What is the final work of grace in us?
Our ultimate hope and promise in Christ is glorification, where our souls and bodies are perfectly restored.
Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 77
19Your dead shall live; shall arise; awake and sing, you dwellers in the dust, for your dew is a dew of lights, and the land will cast out the shades.
2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, these to life forever and these to reproach and abhorrence forever. 3Those who are prudent will shine like the brightness of the expanse, and those who justify the many like the stars forever and ever. 4But you, Daniel, close the words and seal the scroll until the time of the end; many will rove and knowledge will increase.
25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who trusts in me, even if he dies, will live." 26And everyone who lives and trusts in me will never die into the age. Do you believe this?
5For if we have become united with the likeness of his death, we shall also be united with the likeness of his resurrection.
22For we know that all creation groans together and labors together until now. 23And not only this, but we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly expecting adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
35But someone will say, How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? 36You foolish person: what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare seed, whether of wheat or of some other kind. 38God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. 41There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. 42So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45Thus it is written: The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46But it is not the spiritual that comes first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47The first man was from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of dust; and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54When this perishable puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality, then the word that is written will come to pass: Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
20For our citizenship is already in heaven, and from it we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of his glory, by the active energy that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
1And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with humanity, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them." 4And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more; neither mourning nor crying nor pain shall be any more, for the former things have passed away. 5And the one seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And he said, "Write, for these words are trustworthy and true."
The catechism ends its account of the way of salvation where ¶102 of the Book of Doctrines and Discipline ends. ¶102.7 reads: "Our ultimate hope and promise in Christ is glorification, where our souls and bodies will be perfectly restored to live with God eternally through the new creation." The answer quotes it nearly word for word. Glorification completes everything the previous questions have described, since the grace that pardoned and cleansed now raises the body and restores the whole person. Article XII of the Confession of Faith states the same hope as belief "in the resurrection of the dead; the righteous to life eternal."
Souls and bodies is the phrase to hold on to. Christian hope is bodily, and the catechism's references make the point from both testaments. Isaiah promises, "Your dead shall live; shall arise; awake and sing, you dwellers in the dust" (Isaiah 26:19), and Daniel says that "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, these to life forever" (Daniel 12:2). Jesus tells Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who trusts in me, even if he dies, will live" (John 11:25). Paul says that believers already share in this waiting: (Romans 8:23).
Perfectly restored is what 1 Corinthians 15 describes at length. The body "is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power" (1 Corinthians 15:42-43). Philippians says who does it and how: Christ "will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of his glory" (Philippians 3:21). The restoration reaches beyond the individual to the new creation itself, where "the dwelling of God is with humanity," and "he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more" (Revelation 21:3-4).
For a Methodist this teaching sets the horizon of the whole Christian life. The infirmities that Question 74 said grace does not remove in this life are removed in the next. Every funeral in the church is conducted in this hope, and the creed confesses it: "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." The last work of grace is God finishing what he began, and the one seated on the throne says, "Behold, I am making all things new" (Revelation 21:5).