom from wrong doctrine and conduct, and its degree of conformity to God’s revealed will for the church.

the unity of the church is its degree of freedom from divisions among true Christians.