Future Christlikeness Right Now

“And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”—1 Corinthians 15:45 (NKJV)

As I write this, I’m a little under the weather. My little girl brought home a bug from school, and it has been incubating and multiplying in our home, inflicting us with scratchy throats and sneezing noses.

So much of our time, energy, and resources go toward maintaining, feeding, clothing, housing, and pampering our bodies. These bodies decay. There’s no way around this fact—no matter how much we try to condition, exercise, or get nipped and tucked.

The Bible says that not only is man longing for the return of Christ and our redemption, but all of creation is waiting for this as well. When man fell, creation fell with him. Now, man is at odds with creation and it won’t be until everything is fully delivered that God’s original intention for true harmony will be restored. Every tree and plant that is so pleasing to the eye—if left on its own—will fall over to die, decay, and dissolve back into the earth.

As beautiful as creation is, it is subject to death.

There is a drastic contrast between “a living being” and “life-giving spirit.” The former rots. This is not news to any of us. The latter will never die. In resurrection, our bodies will be, in a sense, raised—animated by the Spirit of God. This is the kind of body Jesus has, and this is the kind of body we will one day have as His follower. When the spirit creates our new bodies, they will never wear out.
This is Christlikeness. If we follow Jesus now in a body that is subject to corruption and degeneration, we will follow Him in our soul’s restoration and have the same kind of heavenly body He has. That is the result of knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him. This is our future in the likeness of Christ.

What if we started living our futures now? And what if we decided to scale back the time, energy, and resources that go toward pampering and improving the “self” that’s dying, and repurposed those resources toward the healing and redemption of the people we interact with in our world every day? For us, the future is now. There’s nothing like the present to be Christ-like.