Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself” (Phil. 3:20 R.V.).  “For ye know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:  if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened:  not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.  Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, Who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.  Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:  (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Cor. 5:1-8).

Again, as to the believer’s position in that which is termed in Ephesians “the heavenly places,”—­though the supplying of the word “places” is very misleading.  The meaning of the word “heavenly” here is not so much of locality as of experience:  as is indicated by the use of the same word in other passages where the believer is said to be “heavenly” in standing and relationship (Heb. 3:1; Eph. 2:6.  See also Matt. 18:35; Jno. 3:12; I Cor. 15:48).

Dr. C. I. Scofield makes the following statement on this important phase of the believer’s position: 

“The Christian is ‘heavenly’ by calling (Heb. 3:1), by citizenship (Phil. 3:20), by inheritance (I Pet. 1:4) and by resurrection life (Eph. 2:6), as a member of that body of which the Head is actually in heaven.  The heavenly (or ‘in heavenly places,’) therefore, is the sphere of the believer’s present association with Christ.  This is shown by the constant context, ‘in Christ Jesus.’  The believer is now associated with Christ in life (Col. 3:4; I Jno. 5:11, 12), position (Eph. 2:6), suffering (Rom. 8:18; II Tim. 2:11, 12; Col. 1:24; Phil. 1:29); service, (Jno. 17:18; Matt. 28:18-20), and betrothal (II Cor. 11:1-3).

“The believer is to be associated with Christ in Glory (Jno. 17:22; Rom. 8:18; Col. 3:4), inheritance (Rom. 8:17), authority (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 3:21), and marriage (Eph. 5:22, 33; Rev. 19:1-9).

“The believer’s ‘spiritual blessings’ (Eph. 1:3), therefore, are to be possessed or experienced only as he lives in the sphere of his joint life, joint position, joint suffering, joint service and joint marriage pledge with Christ.  In so far as he lives as a natural man whose interests are earthly, and avoids the path of co-service and (if need be) co-suffering, he will know nothing experimentally of the exalted blessings of Ephesians.  ’It is sufficient that the servant be as his Master.’  Christ took account of Himself as a heavenly Being come down to earth to do His Father’s will.” (Scofield Bible Correspondence Course, Book 2; page 288.)