Category Archives: Jesus in Life

Grace, Jesus in Life, Law of God, The Final Judgment, Uncategorized, Your Identity in Christ

Good works do not result in salvation

Our good works do not result in salvation, nor do bad works result in being lost.

If good works do not result in our salvation, are they important? Moreover, if our bad actions do not cause us to be lost, then are evil deeds a non-issue? The key phrase “result in” means that the outcome of our works, do not determine our status with the Lord. However, behaviour, good or bad, can indicate our sincerity or a distancing in our relationship with Him.

It is not about the importance of or the purpose of our good deeds. It is about the method of salvation of which our good deeds are not the cause. They are the result.

What causes us to experience the joy of salvation if not our good deeds? Romans 3:20 states: “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” Jesus alone saves us, and we are kept and accounted righteous by the faith expressed in our accepting Him and further abiding in a relationship with Him via the Holy Spirit. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). Our focal attention must not be on our goodness or our misdeeds.To seek for or experience salvation, we are to focus on Jesus. By beholding Him, we will become changed into His image and our joy shall be suffonsified.

Every time we look at ourselves or our agenda alone, we will be unsuccessful. It is easy to be discouraged when we see our sinfulness and give up, or be proud of our excellent works and become proud. It is a dead-end street, either way, these delusions work to our misery. Only look to Jesus and know that you are secure. The bad thief on the cross looked to Jesus and said “Lord remember me in your coming kingdom” recognising Jesus as the Messiah. How did Jesus reply? “Today I tell you—you will be with me in paradise!”

Paul was radical about the subject of salvation by faith in Christ alone. He was not against good works – after all, he was one of the best-behaved persons in town. Writing Philippians 3, he disabuses his readers with some balancing humour: “If anybody has reason to boast of good works, I have matched or exceeded his record!” Summing it up, he counted his past life as loss – in fact, he viewed his behavioural perfectionism as crap — when compared to the glorious, merciful, faultless righteousness of Christ. Judged by the letter of the law as a good man, with an exemplary moral outward life, he had abstained from recognisable sin. Paul, reviewing his life, now honest, saw himself as God saw him — a man trying hard to be justified by works. He came to his senses and confessed that his need alone was Christ.

Our salvation finds union and security in our acceptance of Jesus — of His sacrifice for us – and our ongoing relationship with Him. It is not dependent on behaviour — salvation is much more than behaviour. Good works are not bargaining chips for eternal life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life”. Actions alone do not determine one’s eternal destiny — whereas our open-hearted, unashamed and honest relationship with Jesus as your Saviour does.

Good deeds will show up in your life, but they will never cause your salvation. God does not judge by the outward actions, but by the heart from which flow all the issues of life (see 1 Samuel 16:7; Proverbs 4:23).

Forgiveness Frees Us To Love, Jesus in Life, Uncategorized

Christ is our High Priest of the New Covenant

The Jews had revelations given to them from God through the old prophets including Moses during the Exodus from Egypt. Many years later Jesus Christ came to earth through His incarnation teaching a new and expanded message of salvation.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV)

A new perspective on our relationship with God

Indicating the relationship of Jesus to the heavenly Father, we note from the above verse:

1. God now spoke to His people directly by his Son.
2. God appointed Jesus Christ heir of all things.
3. God created the world, including His people through Christ “whom also he created the world” (vs. 2).
4. Christ “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature”—I want to emphasize exact imprint of the mind, character, power and being of His Father.
5. Christ “upholds the universe by the word of his power”—sustains the entire universe by the command of his power.

Christ’s all-encompassing, and all-commanding power was and remains the same because he is God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christ’s participation in the godhead was validated by His miracles to heal, raise the dead and calm the seas. He is far greater than the prophets of old.

