All transfiguration is transformation, but not all transformation is transfiguration. These are different words in the Greek, yet close in meaning. Our Lord was transformed (metamorpho in the Greek; Matthew 17:2), yet Paul says that we will be transfigured (metachematizo; Philippians 3:21).
Surprisingly, a transfiguration is more radical than a transformation. Something that is transformed need not become sublimely different, yet transfiguration requires a change in the very nature of a thing. At least, this is the way I understand it at this time. Our Lord did not become something different, but was rather suddenly displayed as He truly was.
We, on the other hand, become something different.
If I say we are transformed, it is true—all transfigurations are transformations. Yet Paul says specifically that we are transfigured. I do not want anyone to think that I am not appreciating the difference between these two words. Our Lord was transformed and thus did not require as radical a
change as we.
The great revelation of this presentation is that, at the time of the Lord’s return in the air for His body, the dead and the living are changed in different ways. The dead are roused; the living are not. The dead are ROUSED with changed bodies. Our LIVING bodies must be changed.
Speaking of change, if anyone here has thought that living members of the body of Christ must necessarily die before becoming immortal, you have a pleasant change of thought coming.
