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Becoming Conformed to His Image

     It behooved God that His People should fulfil the image of their Saviour in obtaining their complete salvation.¹ What He began for them at the cross, He has ordained them to  share in completing through apprenticeship with Him in every detail.² As He initiated their salvation by dying for them, so are they to share in the completion of their salvation by dying with Him.³ As He first overcame, so have they been assigned to overcome; so that as He is destined to rule, they might rule with Him.⁴ God's ultimate desire has never been to rule over, but to rule with His People. His ultimate desire has been companionship.⁵

     It was for this purpose of developing a ruling companion for the Son that the babylonian quest was ever allowed to emerge on earth. In the beginning of our study, it looked like God called-out a People for the sake of destroying the rebellion under Nimrod. But at the end we see that He allowed the rebellion to emerge for the sake of calling-out to Himself a People. He allowed it to emerge so that out of it He might initially redeem a People who could then be made equal to ruling with Him by their overcoming of it.

     The purpose of the final struggle between the Church and the world system in the coming tribulation is to put His People "over the top" in completing their development into worthy ruling companionship. Jesus did not do all the dying. He left an unfinished portion of His sufferings to be completed by His People for their own complete redemption and for extending that redemption to still others.⁶ The culmination of their allotted sufferings will take place in the tribulation:

·        As He died for them outside the camp of babylonian Judaism, so has He ordained them to die outside the camp of world babylonianism.⁷

·        As He was made perfect through His sufferings, so are they to be made perfect in one body through their sufferings in the tribulation.⁸

·        As He was dead for three days and then rose with a new body at the beginning of the age, so must the Church die three years and rise with a new body at the end of the age.⁹

     All of this has been ordained so that by Tribulation's end, Jesus will have a body equal to the task of sharing with Him in the administration of the earth in the coming age. Contrary therefore to popular western thought based in false kingdom teaching, the Lord will not up-and-whisk His babylonian-drunk Church into the clouds before the Tribulation. (This is not to say He won't take certain of those who, like Enoch, are ready before the great judgment. ¹⁰) Neither will He come after the Church has somehow "perfected" corrupt babylonian society by "permeating" it. Neither of these teachings allows God to complete the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in His People so they can be made ready to share His throne.

     Is there such a thing as a king who rules without a well-trained network of administration that shares his mind? Even so Jesus has ordained to have a People who are thoroughly developed in the three-fold salvation of His kingdom. Through the last great Tribulation, His People will enter and complete the third degree of their salvation, completing their conformity to His image. Thus they will be able to share in the administration of earth with Him at His return.

     Right now the Church world-wide is anticipating the imminent return of Jesus Christ to assume His earthly throne. The signs of the times bear witness.¹¹ Moreover, in many quarters of the Church is circulating the prophetic promise of a mighty earth-shaking revival of God's People before He comes. But be not deceived by the mixture of false kingdom teaching which interprets that prophecy in terms of revival of the American Dream.  No. The coming revival is none other than the Church's salvation by grace from the works of all babylonian society—east and west. This is the true revival unto rulership. The only remaining question is -