Jehovah Witnesses and Muslims claim Jesus was only a prophet and a man, not conceding to the fact that he is God. The portrayal of Christ in Hebrews adds to the facts regarding the deity of Christ and compares with the letter of Paul to the Colossians:

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven”. (Colossians 1:15-20 NIV)

We also see this in the Gospel of John, the first chapter:

“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made”. (John 1: 2-3 ESV)

When we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is God we can understand why Jesus has the authority to be our mediator on earth, between mankind and His Father, demonstrated when he created all mankind by directing His power over the universe.

The High Priestly Ministry of Christ

Since the fall of man in the garden of Eden, “death has passed unto all men” because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) Man is disconnected from God and needed our Lord Jesus Christ to show us the way to return to Him.

The entire work of Christ is to mediate our reunification to his Father. He achieves this as our High Priest, seated in the place of highest honour in heaven, at God’s right hand. God gave Jesus the seat of universal authority when He said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (vs.13)

This place at God’s right hand belonged to Christ because he was more than just a high priest; he is God’s Son. Until Christ the Jewish priestly ministry advocated with God on behalf sinful man—it was only a representation or shadow of what was to come in Christ. Until Christ arrived on the scene it was only to “serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (vs. 8:5). Christ’s ministry is the reality which the shadow-type pointed to.

The ceremonies of sacrificing animals to atone for man’s sin was only a dim illustration of what was coming—only theological symbols of the final great significance of Christ’s work to redeem man as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” as the apostle John pointed out.

Christ, as our High Priest, in lieu of the animal-type offering, made the real and effective sin-offering. He offered his own life to God in our place—the perfect gift that could never be surpassed. “He sacrificed Himself on the cross” (Hebrews 7:27 ESV).

Christ’s sacrifice is all-sufficient; that is, all sins are covered in his once-for-all offering to God. Therefore, his role as priest, his sacrifice, and his service to God all surpass the symbolic plan under the old covenant. The book of Hebrews does not try to describe heaven; instead, it shows how Christ serves in a better, more personal way than any other priest could.

The emphasis on the shadow ministry of the old covenant Jewish practices in the temple are clearly noted as being replaced entirely by the ministry of Christ as our High Priest: “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (vss. 8:6-7)

Jesus’ ministry emphasized a shift from an old covenant methodology of getting right with God using tradition and symbolism, to an entirely new new covenant (agreement with God) which is superior for several reasons.

What the New Covenant (NC) achieved to supersede the old:

• fulfills, ends, and replaces the priest’s’ ministry and the old covenant;
• Christ’s ministry lasts for eternity, because Jesus is High Priest forever;
• Jesus dies on the cross, and thus the NC requires no further sacrifices;
• Jesus accomplished what all the other sacrifices could not do—it truly atones for our sin;
• The death of Christ provided a substitute death taking the place for our eternal death, ransomed humanity giving us the opportunity to have a personal relationship with God (see vss. 8:10–11).

The old covenant was an imperfect shadow in the progression leading to the reality found in Christ: “if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (vs. 8:7) The need for a second covenant implies that the first covenant was faulty. Does this mean that God ordered Moses and Aaron (head of the Levitical High Priesthood) to begin a way of worship that was mistaken or poorly contracted? No, but the old covenant was in every way preparatory for and pointing to the dynamic of the new covenant (see 7:11–19; also Romans 3–4; 9–11).

The new covenant was prophesied long before Christ’s introduction of the New Covenant as coming to replace the old covenant. The following is a quote from the prophet Jeremiah:

“For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt” (Hebrews 8:8-9 ESV; cited from Jeremiah 31:31)

Since the people continually broke God’s covenant, God found fault with the old covenant. A part of the covenant involved keeping God’s laws; however, the Israelites chose to disobey (see Jeremiah 7:23–24). When they failed to keep the requirements imposed on them, they broke the covenant. God, however, promised a new covenant that would not be filled with ceremonial laws about sacrifices and other external responsibilities. Rather, it would bring about spiritual reconciliation by producing a change in people’s inner beings by being born again of God’s Holy Spirit.

