God's Program of Transformation

The new creation is yet to come (2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1; Isa 65:17ff), but it has also already come. God’s program of transformation is not entirely future. Those whom the Spirit has called, regenerated, and united to Christ experience the new man in the present time (Heb 12:22). They have been made alive together with him and seated in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 2:6). They rise to walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4). Having died to sin, they have been and are being renewed (2 Cor 4:16; Eph 4:23; Col 3:10). In a very real sense, believers already share in the glory of Christ and the hope of the glory to come, namely that which is inextricably linked with Christ’s return and the transformation, which ensues as a necessary entailment of that event. Still, the new man awaits a consummation. Believers do not yet outwardly manifest the glory they one day will manifest when they see their Savior face to face. For at that time they will be changed, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:51-52).

 

Camden Bucey, The Triune Gift of Self a Reformed Critique of Karl Rahner's Theology of Divine Self-communication. 2013. Westminster Theological Seminary. PhD dissertation. 193