Jesus said to the penitent thief dying beside Him, Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise (Luke 23:43). Not his body but his soul, the essence of his being, would be in the presence of the Lord. In the moment in which the body dies, the soul goes into the presence of God. But what will we be like?
1. In that moment when we enter the heavenly presence of God, our soul is perfected: The writer to the Hebrews reminds us, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect (Hebr. 12:22,23). Insofar as is possible for a human being, we will be perfected emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. Our thoughts will be perfect, our words will be perfect, our memories will be perfect, our actions will be perfect. We will experience perfect purity in every area of life.
Paul said, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified (Rom. 8:29,30).
Conformed to the image of Jesus — that’s the end point of salvation. The beginning of the work of salvation is when we placed our faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection. In that event, we were born again, spiritually regenerated. Though we had been dead in (our) trespasses and sins, in which (we) formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, and though we were under the judgment of God, nevertheless, God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Eph. 2:1,2,4,5).
Through faith in Christ, who bore our sin, who bore the judgment that should have come on us and died in our place, through faith in His sacrificial work, we have been forgiven of sin, raised from spiritual death to life, reconciled to God from whom we were separated by our sin, declared to be righteous in the righteousness of Christ and given the promise of everlasting life with God in heaven. As Paul reminds us, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17).
However, this is only the beginning of the process of salvation, as Paul said, For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (I Cor. 1:18). We are being saved — it is a process. Yes, we are new creations but there is still the presence of sin in our humanness. The dominion / power of sin has been broken in our lives but not the presence of sin. The Apostle John reminds us, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (I Jn. 1:8).
We wrestle against sin every day of our lives. We deal with memories of our own sin and the sin of others against us. We deal with physical and emotional infirmities. We are surrounded by the corruption, violence and depravity of this fallen world. We long for a wholeness and holiness which we experience only partially in this life. But in the instant of death, the soul of the redeemed enters into the presence of God and we are assured that in that moment when we enter the heavenly presence of God, our soul is perfected.
Again, the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God … and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect (Hebr. 12:22,23).
John reminds us, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (I Jn. 3:2).
This process of transformation into the likeness of Jesus will not be completed in this life but it has begun. Paul reminds us, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). As we gaze into the glory of the Lord in His word and as we worship Him and walk with Him, we are being progressively transformed into His likeness.
Paul said, For in Him (in Christ) all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete (Col. 2:9,10). The phrase have been made complete, is related to the noun pleroma. Jesus Christ is the pleroma, the fulness of God in bodily form (2:9) and in His fulness we have been made complete. This is a perfect tense verb referring to the eternal completeness of our position in Christ.
There is a present tense aspect to this and of course, a future aspect. John said, For of His fullness we have all received (John 1:16); and as Peter says, His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:3,4).
In union with Jesus, we share in the life of God now. When our soul enters the presence of God, we will experience the completeness which God intended for humanity.
Recall that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God but when they sinned, they became separated from God and their own being began to disintegrate due to the conflicting pressures of guilt, shame, fear and sorrow. We were not designed to live apart from God. In that state of separation we are incomplete beings. But in Jesus we are reconciled to God and our own fragmented being finds wholeness in Him. In union with Christ, we share the fulness of His life and we grow progressively toward the fulness which God purposed for human beings. This process will not be fulfilled in this life. But it will be in heaven.
Heaven is a perfect place for people who have been made perfect. What do we mean by perfect? We mean that God will be able to examine us with His perfect knowledge, perfect clarity and see no presence of sin. In Revelation chapter 6 we see the saints standing before the Lord in white robes which is a symbol of perfect purity. We will enjoy perfect freedom from all sin and evil forever. All that we will be and do will be forever righteous, holy and perfect before God.
The Apostle John, speaking of the heavenly city, said, And nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 21:27). Nothing unclean, no one who practices any form of evil will be present. All evil is excluded from heaven. We will be perfectly cleansed of evil and there will be no evil which can attach itself to us in heaven.
We will not only be free from all sin but also free from all temptation, doubt, hate, sadness, disappointment. This will enable us to experience continual joy. In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever (Ps. 16:11). We will experience fullness of joy, perfect joy unmixed with any fear or sadness. It will be unending joy because the conditions will never change, therefore whatever produces joy will always produce joy.
It is the joy of Jesus that we will experience. In the parable of the talents, the good master said to the good servant, Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master (Matt. 25:23). We will share the joy of our Lord.