The old covenant was replaced because it was not eternal, not sufficient to completely deal with sin, and could not provide sinful humanity with a relationship with God. In its time, however, the old covenant was necessary which would lead us to Christ—teaching man that he cannot be saved by trying to be good, but by allowing the Spirit of Christ to dwell within the heart.

Why the new covenant replaced the new covenant?

The old covenant needed to be replaced by a better covenant, as was prophesied by Jeremiah and quoted in the following verses. Hebrews 8:10–12 quotes Jeremiah 31:31–34, which is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Jeremiah prophesied about a future time when a better covenant would be established, because the first covenant, given to Moses at Mount Sinai, was imperfect and provisional for its time.

The Israelites could not maintain faithfulness to it because their hearts had not been truly changed. This change of heart required Jesus’ full sacrifice to remove sin and offer us the Holy Spirit’s permanent indwelling. When we turn our lives over to Christ, the Holy Spirit instils in us a desire to obey God in a personal relationship with him, and this is accomplished under the new covenant/agreement. Jeremiah prophesied of the coming change in the covenants—the new to replace the old.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbour and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more”. (Hebrews 8:10-12 ESV; cited from Jeremiah 31:32-34)

The new covenant made the old covenant entirely obsolete.

When Christ died on the cross the curtain between the Most Holy places was ripped in two during an earthquake indicating the end of the old temple’s sacrificial services: “…behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split” (Matthew 27:51 ESV)

“In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13 ESV) The old one was fulfilled by Christ and completed by him; therefore, it was no longer needed. Old systems, old sacrifices, and the old priesthood now have no value in securing God’s approval.

Under God’s new covenant, God’s law is inside us. The 10 commandment laws are expanded by Christ in the new covenant. The Spirit of the expanded law encompasses and admits that all these ten moral laws were “holy just and good” (Romans 7: 12 KJV) The sacrificial ceremonial laws were changed, not the moral law of God which is His standard. Most great theologians such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Owens, and John Wesley have agreed with this theological premise.

For example, most agree, that Christ’ teaching that “to look at a woman to lust for her”, is the initiating intention to break the law “do not commit adultery” in your heart, which is where the new covenant is directed by the Spirit.

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It is no longer an external set of rules and principles. The Holy Spirit reminds us of Christ’s words, activates our consciences, influences our motives and desires, and makes us want to obey. Now we desire to do God’s will with all our heart and mind.

The new covenant has four provisions as noted in Hebrews 8: 10-12:

1. The new covenant provides inward change: “I will put my laws in their minds … I will write them on their hearts.” This means having a new “heart,” and with it a new sense of intimacy with God where he is known as Father and where Christians are known as children of God and heirs. This new heart opens the way for people’s relationship with God to be realized at a personal level (not just through earthly priests as intermediaries). Having these laws written on our hearts motivates us to want to obey God.

2. The new covenant provides intimacy with God: “I will be their God, and they will be my people.” This reveals a positive, close relationship between God and his people. In the first covenant, people continually failed to live up to this relationship. In the new covenant, this relationship is secured through Jesus Christ. Although the promise was always there, it now has a newer and richer meaning because of the provision of Christ offering us forgiveness and redemption from sin and the hope of eternal life (versus eternal death).

3. The new covenant provides knowledge of God: “Everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me.” The new covenant brings a new relationship between people and God, making each believer a priest (1 Peter 2:5, 9). Every believer has access to God through prayer. Every believer can understand God’s saving promises as revealed in the Bible because he or she has God as a living presence via the Holy Spirit in his or her heart. There will still be the need for teachers, but every believer will be able to know God—not just priests or a select few.

4. The new covenant provides complete forgiveness from sins: “I will forgive their wrongdoings, and I will never again remember their sins.” People of the old covenant had forgiveness of sins (see Exodus 34:6–8; Micah 7:18–20), but they had experienced an incomplete, not lasting forgiveness as demonstrated by the ongoing need for daily and annual sacrifices for sins to be made for their sins. In the new covenant, sin and its effect of separating people from God are eliminated. God wipes out the memory of sin and reckons sin as if it had never occurred. Sin’s impact on our lives is completely overcome, making it possible for believers to receive the promised blessing. There is no longer any barrier to our relationship with God.

