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Thus Paul could say, in Romans 13:11, "now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." What? Did not our salvation come when we believed? In a very real sense it did. Our souls were saved from sin's penalty, eternal death. But our bodies are still subject to the penalty of death. Yet we shall be saved even with respect to our bodies. "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body" (Phil. 3:20, 21).

While that bodily transformation is, then, to be accomplished at His coming, the changing of our vile character to be like his glorious character ought to be taking place now. Indeed, this is God's whole purpose in the disciplines of everyday life.

We love to quote Romans 8:28: "All things work together for good to them that love God." But in what sense is the verse true? All things do not always work together for our financial good; many godly people never have much more than bare essentials. All things do not work together for our physical well-being, our social prominence, or our vocational success. Many who do not love God have a greater share of all these things than those who do.

But in a deeper sense all things do indeed work together for good to them that love God, "to them who are the called according to his purpose … [which is] to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom. 8:28, 29). Everything God permits to enter the life of the believer he intends to contribute to this greatest good: to make us Christlike. Our financial reverses, our bodily infirmities, our personal and interpersonal problems, our trials, our blessings—all can help make us like him. As by faith we dedicate ourselves to him in all the circumstances of our lives, we are transformed here and now.

This is where God places his great emphasis. How often we miss it! How often we hear Christians claiming (no, mis-claiming) Ephesians 3:20: "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Almost always, those who quote the verse have in mind that God should do some great thing for them—bring about a wonderful solution to their problems, or pour out unimaginable blessing on their efforts. But the verse offers something much better. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." We want the power to work for us; God wants it to work in us.

The context bears out this glorious fact. God can do so much more in us than we realize! He can make us so much better persons than we are or can even hope to be. Even dwarfed, twisted personalities can actually be "filled with all the fullness of God" (v. 19), and unbelievably changed. This is many times better and more glorious than merely having God do something for us.

The glories of heaven, what will they be? "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). The man who uttered those words knew great suffering. He had been stoned, beaten, ship wrecked, maligned, and imprisoned, and had suffered hunger and cold. Yet these sufferings were not merely small compared to the glory awaiting him—they were also so small as to be unworthy even to be compared with that glory. But again, it is not so much a glory that shall be revealed to us as a glory that shall be revealed in us.

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June (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47