We Will Be Like HIM!

It’s hard to imagine that there could be any greater, more glorious destiny than the one promised by Jesus to the repentant criminal hanging next to Him on a Roman cross in the last hours of both of their lives in this world, wherein Jesus assures him “today you will be with Me in Paradise”.  To be with Him in Paradise/Heaven is to be in a place where we will behold Jesus in all of His glory, know Him intimately and personally and experience fulness of joy and untold and unimaginable pleasures forevermore (John 17:24) (John 17:3) (Psalm 16:11).

This is the promised destiny of all who will, like that man, acknowledge and repent of our sin and submit from our heart to Jesus as LORD, believing God has raised Him from the dead; men and women who will persevere in faith in and love for Jesus while in this world (Mark 1:14-15 (Romans 10:8-13) (Revelation 2:7).

However, God’s eternal plan was not just that we would be with Jesus in Heaven, but be made like Him, not as a divine equal, but as a beloved child of God, who would become a joint heir with Jesus of God’s eternal kingdom, servant priests and kings within the new heavens and new earth that Jesus will establish and reign over at His second coming (1 John 3:1-3) (Romans 8:15-17) (Revelation 1:4-6) (Revelation 21:1-7).

God, in creating men and women in His image and likeness for His glory, allowed mankind to sin, to reject His purpose for and rule over their lives, and thus fall from the glorious position in which we were created (Genesis 1:26-28) (Isaiah 43:7) (Romans 3:23).  He did so according to the wise counsel and good pleasure of His will so that He would be glorified in God the Son coming into this world as a man, and as a man accomplishing through His sinless life, substitutionary death on the cross and miraculous resurrection, everything necessary for sinful men and women to be reconciled to God through Him and restored to the glorious beings God intended them to be in Him from the beginning  (1 Peter 3:18) (Ephesians 1:2-6) (Philippians 2:8-11).

The Bible makes clear that it is God’s ultimate intention that all who by faith would see His glory as it is revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, would be made like Him, progressively being transformed through beholding Him while in this world within His word, the Bible, with our transformation being completed when we see Him face to face at the time of our death and His second coming (John 1:14)  (2 Corinthians 4:3-6) (2 Corinthians 3:17-18) (1 John 3:1-3) (Philippians 3:20-21).

It is thus conformity to Jesus Christ, to His glorious nature and character that we are called to enthusiastically pursue above all else while in this world, as it is the ultimate “good” for which God is working all things in the lives of those who love Him and are submitted to His purpose (Romans 8:28-30) (Ephesians 4:20-24).

The links here titled Conformed to His Image, Part 2, a sermon by Pastor Brian Borgman and the song Endless Hallelujah by Matt Redmon are meant to excite and encourage our hearts as we pursue our new identity as “sons” of God and joint heirs with Jesus of God’s eternal kingdom.

Grace and Peace ×