Weekly Pursuit – Week 1 of January
Verses:
Gal. 4:19 “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.”
Excerpts:
Christ was born into the Galatian believers, but not formed in them when they were regenerated through Paul’s preaching the gospel to them the first time. The apostle then travailed again that Christ might be formed in them. His preaching was to bring forth Christ, the Son of the living God, in the believers. Paul’s preaching was emphatically Christ-centered. According to the book of Galatians, Christ has been revealed in us, He is now living in us, and He will be formed in us. To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ grown in us in full. First Christ was born into us at our conversion, now He lives in us in our Christian life, and He will be formed in us at our maturity.
Paul’s word about Christ being formed in us implies that we are being constituted of Christ. To have Christ formed in us is a living, organic matter. Christ is now living in us so that we may be constituted of Him organically. He intends to constitute our being—our mind, emotion, and will—of Himself. He will constitute every part of our soul so that we may have His form, His image, in every part of our being. The word formed in Galatians 4:19 corresponds to the word image in 2 Corinthians 3:18, where Paul tells us that we are being transformed into Christ’s image. This image is a form. Christ must be formed in us so that we may express Him by being in His image. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 590)
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