I’m curious, how can a believer be sure he will be glorified in the last day? Does a believer have to be without sin, fear when he dies or is raptured? I hear preachers all the time say a person has to make sure things are right with God before He comes. What do you think about this?
We can be sure that we’ll be glorified in the last day because Romans 8:29-30 says so. Those God foreknew He predestined. Those He predestined, He called. Those He called He justified, and those He justified He glorified.
A literal reading of the passage tells us that everyone who begins the process completes it. No one is disqualified or lost along the way.
The only proper use of the phrase “get right with God” is in connection with accepting His death as payment for our sins. Once we do that we are right with Him.
Then whether we have died or are raptured we will receive a glorified body at the time of the rapture. This will happen in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, and between the time when we leave earth and arrive in heaven we will be glorified. Otherwise we couldn’t get in because earthly bodies are not suitable for heaven.
Speaking of the resurrection, Paul said, “ The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power” (1 Cor. 15:42-43).
And about the rapture, he said, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-53).