CONFORMATION TO CHRIST
[p. 161] CONFORMATION TO CHRIST
Romans 8:29; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18
You can see, dear brethren, from the first Scripture which I have read, that I purpose to say something about conformation to Christ, the fact implying that God’s Son is the divine Model for all those who are the called according to purpose; He represents, in that sense, the end in view in regard to the divine formation of believers. There are two ideas brought before us: formation and conformation; they are of course, allied thoughts, but conformation lies in full accordance to the Model. It is thus stated that we are to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, that He should be the firstborn among many brethren.
His foreknowledge enters into this — “because whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son”. Foreknowledge alludes to a time prior to the formation of the world, showing indeed, how important believers are in God’s mind — they were there before the foundation of the world. Christ as Man was in the divine mind, for it is to Him that we are to be conformed. He, a divine Person becoming Man and known as the Son, is the Pattern for the “many brethren”. This verse therefore, is on the platform of eternal counsel, in which man had part and place. Ephesians 1:11.
God, in the course of the creation had man in view. I am not now speaking of the six days of Genesis 1, but of verse 1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” — that is beyond our computation as to time. Scientific men seek to probe into the mysteries of the creation, but there can be no finality in their conclusions. Scripture gives no clue as to the length of time since “the beginning” spoken of in Genesis 1:1. It states only, that “In the beginning God created”. Then we are further told that chaos ensued, and then that the Spirit was brooding over the face of the deep, evidently intent upon bringing order out of chaos, so that the scene should be prepared for the habitation of man. Then finally man is created who was a “figure of him that was to come”(Romans 5:14), showing that Christ was in the mind of God before Adam. It is not that Adam was a pattern for Christ, but that Christ was the pattern for Adam.
In John 1, we read of “The Word”, who was “In the beginning”, and that the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed as one of the divine Persons in the deity, yet He was in counsel as a Man, so that He existed before Adam in every way; as John the baptist said in that same chapter, “he that comes after me is preferred before me; for he was before me”, John 1:15. He is always first! Again in relation to Melchisedec, the “priest of the Most High God” — he is brought before us as “assimilated to the Son of God”(Hebrews 7:3), that is, he is patterned from that glorious Person. Then later, in Exodus, we have the well-known pattern of the tabernacle given to Moses, again reminding us of the divine idea as being always in the mind of God. The only man who saw the pattern was Moses, and the only one who could construct the tabernacle, was the one who had seen the pattern. So important was this point, that he was instructed to see that everything was made according, to the pattern showed him in the mount; the whole structure in every part of it was to be according to the divine pattern.
We can see, as having these facts brought to our attention, that God has been working all the time with Christ in His mind, and further, that He has taken us up, in that connection, that He might bring about in us, conformity to Christ. He will keep on in His patient way with each of us, in view of bringing about perfect conformity with His own Son. One of the greatest features in Scripture with regard to God,
[p. 163] is His patience; but in waiting on us, if our wills are at work, and we do not submit to His way with us, we shall not have a happy time, for He will never give up His will. Happy that man who sees it at the beginning and places himself in the hands of the divine Potter. No need of the rod then; he will have a joyous time as in the hands of God for His will, that there should be in him conformity to Christ.
You will remember that Moses as having been in the mount with God, coming down with the tables of the covenant in his hands, finds the people already given up to idolatry, and he casts the tables down and breaks them. But God never gave up His thought as to the tabernacle as shown in the pattern, neither did Moses, but before it can be set up the most painful experiences had to be gone through in the camp. Moses cried, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” “And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side”, (Exodus 32:26 - 27). And the levites went through the camp with the sword, and three thousand were slain. After this Moses takes the tent and pitches it outside the camp, and it becomes a question for all who are on the Lord’s side, of going out to Him there.
This question is raised for us individually in Romans 7, and we find it there worked out as an inward process — a process requiring spiritual discernment and discovery. So that at the end of the process we say, “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell”,(Romans 7:18) — that flesh has been discovered in its true character, it is not on the Lord’s side. It is a most humbling discovery, arrived at by the most minute analysis of what is within. Well if that is the true character of my flesh, is it to continue active? No, for by that same process of analysis, I have discovered something else, and that is, “I myself”, and I determine that I shall “with the mind serve God’s law”, Romans 7:25. Thus I am “on the Lord’s side”. What about the flesh then? Chapter 8 of Romans teaches us that God supplies me with a power by which that flesh can be kept inactive. I have come to the knowledge of Christ as my Deliverer for I can say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”(Romans 7:25); my conscience no longer condemns me, for I can say, “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to flesh, but according to Spirit”(Romans 8:1 - 4).
Now you see I am free in my conscience and have power to serve God’s law. It is not anything I have done, God has done it to His own glory in the cross of Christ, so that this new power enables me to fulfil the righteous requirement of the law, and I prove myself “on the Lord’s side”. I am prepared to use my sword. The levites girded every man his sword upon his thigh, they rallied to the Lord’s name, and consecrated themselves to the Lord that day even though it was by every man slaying his brother, his companion, and his neighbour; Moses said to them, “bring on yourselves a blessing today”. (Exodus 32:29). God’s word to us is, “Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean, and I will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters”(2 Corinthians 6:17,18). Unless there is this subjecting of the will to God, I shall know nothing of this blessing.
