"Until Christ is Formed in You"

(A slight detour today, as I prepare to teach our Wednesday night class)

In the book of Galatians, Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia to encourage them to continue in their spiritual growth. The churches had been deceived and were returning to keeping elements of the Law. Paul makes the comparison of being under the Law to being in slavery. He tells the churches that they have been freed through Christ and pleads with them not to throw away their freedom.

He calls them “foolish” for exchanging the freedom found in the gospel of Christ for the enslavement found in keeping the Law. He chastises them for “observing special days and months and seasons and years”. (4:10) He tells them that he fears for them and that he had wasted his efforts on them. Then he tells them that he is “again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in them”. (4:19)

The picture that Paul uses of a fetus developing inside of the womb is a great picture of our spiritual maturity in Christ. As the fetus grows, its body takes shape, the organs develop and at the right time, the child fully formed and is mature enough to live outside the womb. When we become Christians, Christ begins to develop within us as His disciples. We begin to take His shape. We grow into His image. At least that is the plan. God intends for us to look like Jesus, act like Jesus and be Jesus to those around us. We are even called the “body of Christ”.

Paul is teaching, caring and loving these people to bring them to maturity in Christ. They were on the right track, becoming mature disciples of Jesus, but had taken a wrong turn and now Paul was “again” in the pains of childbirth. He wasn’t throwing them away, he was working to restore them to their proper relationship with God.

For many of us, the idea of Christ being “formed in us” is a new concept. We became Christians and we attend assemblies; maybe read our Bibles occasionally, but Christ is not “formed in us”. We have not taken on His attributes. Our hands still do the things they did before we met Him. Our minds still think the same way they did before we were immersed into His death. Our hearts are still devoted to the same things that they were prior to the Spirit coming to live within us. We are Christians, just not like Jesus. Is that even possible?

May we decide to examine our lives to see if Christ is indeed being "formed in us" or if we are trying to make Christ "conform to us"?  Let us take an honest look in the spiritual mirror and see if we look any different than those that don't make the claims that we make. Time in His word, time on our knees and time with our spiritual family is a great start to a deeper relationship with Him.