To be changed into the image of Jesus in spirit, soul, and body

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be changed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)

The eternal purpose of God is that a company of sons be brought into the image of Jesus and that these predestined brothers of the Lord may share with Him the glorious inheritance of the Kingdom of God. Each of the several dimensions of our Divine inheritance depends on our having been transformed into the image of Jesus.

It is not possible for us to be the Wife of the Lamb, to be the eternal Temple of God, to rule the nations of the earth, or to participate in any of the other aspects of our inheritance as sons of God, until we are in the image of Jesus.

We must be changed into the image of the Lord Jesus in spirit, soul, and body.

We must cleanse our spirit from all uncleanness if we hope to be with the Lord.

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (II Corinthians 7:1)

Our spirit is to be one with the Spirit of the Lord.

But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. (I Corinthians 6:17)

If we ask God’s help He will keep us blameless in spirit until the appearing of Christ.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Thessalonians 5:23)

Our soul is undergoing a process of change. It is being transformed into the image of the glory of the Lord.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:18)

The new covenant represents a changing of what we are in mind and heart.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: (Hebrews 8:10)

God transforms our soul by conforming it to the death of Christ, and then by raising our crucified nature by the power of Christ’s resurrection.

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed unto his death; (Philippians 3:10)

Our old nature died with Jesus on the cross. It may be a long time before we recognize that what we are in essence has been crucified. Our old nature is finished. None of it can be brought forward into the Kingdom of God. It is the new man who is resurrected from our death who is the heir of the promises of God.

The believers are hoping to be transformed into Christ’s image while they are flying upward in their "rapture." We ought to know better than that. Even a little experience as a disciple of Christ teaches us that it is only as we are brought down into Christ’s death that change occurs in our personality.

It is here a little and there a little. Every day we are delivered to death by the Lord so the Life of the Lord may begin to be seen in us. It is command upon command; rule upon rule. Little by little the old nature is slain by the Word of God and little by little the Life of Jesus takes the place of our first personality.

The process of transforming what we are in personality and in behavior is slow but certain. It requires much patience, and sometimes the stress on us is almost more than we can bear.

There is no other way. There is no method for evading the cross and still enter our inheritance. The whole first creation died on the cross with Christ. We can enter the new creation only as our first personality enters the death of Christ.

People today are attempting to enter the Kingdom of God without being transformed. It is true that we come to the cross of Christ as we are. But we do not enter the Kingdom of God, the holy city, as we are. What we are in spirit and soul is not acceptable. Flesh and blood cannot enter the Kingdom of God. It is only as we die in Christ that we can be raised into the eternal Kingdom of God. Only the deceived individual attempts to enter in some other manner.

When the Lord comes we shall be changed. Our spirit, having been strengthened by the Holy Spirit, will be filled with the Presence of the Spirit of God.

Our soul, having died in Christ and been raised in newness of life, will be occupied by the Father and the Son. The King will enter the chambers that have been prepared for Him. The Father and the Son will not enter our old adamic nature but into Christ who has been formed in us (Galatians 4:19).

The most dramatic change will take place in our body. Throughout our pilgrimage on the earth we patiently have held our body down by the Spirit of God, keeping it under submission, knowing it is dead in sin. At the appearing of the Lord our body will be raised from the dead and then clothed with a house of eternal life—a house that has been created as our present body has been sown to the death of the cross.

For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body [the body of our humbling], that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21)

The Lord does not change our body when we die but at His appearing from Heaven. What kind of a body (if any) we shall have in the spirit realm after we die is not set forth in the Old or New Testament.

In the Day of resurrection our flesh and bones will be raised from the dead. Then we shall be clothed with a "house" from Heaven which is the direct result of our being cast down by persecutions and tribulations and raised up by the Life of Jesus. Those who have not entered the sufferings of the cross, who have not died in Jesus, who have not borne the reproach of the Gospel but have nourished their self-will, will be found naked in the Day of Christ.

Today we are dragging around a body of dead flesh. Our body constantly is attempting to persuade us to indulge its appetite for fornication, murder, drunkenness, lying, stealing, and every other practice contrary to the law of God. We have to fight without ceasing to insure that the Spirit of God is directing what we think, say, and do.

In the Day that is coming we shall be delivered from this body of death. Our body will be raised from the dead and then clothed with a body fashioned from the substance of resurrection life. Our body then will possess the same love for righteousness and hatred of sin that have been created in our spirit and soul. Our imprisonment will be over.

Those Christians who have chosen to live in the flesh are not eligible for the transformation of their body into the image of Jesus’ body. They will be clothed in the body that is suitable for their untransformed spirit and soul.

The victorious saints will be changed into the image of Jesus when He appears.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (I John 3:2)

Here is the desire of the righteous. Here is the hope of the patient saint. Here is the object of the "groaning" of the Apostle Paul. We shall be delivered from the prison of this present body. We shall be the eternal Temple of the Father and the Son. We shall be one with the Spirit of God. This is the salvation that is to come with the appearing of Christ.

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