Christ Being Formed In Us

Bible Study—Fall 2012
The Crucial Points of the Truth in Galatians (7)
Christ Being Formed In Us

Eph. 3:17 Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith
2 Cor. 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the Lord Spirit.
Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.

Gal. 4:19 My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.

Christ, a living person, is the focus of Paul’s gospel. Paul’s preaching, which differed greatly from the teaching of the law in letters, was to bring forth Christ, the Son of the living God, in the believers. Hence, this book is emphatically Christ-centered. Christ was crucified (3:1) to redeem us out of the curse of the law (3:13) and rescue us out of the evil religious course of the world (1:4), and He was resurrected from the dead (1:1) that He might live in us (2:20). We were baptized into Him, being identified with Him, and have put Him on, clothing ourselves with Him (3:27). Thus, we are in Him (3:28) and have become of Him (3:29; 5:24). On the other hand, He has been revealed in us (1:16), He is now living in us (2:20), and He will be formed in us (v. 19). To Him the law has conducted us (3:24), and in Him we are all sons of God (3:26). It is in Him that we inherit God’s promised blessing and enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit (3:14). Furthermore, it is in Him that we are all one (3:28). We should not be deprived of all profit from Him and thus be severed from Him (5:4). We need Him to supply us with His grace in our spirit (6:18) that we may live Him.

When the Galatian believers were regenerated through Paul’s preaching of the gospel to them the first time, Christ was born into them but not formed in them. Here the apostle was travailing again that Christ might be formed in them. To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ fully grown in us. First, Christ was born into us at the time we repented and believed in Him, then He lives in us in our Christian life (2:20), and, finally, He will be formed in us at our maturity. Christ’s being formed in us is needed that we may be sons of full age and heirs to inherit God’s promised blessing, and that we may mature in the divine sonship.
(New Testament Recovery Version, notes 3 and 4)

Download the outline: Christ Being Formed In Us

Questions:
1. What does the word form correspond to?
2. What are some practical ways to allow the Lord to be formed in us?

Hymn (Tune)

1. God’s intention is to have u
All conformed to His dear Son;
Thus a work of transformation
By the Spirit must be done.

Chorus
Lord, transform us to Thine image
In emotion, mind, and will;
Saturate us with Thy Spirit,
All our being wholly fill.

2. God hath us regenerated
In our spirit with His life;
But He must transform us further-
In our soul by His own life.

3. Spreading outward from our spirit
Doth the Lord transform our soul,
By the inward parts renewing,
Till within His full control.

4. By the power of His Spirit
In His pattern He transforms;
From His glory to His glory
To His image He conforms.

5. He transforms, all sanctifying,
Till like Him we are matured;
He transforms, our soul possessing,
Till His stature is secured.