Paul styles Jesus, "made Lord and Christ," "the last Adam;" and says, that as the saints have born the image of the first Adam, so also shall they bear the image of the last--1st Corinthians 15:45-49. They shall be in nature like what he is now. But, in a moral sense they are required to be now like to what he was while on earth "learning obedience by the things which he suffered." This tuition developed the moral image of Deity, as the creative energy of the Spirit did the material image after his resurrection. It is divinely predestined, therefore, (and the predestination is a necessity that cannot be dispensed with) that all who shall inherit salvation in the kingdom of the Deity shall be "conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the Firstborn (or Chief) among many brethren." Paul says to the Colossians, "ye have put off the Old Man," or moral image of the First Adam, "with his deeds; and have put on the New Man," or last Adam, "who is renewed by knowledge after the image of him that created him" -- Colossians 3:9-10. This they had done. They were in the last Adam, and conformed to his moral image, in hope of being conformed to his material image at the coming of their Chief.
(Dr. John Thomas, Eureka, Logos ed., Volume 2, page 158-159)