All these Scriptures reveal how the Lord will deal with the believers at His coming back. The way will be by judgment, by rapture, and by choosing.
The rapture of the believers is likened to harvesting of wheat. According to this picture, the rapture is not something which can be accomplished all at one time. In ancient times the harvest of the wheat was done in three stages: the firstfruits were gathered, the general harvest was gathered, and then the gleanings were gathered. According to this illustration, we can also see that the rapture is not something which will occur as an accident. Rather, it comes as the result of the maturity of life. If we are not mature in the Lord Jesus, surely we will not be reaped. As the Lord's crop of wheat on the earth, we need to be ripe, to be mature. Why has the Lord delayed His coming for such a long time? It is because of the lack of adequate maturity among His saints. Our progress and maturity determines the speed of His coming. If we mature faster, surely His coming will be sooner. In a sense, we are not waiting for His coming; rather, He is waiting for us to be fully matured. We need the maturity of life.
How can we be transferred from the reality of the kingdom into the manifestation of the kingdom? It is only by the growth of life and maturity of life. To use our illustration once more, the crop can be transferred into the barn only by growing and becoming ripe. Once the crop is ripe, it will be transferred into the barn. We all need the maturity. The proper maturity will issue in the transfer.
At the time of the transfer, there will also be the need of a kind of work by the Lord. Philippians 3:20-21 tells us that at His coming back He will transfigure our body, "conforming it to the body of His glory." We have been regenerated in our spirit, and we are under the process of transformation in our soul. When the transformation has been completed, we will have the maturity of life. This means that we will be ready to be reaped by the Lord Jesus, and He will come to change our body. This is the point which must be worked out by the Lord. Suppose that you are a mature saint, regenerated in your spirit and transformed in your soul. You have been fully saturated and possessed by the Lord Jesus. What more do you need? You need to have your body transfigured.
We may use the Apostle Paul for an example. As a saint who died in the Lord, he is sleeping until the time of his resurrection. While he was living on the earth his spirit was fully occupied by the Lord, and his soul was fully saturated and occupied by the Lord. But today he is under the earth waiting for the transfiguration of his body. His body is still something old, something of the old creation. Although his spirit was regenerated and his soul was transformed, his dead body remains in the old creation. When the Lord Jesus comes back, He will change the bodies of both the living saints and dead saints. Both the living ones and dead ones will be transfigured. The Lord will do a work of transfiguration upon our bodies.