We will have perfect knowledge, to the fullest extent which a perfected human mind can experince. Paul said, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known (I Cor 13:12). We will enjoy a fulness of knowledge — knowledge of God, knowledge of the universe.
We will experience the fulness of Christ’s love undiminished by anything. On the night that the Lord was betrayed, John says, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end (John 13:1). The word end is telos which means to the fullest, to the utmost. Jesus loved His disciples to the fullest capacity of divine love and when we experience the fulness of God’s love in heaven, unmixed by anything of this fallen world, we will be able to love fully.
2. But even the perfecting of the soul is not the end point of salvation — there is more. The soul will eventually be clothed with a perfect resurrection body like the resurrection body of Jesus — not subject to decay or death. Another way of expressing this is to say that we will be glorified:
Quoting Paul again, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified (Rom. 8:29,30).
Those who have been justified — declared to be just, righteous, through faith in Christ — these have also been glorified. Glorified refers to our resurrection when we will be conformed to the image of His (God’s) Son. That is our destiny. The word glorified is a past tense verb but Paul is referring to something future, it has not yet happened — we are not yet resurrected, not yet entirely conformed to the image of Jesus. But it is so certain that Paul says we are glorified.
Insofar as is possible for a human being, we will be perfected emotionally, intellectually and spiritually in the likeness of Jesus. And we will be given a resurrection body perfectly designed for living in the presence of God forever. That is the end point of our salvation.
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:16,17).
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself (Phlp. 3:20,21).
This humble body, subject to decay and death, will be transformed into conformity with the body of His glory — His glorious resurrection body. This will be accomplished by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. The same power with which the Lord conforms the universe to His design is the power that will transform and conform us to the glorious resurrection body and life of Jesus. We will need that resurrection body to stand in the presence of God’s glory, in order to live forever and in order to do and express all that God gives us to do and express.
God created us with the capacity and the need to communicate and though we will be able to communicate as spirits, that is not the fulness of God’s creative purpose for us. We will need a body in order to give full expression to our thoughts and emotions and giftings and assignments and we will have that body, our glorious resurrection body.
Regarding that resurrection body, Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself … Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment (Jn. 5:24-26,28,29).
All will come forth — this refers to the resurrection of bodies. At this time, all who have died in the Lord and are present to the Lord in spirit will someday be clothed with resurrection bodies. All who died apart from the Lord are now in a place of incarceration in conscious separation from the Lord but there is coming a day of resurrection. The souls of the godly and the ungodly will be joined to a resurrection body and will experience either everlasting life in the presence of God or everlasting torment apart from the Lord.
Paul says, For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens … what is mortal will be swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:1,4).
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words (I Thes 4:14-18).
Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable (I Cor. 15:50). A flesh and blood body cannot stand in the presence of God’s glory, cannot exist in the universe to come and cannot live eternally. But our new resurrection body can do all that and more.
So, Paul reveals, Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’ (I Cor. 15:51-54).
When Jesus returns He will bring with Him the spirits / souls of saints who died in faith. They will be instantly clothed in a resurrection body and those who are alive in that moment will also be instantly clothed in a body fit for eternal life in the presence of God. It will be a glorified body to cover / house a glorified soul. This is the fulfillment of God’s salvation purpose in us.
Someone asked Paul, How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come? (I Cor. 15:35). The dead are raised by the power of God. That resurrection body will be designed by God to perfectly fit the conditions of the world to come. A perfected soul needs a perfected body to express itself so we know it will be perfect.
People ask, “How can God create a body for people who have been dead for so long and who perished in so many different ways?” What a silly question to ask of the God who spoke a universe into being without any pre-existing matter.
What will this body be like? We have not been given much information on this because how could we possibly imagine? We sow a seed and something entirely different comes out of the ground. The shape or color of the seed does not reveal the fruit or tree that rises up out of the ground. There is a huge difference between an acorn and an oak tree, a pumpkin seed and a pumpkin. But this is certain: I will be me, you will be you and yet different — perfected. We will know one another but this mortal body will have been replaced by an immortal body.
It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body (I Cor. 15:42-44).
It has to be that way because a mortal body could not exist in the new universe, could not stand in the explosive presence of God’s unveiled glory. It needs to be a perfect body to give expression to a perfect soul. This resurrection body will never change because it will be perfect.
It is raised in glory and will stand in the presence of glory, reflecting the glory of God
It is raised in power — raised by the power of God and possessing the power to move at the speed of thought, not subject to gravity, able to accomplish all that God gives us to do without becoming weary, perfectly adapted to a new creation.
