The Daily Word of Righteousness

From Justification to Glorification, #8

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

How does God deliver us from sin in the present hour? By the power of the law of the Spirit of life.

As we walk in the power of the law of the Spirit of life He gives us daily victory over the sins of the flesh.

For if ye live in the appetites of the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

We have deliverance today as we await the fiery baptism of the last days. If we are faithful in walking in the Spirit today, then, when the Lord appears, we will experience the alteration of our mortal body from flesh-and-blood life to Holy-Spirit life.

The first step in moving from justification to glorification is deliverance from sin. Both testaments state clearly that the new covenant of God with His people will include not only the forgiveness of Isaiah, Chapter 53 but also the purification of Malachi, Chapter Three.

Change. The second step in moving from assigned righteousness to actual change into the image of Christ is the transformation that occurs in our personality as the gold of Christ is formed in us and then hammered into shape and refined through suffering.

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)

Here is the change into the image of Christ, mentioned in Romans 8:29.

Change into Christ's image occurs in us as we see His Glory in the written Word, in personal revelation, in the gifts and ministries of others as well our own gifts, and in all other places where we behold the Divine Glory.

Just as Moses was changed as a result of standing in the Divine Presence, so we are changed as we are exposed to the Presence of Christ.

Change into Christ's image takes place in us as Christ is formed and grows in us.

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

Christ in us is planted as a Seed, the Seed of the Kingdom. We must turn the prime energies and attention of our life to insuring that the Seed is taken care of properly. We know from the parable of the sower that a shallow experience with Christ or the cares of this world can prevent the Divine Seed from bearing lasting fruit.

The greatest fact of the new covenant is that Christ, the Seed, the living Word, is actually conceived in us. Then the ministries of the Body of Christ are to travail until the Seed brings forth Christ in us, the hope of the glory to come in the last days.

Deliverance from sin and the forming of Christ in us are important aspects of our journey from justification to glorification, from imputed (ascribed) righteousness to the moral image of Christ.

It is true also that change into Christ's image occurs in us as the Divine gold in us is purified through suffering.

To be continued.