CONFORMITY TO CHRIST

R. J. Campbell

Ephesians 4: 8–13; Philippians 3: 13–15; Colossians 4: 12; Acts 7: 57–60

I have been impressed since Lord’s day as to the need to take on change and features of glory. If this is God’s mind for us, and assuredly it is, He has an object before Him—that we should arrive at conformity to the Lord Jesus. It is not only that certain features of the Lord Jesus should come to light in us, but we should have before us God’s complete thought. It has rightly been said that Christ is God’s ideal. He is there in the presence of God and God rests complacently in Him. His mind being that the saints should be conformed to that blessed Man. How often we compare ourselves with others; and we, are so accustomed to imperfect thoughts, substitutes, and synthetics; but God has in mind perfection, and that is seen in the Lord Jesus. It will take every believer to set out all the features that are seen in the Lord Jesus. The new man involves every believer.

How low the Lord Jesus has been that the will of God might be done. Typically, in Jonah 2: 5, it is said that He has been to the bottoms of the mountains, and the weeds were wrapped about His head. He is the One who descended; how our minds should be affected by that!

“He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens”. Oh what a height He has gone to; He has “passed through the heavens”, Hebrews 4: 14. Mr. Taylor said that every sphere was filled with Him as He passed through (see N.S. Vol.1 p.20)—that triumphant Man, and He is there above all the heavens that He might

fill all things.

From that position He has given gifts in view of the inauguration of christianity, the setting up of the assembly here. While some gifts do not continue to the present time, what is authoritative does continue. We do not have apostles, but authority continues. God would have it that there is authority in the assembly at the present time, and that it should be respected, that what is said in ministry under the headship of Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, should be listened to.

So gift continues in view of the saints arriving at God’s ideal. It has been said that the gifts are like a scaffolding; they surround the building and you may not altogether see what is proceeding inside, but there is construction going on, the gifts are operating, and what is going into the building is substantial. God is proceeding with His building; we may not see much in small numbers here and there, but what is coming out of it all is formation, and conformity to God’s ideal, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has in mind that we should arrive at that, “until we all arrive”—until we all arrive. We had on Lord’s day, “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image” (2 Corinthians 3: 18), and here it is, “until we all arrive ... at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”—

that is God’s ideal for every believer. Eventually there will be no need for gift. The gifts will have served their purpose and the work will be complete. What God has before Him is a great and august vessel composed of persons conformed to the image of His Son. God is working to a certain end. How aimless we tend to be, but God has a purpose in mind in all that He

does. We may not see it, it may be obscure to us, but He is working according to His own thoughts, and He will secure them and have the saints conformed to His ideal. We sometimes sing of ‘the perfect state’ [hymn 247); what it will be, beloved brethren, when every one will be conformed to Christ!

In Philippians 3 Paul is stretching out to the things before. It is not the exercise of gift here; the beloved apostle in his own personal exercises is setting out something that should mark each one of us, and that is energy in view of arriving at Christ where He is. You see the energy, the stretching out, the zeal, that marked Paul to arrive at his object. He was not just stationary in his exercises, he pursued, “forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before ... for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. What an object he had before him; Christ filled his heart. How much he could have laid claim to; how much he could have used to make much of himself; but he counted all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. So we see Paul, with Christ in glory before him, stretching out with zeal. Well, beloved brethren, is this our object? Have we that aim energetically before us, to reach out to Christ where He is, in view of conformity to Him?

Epaphras was a local brother in Colosse, not an outstandingly gifted man, as far as we can gather from the Scriptures, but one who had genuine concern for his local brethren; and he had an ideal before him. His desire was that the saints should stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. That would involve devotion in the testimony here and holding on to God’s thoughts, so that things are maintained inviolate, not having

our own thoughts, not lowering the standard, but that the saints should arrive at standing perfect and complete in all the will of God. Well, we know that there are such men, persons in their own local settings who have an ideal for the saints. Oh that we might have that, an ideal for one another, so that we might pray accordingly. I feel challenged as to this. How little we pray in relation to formation in the saints, in relation to the saints arriving at what God has in mind for them. We pray for the circumstantial needs of the saints, and how right that we should; but we should desire that the saints might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Epaphras had an ideal for the saints in Colosse. May that be our ideal.

I refer to Stephen because we see in him the features of Christ coming out in an individual believer in outstanding quality. How near to his Master he came; how close to the Lord Jesus in his suffering, and in his feelings expressed as he died, his desire, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”. I feel the challenge of it. How near do we come to the Lord Jesus as He pursued His suffering pathway here? Stephen was very close to Christ in His sufferings; he was “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit”, Acts 6: 5. You think of the substantiality that was there, the formation in him, and it is seen in his death. When the saints are in circumstances of suffering it brings out what is there in genuineness and quality, the work of God. You can see it in believers who suffer in their bodies; what comes to light is the perfection of the work of God.

So Stephen here is suffering; men are throwing stones at him, but he is not thinking of that; he has his eye on Christ in glory. “He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing ...”. What a sight!—looking right into heaven, seeing that Man in glory.

and representing Him here in testimony. What perfection came out in Stephen; how near to his Master he came—occupied with Him there, and coming out like Him here. We can see how Stephen was formed. As quite a young man, I suppose, he had served at tables. His service did not go on for long—how short it was—but at the end of it he went out in triumph, like his Master.

O, beloved brethren, may this be our portion that, having Christ before us, looking upon Him, and being transformed from glory to glory, there may be greater conformity to Christ in view of that day when we shall be presented to Him, and that now, in testimony, greater formation may mark us as features of Christ come to light in us. May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Helston
17 July 1979