The Apostle looks up to heaven and sees Christ in the glory, and realizes that believers are going to be conformed to the image of His Son in glory. It is possible to walk as He walked and, in this sense to be morally like Christ even now, but to be conformed to His image, we must wait for the coming glory. We are still in these bodies of humiliation, subject to sickness and want, and exposed to dangers and death.
How then are we to be delivered from these bodies of humiliation? We look at Christ in heaven and we see we are going to be like Him: our conversation – the home of our affections – is in heaven, and to heaven we look for the change of these bodies. "From which also," writes the Apostle, "we await the Lord Jesus Christ [as] Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to His body of glory" (JND).
Once, He came as Saviour to deliver us from our sins and judgment, by His death on the cross. A second time He is coming as Saviour to deliver us from these bodies of humiliation.
One thing remains to effect this great change – the coming of Christ. Christ is our hope, and at His coming, what we have looked forward to in hope, will be accomplished in glory. In the twinkling of an eye we shall be like Christ and with Christ.
One moment here, the next with Thee in bliss,
Oh, what a glorious prospect, Lord is this!
Changed in a moment, from the flesh set free,
Caught up together with Thyself to be