Jesus and the Past Tense of Glorified in Paul’s “Golden Chain”
Nov 2025; adapted from previous X post
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 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 8:29–30]
Given the theme of resurrection in the context, there have been various attempts to square Paul’s parallel use of a past tense (aorist) for glorified alongside predestined, called, and justified. Frequently the past tense of “glorified” is referred to the future by emphasizing its certainty (e.g. it has been accomplished in Christ, and therefore its certainty justifies a past tense, but is really talking about something that hasn't happened yet).
We can, to be sure, note that the whole sequence has in fact been completed in the One to whose image we are being conformed (v 29). A preliminary key to understanding Paul’s likely meaning begins with the recognition that all of these blessings are in Christ.
Nonetheless, the glorification entailed in the redemption of the body does remain for us a future event (8:17, 18, 23).
I suggest that Paul is following the sequential stages of Jesus’ own glorification. The glory of the Messiah did not start and end with the resurrection and ascension; Christ himself received preliminary glorification prior to those culminating events.
This is reflected, in particular, in connection with the public divine speech which the Father provides for the Son.
The fact that glorification does not occur only in one culminating event is perhaps made most explicit in the Gospel of John. Following a public pronouncement of his impending death, Jesus prayed: “Father, glorify your name.” And in return, the Father speaks: “I have glorified, and will glorify again” (John 12:28).
Here, the glorification of the Father’s name specifically has to do with his pronouncements upon and his will for the Son. In the divine relations, the glory of each is for the glory of the other, and this now becomes manifest within the Son’s messianic role.
The phrase “I have glorified” is aorist (ἐδόξασα), and therefore does not likely refer to the eternal glorification of the Son by the Father, but rather to particular events in the life of Jesus, such as his public and semi-public pronouncements regarding him as his own beloved Son at his baptism and transfiguration (e.g. Matthew 3:17; 17:5). These pronouncements by the Father were essentially public judicial statements regarding Jesus as his Righteous One, and thus, implicit guarantees of the resurrection.
This, in turn, leads us to understand that Jesus’ request for the Father to glorify his name is in fact a request to do so by glorifying him both in death and in resurrection — a thought that is confirmed (shortly thereafter) in John 13:31, 32. At the Last Supper, Jesus says, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Despite the present tense necessitated in English, aorists are used in both cases: what is in view is not merely ongoing and customary, but an impending singular event.
Jesus continues, “If God is glorified in him, God also shall glorify him in himself, and shall glorify him immediately.” Just as in death, Jesus glorifies the name of the Father, so in turn the Father will glorify the Son with reference to himself, that is, by bodily raising him to glory.
In Romans, this connects with Paul’s earlier argument that the death of Jesus is the demonstration of the righteousness of God, and thus a glorification of his name; and is likely the sort of sequence Paul has in mind in Romans 8. The promise of the future is the resurrection of the body, the final glorification of the believer.
This future is guaranteed by the fact that God has already glorified the believer by saying, “This is my beloved son,” as Paul has argued in verses 14 and following: You are led by the Spirit of God, and are therefore sons of God, in which case, you are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (14, 17a).
Just as the suffering of Jesus was for the glory of the Father, and the Father in turn glorified him with resurrection, so too in this context of identifying us as fellow heirs with Christ, Paul specifies: “provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (17b). The believer, then, has been glorified with Christ in the pronouncement of sonship by the Father, and in turn glorifies the Father through suffering with Christ. And in turn, the Father will glorify the believer in his very body through the resurrection of the body, a resurrection that will trivialize the sufferings of the present time in comparison (v 18).
In short: as with the case of Jesus, in baptism, the believer is marked out by the Father as son and heir. This is the initiatory honor, the first stage of glorification. It is because one is already an heir, has already been glorified, that one can have faith that he will participate, with Jesus, in the future final glory of resurrection.