Romans 8:28-29 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinateto be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

God's purpose for our lives is that we become like Jesus. We could never do that on our own, so God is working everything in the universe to bring about that good result--His Good Purpose! In fact, we can't even help. We can only receive it. What we are receiving is a restoration of our relationship with God through the blood of Christ on the cross--which is God's gift to us. As we abide in the presence of God, we are changed from glory to glory.

When God talks about us being conformed to the image of His Son,

• God is not talking about us trying to copy Jesus.
• God is not talking about us being sort of a carbon copy of Jesus, like counterfeit money.
• God is not talking about us becoming little gods in our own right.

God is talking about being conformed. To be conformed is to be molded like clay is molded. He is talking about a transformation that takes place because we have yielded to the Spirit of God and we have died to self. Our self-life, that soul-life will be gone because we will have totally laid down our lives and taken up our cross and followed Him. Our cross is the ministry within us. The ministry grows out of gifts of the Spirit. Our ministry is Christ in us the hope of glory.

That Christ Who is born within you cannot sin. (1 Jn. 3:4-11) It would be impossible for Him to sin, just as it would be impossible for your soul-life to avoid sinning.

We have the choice. We can re-crucifying Jesus once again by failure to seek Him with all our might and failure to let Him have control. On the other hand, we can die to self and live to Christ. If we live to Christ, the glory that will be revealed in us will exceed what we can imagine.

All of this is so that the Holy Temple, the church, can be built according to the pattern using living stones. Jesus Christ Himself is the chief corner stone. The apostles and prophets are built on Jesus Christ and they have the responsibilty of receiving the doctrine for the Church. In other words, they have the responsibility of interpretation of the Scriptures and keeping the Church in unity. Yes, there are false prophets and false apostles, but that does not make the real any less real. And each Christian has the capacity and responsibility to discern between the true apostles and false apostles. This Body of Christ, this holy Temple, is the means by which God is going to conform you to the Image of His Son. When this Body of Christ is complete, then glory of God will fill the temple and no man will be able to minister in the Temple. Solomon's temple was only a poor copy of what God actually intends to do. At that time, the prayer of Jesus will be answered. As the Father is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Father, so They will be in you and you will be in Them. We may not be able to grasp what this will be like because our minds are so limited, but it will be indeed glorious beyond what we could now dream or imagine.