Only relationship-based motives of faith and love towards God through Jesus Christ brings about a true righteousness that could not be known under the old covenant. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NIV)

Understanding the shift from the old to the new covenant is a vital truth misunderstood by many well-meaning Christians. It emphasizes a shift from salvation by works, to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ provided by His sacrifice for our sins, replacing the old shadow animal sacrifices, symbolic of the true and sufficient sacrifice “once and for all” achieved in Christ. He ministers to us via the Holy Spirit with an emphasis on living by faith.

Be assured beloved that “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever” (Hebrews 6:19-20 ESV)

Holy Spirit, Jesus in Life, Sanctification: Living a Holy Life

Sanctification message of the New Covenant

glen001-sm By Glen R. Jackman

“To those who are elect…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” (2 Peter 1:1-2)

What do the theological terms justification and sanctification mean? Justification means our declared righteousness before God, made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection for us. Sanctification means our gradual, growing in righteousness, made possible by the Spirit’s work in us. The Apostle Paul taught that our righteousness continues as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He leads us in life:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit”. (Romans 8: 1-4 ESV)

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Clearly continued walking with Christ led daily in the Spirit is the only way to be distinctly separated from and saved from the corruptions of the world and the flesh and enter into the process of becoming holy, recognizing that we have inherited eternal life, demonstrated firstly in our lifestyle here and now:

“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ”. (Romans 8: 6-9 NIV)

The either/or choice is clear We need to allow Grace  to reign in our life, not sin. Paul has formed a clear message: “just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. (Romans 5:21) John impresses us with the importance of knowing the source of Life personally. Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. (John 14:6) Salvation is only experienced in our lives while we remain in Christ and live our life through Him led by the Holy Spirt in a born again experience.

In the parable of the vine, Jesus makes this clear as He teaches the dependency of union to our life link just as the vine is necessary for the life of the branches: “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NAS) A Christian life is unrealistic if not submitted entirely to the Holy Spirit’s leading.

God has numerous legal and judicial terms regarding the potential of falling into apostasy and into judicial scrutiny in the New Testament as taught by the Apostles. He has revealed throughout the entire Word, that He sees everything that resides in our heart. He often calls us in scripture to listen, repent, return to Himself, be born again, and submit to the Holy Spirit and be reformed unto personal spiritual obedience in godliness (some call it victory over temptation with the Holy Spirit of Christ leading in our lives). We see this with regard to Christ’s call to the Laodecian Church in the Book of Revelation to which many Christians can identify:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. (Revelation 3: 15-22)

Many scriptures advocate the necessity of forming a disciplined approach to responsible sanctification only achievable by the indwelling Holy Spirit. We are cautioned of the need to be one with God while one with Christ (read John 17).

I believe the entire Word is sufficient to lead us to eternity via the Spirit actualizing the Word in our submitted obedient lives. This is the sanctification teaching of Christ in the New Covenant.

If we walk in the Light we are safe and we can enjoy Peace and Life now even in this world: “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 ESV)

Holiness is a lifelong journey of letting God lead instead of Satan

Aiming at holiness and living a sanctified life is a process that we are to persevere towards as Paul notes: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3: 12-14)

 

 

Jesus in Life, Uncategorized

Living with Christ as Your Example

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…it is written, “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16

glen001-sm Article by Glen R. Jackman

As a Christian desiring to imitate the Lord’s manner of living among men on earth, we must  take note of His personal life and teachings as our mentor. His instruction is there for all of us in the Gospel. The New Testament’s availability was designed by God, in order that we may be influenced by His life and be conformed character-wise into the image of His Son.

