We've been addressing the question: if Jesus had not planned to rise from the grave, how would it take away the saints' hopes and the precious promises we rely upon?
Had Jesus never risen again, we could not have been promised to be made into His image, we could never have been told one day we would be made like Him.
If Jesus had never risen and been glorified, we would have no model of what we will one day be transformed into. Christ could then never be the pattern for our glorified bodies.
There would be no risen, living Jesus to Whom we ought to be conformed.
Had there been such a promise, it would not have been miraculous or desirable at all. If Jesus' body was to lie dead in the ground, we would be readily conformed to that image by the natural process of aging and death of our poor tired, broken bodies.
God's promise was not that we should be like Jesus forever in the grave. Instead, we have been given a miraculous and glorious promise of being made like Christ, risen and glorified!
Our being conformed to the image of Jesus is not merely a promise of perfected bodies, but extends to the perfection of our minds, our hearts, our thoughts, and our deeds.
We are promised conformity to Christ not only physically but morally also!
Our moral and spiritual transformation has already begun, while our physical transformation is deferred until when we are raised from the dead like Jesus.
Paul explained in Romans 8 that our conformity to the image of Christ progresses: first, God loved us and foreknew us, then he predestined us to perfect conformity to Jesus, then he called us, now He has justified us, and soon He will glorify us with our Savior!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