We will be perfectly holy without any trace or memory of sin. We will be able to stand in the midst of the explosive, awesome power, beauty, majesty and glory of God and not be consumed.
Our eyesight, our hearing, all of our senses will be perfected insofar as a human senses can be perfected. We will see the dazzling radiance and beauty of God with penetrating perception. We will hear the previously unimagined depths and heights of music. We will smell the indescribable fragrance of the beauty of the Lord and His new creation. We will taste the perfection of heaven’s fruit. We will understand the deep things of God with an intellectual and spiritual capacity that far exceeds our present capacity.
Our bodies will be like Jesus’ resurrection body. We will not need to eat but can eat for the aesthetic pleasure of it. We will not need to drink but we can for the sheer loveliness of tasting heaven’s crystal streams. There will be no time limitations, no aging. Eternity will be one eternal moment sharing the life of God.
Paul says, Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly (I Cor. 15:49). And this is why we were redeemed, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29).
Conformed to the image of His Son. You will be you, I will be me and yet new — like Jesus.
Jesus said to the overcomers in the church at Pergamum (that’s the redeemed), I will give him … a new name … which no one knows but he who receives it (Rev. 2:17). This new name speaks of our unique journey with Christ and our conformity to His righteous character. We not only carry His name — Christian — but we will have become like Him. This new name reflects the perfection, the fulfillment of the person we were designed by God to be. You are the same you, I am the same me but perfected in Christ.
In Revelation 3:5, Jesus says, He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments —this represents purity — and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Jesus will tell the Father your story and your story has a name. You will always have a name. You will always be an individual person before God.
In Revelation 3:12. Jesus says, ‘He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.
The name of God will be written on us. The name of God represents all that God is and His name written on or in us is a way of saying we will be like Him. He leaves a mark upon our character, our identity — we are changed into the image of Jesus. He inscribes in us His holiness, His beauty, His strength and His wisdom. He leaves a mark upon our mind and memory; we are given holy desires that did not originate within ourselves. We are forgiven, renewed, transformed, given revelation of the heart and mind of God. He leaves a mark upon our spirit, our soul: the resurrection life of Jesus will be perfected in us, the perfection of eternal life which was promised becomes that which is present.
The name of God written on us also speaks of ownership — we are His, bought purchased with the blood of the holy Lamb.
The name of God written on us speaks of permanence — He bought us for Himself and marks us with Himself for all eternity.
I will write on him … My new name. Jesus writes in us His name, marries us to His name. Again, the name of God reflects the fulness of God’s being. Jesus will not only marry us to His name but inscribe in us the fulness of His being.
This new name is the story of the Bridegroom Messiah’s desire for the Bride. But notice, it is His new name. His name represents who He is but He has infinitely more of Himself to share with us. His new name represents the unfolding revelation of His essence which is not now known or seen but will be revealed in glory. As we bear His name now, so we shall bear this fuller expression of His name, His being, in eternity as we behold Him and are changed to be like Him.
And I will write on him … the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem. The mark of the New Jerusalem will be upon us. It is the gift of everlasting citizenship in the heavenly city and we will reflect the character of that city and the city wil reflect the character of the glorified saints, the Bride of Christ.
We will have a new robe. In Revelation 19:8, we read, It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
The Bride of Christ, the redeemed, will be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean. The word bright (lampros), means glistening, shining, radiant. The word clean (katharos) means pure. The Bride’s robe shines with the radiant purity of her Lord, of which Joseph’s coat of many colors was only a ragged promise.
The robe is the righteous acts of the saints. When we were redeemed, we were clothed in the righteousness of Christ which was imputed to us. Isaiah expresses this so beautifully, I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels (Isa. 61:10).
The gift of righteousness was imputed, given to us at salvation. As we walk with the Lord through the years of our journey on earth, we are progressively transformed in the likeness of our Lord. But in heaven, the transforming journey is complete, perfected, fulfilled.
The bridal robe reflects the righteous acts of the saints — it reflects our journey of discipleship. So each robe will be somewhat different, its embroidery expressing the particular service of each follower of Christ. Just as you are a unique expression of God’s design, so will your robe express this.
New name, new robe. You will be you and I will be me but new, perfected in the resurrection likeness of Jesus physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. Not only justified but also glorified.
John reminds us, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (I Jn. 3:2).
Study Questions:
1. What does it mean that in heaven we will be conformed to the image of Jesus?
2. What does it mean that God will inscribe His name in us?