By beholding His life, a desire to conduct one’s life similarly on earth touches our affections. This is the purpose of the Bible. To influence our hearts by Christ’s display of love for others, as He sought to reconcile man with His Father.  “And we all…beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV) From one degree of glory to another is the key takeaway. Growing in the Christian life is progressive, not immediate.

The Puritan theologian, John Owen whose writing I enjoy, was chaplain to Sir Oliver Cromwell and regarded as a practical scholar of the Word of God in his time. He stated that “Faith will cast the soul into the form or frame of the thing believed”. It is important, therefore, to understand what the Bible says, to help shape our  beliefs as we study the life of Christ.

With the Holy Spirit’s help, we form a belief that it is the will of God in these matters, that Christ be our example. “Faith comes by the hearing of the Word” (Romans 10:17). Some may discount this view. They may feel that aiming to be like Christ is an unreachable perfectionist desire and a recipe for failure. However we can choose to aim and we can grow towards this viewpoint: “Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy” (Rom 6:19 NLT)

As a grandfather I understand that if my granddaughter does not first play tee-ball, she may not learn to understand baseball in all its fullness nor enjoy the game with her peers as my daughters have over the years. Even tee-ball develops a certain discipline to pay attention to what matters, yet we are patient with our children just as Christ is with us.

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By reading the Gospels we can see the wonderful graces of Christ’s kindness to others while living as a man. We can also see His example in carrying out the duties of obedience to His Father as a man. The human nature of mankind was indwelt by Jesus, incarnated by Him, yet Christ had the divine image of God as it was implanted in it, via the Holy Spirit at His virgin birth.

He did not inherit the gross nature of sin as we do as sons of Adam. He did however inherit our weakened human nature as being the Son of man, within which nature Christ lived as a man on the earth as “God with us” via his birth as man, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Owen notes that He did not inherit all the gross propensities and long effects of sin as do each of us as children born into a lineage of a fallen race – fallen when Adam sinned and lost his privilege of living in the light of the presence of God in Eden.

For he derived not his nature from Adam in the same way that we do; nor was he ever in Adam as the public representative of our nature, as we were. But our nature in him had the image of God implanted in it, which was lost and separated from the same nature…

The apostle Paul bears out the fact that Jesus Christ was and is God who prior to the incarnation and after His ascension “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1: 15-17 NASV) John Owen adds that it was God’s intent to have us follow Christ’s example as a man on earth:

…the infinite wisdom of God had this farther design in it also,—namely, that he might be the pattern and example of the renovation of the image of God in us, and of the glory that doth ensue thereon. He is in the eye of God as the idea of what he intends in us, in the communication of grace and glory; and he ought to be so in ours, as unto all that we aim at in a way of duty.

We are predestined to be changed into Christ’s image in order to represent His character. We are predestined to be renovated to the state of what Adam lost in the garden of Eden: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified… ” (Romans 8:29-30 ESV).

Consider how important it is to raise your children up for Jesus Christ that they also will take the Gospel seriously. They will be faced with many temptations in the world as they grow up and are tempted by the popular culture. (A few pictures of my children are used in this article from my youthful days of ministry)

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The whole inheritance of Christ as sons of God is offered to us that we may be glorified by following His life and in Spirit-union with Him. Certainly we can only share the glory of Christ as we reflect His lifestyle to others on earth as the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so. The development of Christian character is a lifelong process during our lives on earth “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13 ESV).

Our personal growth in Christ will be carried out to the degree or the measure that we allow the Spirit of God to lead us into holy living, “for those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Romans 8:14 NIV). And it is clear that the ultimate standard of that measure is Christ Himself.

It is all about aiming to please Christ, aiming to reflect His goodness in our worship to God and in our relations with others. It is by beholding Him in scripture that we are changed into His likeness, as this was the Father’s good intention for us.

Knowing that Christ is our example, our standard of measure whom we seek to emulate, we will always know that in comparison to Him, we are sinners in need of divine grace, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:16, 12 ESV)

From one degree of glory to another is how we grow as Christians. The process is is progressive, not immediate.