The transfiguration of our body will take place at Christ’s appearing from the heavens (Phil. 3:20). At the time of the Lord’s coming back, He will transfigure our body of humiliation. Hence, we are waiting for Christ to come back so that we may be brought into the ultimate consummation of God’s salvation—the transfiguration of our body.
For the believers to be redeemed in their body is also to have death in their entire being swallowed up by the resurrection life unto victory. First Corinthians 15:54 says, “When this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality, then the word which is written will come to pass, ‘Death has been swallowed up unto victory.’” Death means defeat to man. Through Christ’s salvation in the resurrection life, death will be swallowed up unto victory to us, the beneficiaries of Christ’s resurrection life. Hence, the time is coming when the last enemy, death, will not only be destroyed but also swallowed up by resurrection life.
When our corrupted and mortal body is resurrected, that is, transfigured from corruption and death into glory and life, then death will be swallowed up unto victory. This is the consummation of the resurrection that we partake of in God’s New Testimony economy through the redemption and salvation we enjoy in Christ. This resurrection begins with the enlivening of our dead spirit and is completed with the transfiguration of our corruptible body. In between is the process of the metabolic transformation of our fallen soul by Christ as the life-giving Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), who is the reality of resurrection. Resurrection is the victory of life over death.
When death in our entire being is swallowed up by Christ’s resurrection life, “this corruptible will put on incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:54). Life is the divine element, even God Himself, imparted into our spirit; incorruption is the consequence of life saturating our body (Rom. 8:11). At present, we have a corruptible body. But when, by being saturated with life, our body is transfigured at the time of the Lord’s coming, our body will become incorruptible. In this way, the corruptible will put on incorruption.
Furthermore, when the death in our entire being is swallowed up by the resurrection life, “this mortal will put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:54). In 2 Corinthians 5:4 Paul says, “We who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened, in that we do not desire to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” “What is mortal” denotes our mortal body (4:11; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:53). To be burdened means to be weighed down, depressed, oppressed. Our fallen, mortal body is a great burden to us. Under such a great burden, the apostle groaned in his desire not to be unclothed, disembodied, or found naked, that is, not to die, but to be clothed upon, to put on a transfigured body. Like Paul, although we groan under the great burden of our body, our desire is not to be disembodied, not to die, but to be clothed with a spiritual body, to be transfigured. When we are transfigured and clothed with the heavenly, spiritual, and resurrected body, then what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.
In the completing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of glorification, the believers will experience the redemption of their body. To be redeemed in our body is to be glorified. As long as we have not been glorified, we have not been redeemed in our body. Therefore, we will be glorified and redeemed in our body simultaneously. God’s complete and perfect salvation is to make our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—organically one with Christ and to make Christ everything to us.
When the believers are redeemed in their body, they will enjoy the full divine sonship. We have sonship in our spirit through regeneration, and we may also have sonship in our soul through transformation. We will obtain the full sonship when our body is transfigured to be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory. The redemption of our body is the redeeming of God’s acquired possession. Through Christ’s redemption, God has acquired, secured, purchased us to be His possession. Therefore, the redemption of our body, that is, the transfiguration of our body of humiliation into a glorious one, is for God’s acquired possession to be redeemed. This is the issue of the sealing of the Holy Spirit. At the time of our salvation we were sealed. However, even until now we are still being sealed unto the day of redemption. The redemption of our body will be to the praise of God’s glory. One day we will become a corporate body to express God, and the entire universe will praise His glory.
The redemption of our body is also to have our body of humiliation transfigured and conformed to the body of Christ’s glory so that we will be the same as Christ in all three parts of our being. This is the ultimate consummation of God’s salvation. When the Lord comes back, His transfiguring the body of our humiliation, conforming it to the body of His glory, will be according to His operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself. Therefore, we are waiting for Christ to come back so that we may be brought into the ultimate consummation of God’s salvation—the transfiguration of our body.
For the believers to be redeemed in their body is also to have death in their entire being swallowed up by the resurrection life unto victory. The time is coming when the last enemy, death, will not only be destroyed but also swallowed up by resurrection life. When death in our entire being is swallowed up by Christ’s resurrection life, the corruptible will put on incorruption, and the mortal will put on immortality.