The Daily Word of Righteousness

When a Christian Dies, #20

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)

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

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.

To be continued.