Our union with Christ makes us partakers of His death, first, so that our guilt is gone and second, that our former life in bondage to sin is gone replaced by our new life of fellowship with Him that began at our new birth. We are also resurrected with Christ. That means that we have been effectively delivered from slavery to sin unto a new life in the Spirit. This new life progressively conforms us unto Christ’s character. As this process moves forward we will become more and more of the same mind and heart, attitude and outlook as our Lord. By His Spirit, our Lord is not merely with us, but also in us.
12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, 13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. 14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (NASB)
The Holy Spirit and Christ actually indwell each genuine believer. They work within their hearts to transform them into Christ’s likeness. What is involved in this? Christ and His Spirit empower Christians to put to death sinful habits replacing them with Christlike behavior patterns that Paul described as the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-26) None of us are capable of walking perfectly this way…not in this fleshly body, but godly patterns of behavior will become more and more predominant flowing from our maturing character.