All this being true in us, God’s work of formation and of conformation proceeds. He is appealing to us to submit ourselves in His hands, so that He can make something of us. He had it in mind for us before the foundation of the world. He had the most glorious [p. 165] Model before Him — the Son of God — and He is going to conform us all to His image. We cannot afford to be out of this! When we are young, as the Lord said to Peter, we gird ourselves and go whithersoever we will, and He says to him further, “but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not”(John 21:18). This speaks of resignation to the will of another. Let us resign ourselves therefore to the will of God that we may become subjects of His blessed work of conformation to Christ. Jeremiah in chapter 18, speaks of a vessel which was “marred” in the hands of the potter, and then of his making another vessel “as seemed good” to him — it is a vessel formed after Christ which pleases God, a vessel according to the counsels of God. Let me appeal to you, beloved brethren, for this resignation to the will of God.
In chapter 12 of Romans and in verse 2 the apostle entreats believers not to be “conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. If this world is before the heart, and a man desires to shine in it, he is not in a position to prove the will of God. The world has its ideals, it makes its appeal, and so the apostle warns us here, “be not conformed to this world”. We are told elsewhere that the world “that then was” — in the days of Noah — perished, being overflowed of water; and again, there is the world that is now which is reserved unto fire awaiting the judgment; but then there is the world which is to come — “that world”, as the Lord calls it — and in view of our part in it we must be “transformed by the renewing of the mind”. This goes further than a resolve of mind to serve the law of God (Romans 7:25); this verse serves to assist us as to the use of our minds; and here in regard to them we have this significant word “renewal”. This word expresses what is common to this epistle, for we have the same idea in “newness of life” and “newness of spirit” — it means an entirely [p. 166] different thing from that which is current; so that by the renewal of our minds we begin to think differently from other men. You do not get this from reading a novel, however “innocent” — none of them is innocent — neither do you get renewal of mind from reading what may be regarded as legitimate in connection with ordinary affairs.
This is to be understood spiritually; so we read in 1 Corinthians 2:12, “We have received ... the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God”. Believers have the Holy Spirit, who instructs us in regard to all things. In Isaiah 28, we read of the farmer, that “his God doth instruct him” — If God will thus instruct a farmer in his work, will He not instruct us as to the renewing of the mind? Let us therefore ask the Lord for this knowledge: speak to Him about this renewing of the mind, and He will show us what He means by it: indeed we are told that the Lord will give us understanding in all things. This renewing relates to another world — it is looking on to the world in which Christ is everything and which had its conception before the foundation of this world.
The school of God is the oldest school in the universe; it has turned out the greatest men that have ever been — the deepest thinkers, and it will abide when all the other universities, colleges and schools of this world are passed away. In His school we learn to “prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”.
Then chapter 3 of the second epistle to the Corinthians gives us another feature: “we all looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. The word “changed” in the authorised version is really “transformed” — that is, metamorphosed, as often remarked; that is, it is changed, not merely externally, but completely. We have the [p. 167] same idea applied to the Lord Jesus Himself; it is a complete change; not that the word in itself always connotes that what you are changed from is something less worthy, but whatever you are, as transformed, you become something entirely different. It is a question of what God has in His mind. In relation to the Lord on the mount of transfiguration, Matthew and Mark say that He was “transfigured” — but Luke says that He “became different” — here we are in the presence of what is inscrutable. We are to be “like him” when we see Him as He is, and that is enough for us. We have it in expectation as to the manifestation, but this transformation here is to go on now. The apostle is speaking to the Corinthians of the new covenant, and showing that their hearts were the tables on which God was writing Christ; he is treating of the new in contrast to the old; he speaks of it as “not of letter, but of spirit”. (2 Corinthians 3:6) It is typified in the second giving of the Law to Moses; for although this was literally a renewal of the first, we may use it as figurative of the new covenant of which Paul was an “able minister”.
When Moses came down from the mount and had broken the first tables, and after all the painful process of dealing with the camp had been gone through, he entreats to be allowed to see God’s glory and God accedes to his wish in the most tender gracious way. He says, “I will do this thing also that thou hast said”(Exodus 33:17), and from this point Moses becomes more expressly typical of Christ as the Mediator — more like Jesus. God has taught him more of Himself, and so He directs him to go up to the mountain again; and the terms on which Moses is to be there show that he is more than ever pleasing to God, as more like that One of whom God can say, “Thou art my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight”(Mark 1:11). So here He says to Moses, You make the tables — “Hew for thyself two tables of stone like the first”,(Exodus 34:1) — and bring them up in your own hands, and Deuteronomy adds a further word, that he [p. 168] should make an ark of wood, speaking of Christ Himself in manhood — the Conservator of every thought of God. God said to Moses as it were, I will do the writing; you bring up the tables. So here in 2 Corinthians, the Lord has brought these refractory Corinthians back to Himself; they have humbled themselves; they have regarded the words of the apostle in the first epistle as the “commandment of the Lord”, and now here they are found as suited writing material for the Spirit of God. The Lord has brought it about: He has got the saints in His hands for the impressions which the Spirit of the living God makes. Paul himself was a “competent” new covenant minister; he was in keeping with Christ, his competency being of God.
So Moses went up the mount a second time. Exodus 34, and God came down and stood beside him there. Then it says that “Jehovah passed by before his face”(Exodus 34:6) think what an impression of God that would make upon him! What follows is that God tells him that “after the tenor of these words”(verse 27) He has made a covenant with the people; that is what we have here: “The Lord the Spirit”, — it is not the covenant in letter, but in Spirit. That is Christianity. It is impressions of God in Christ. The Lord Jesus has His people in His hands here; He enforces the love of God in our hearts. He instructs us in it. What a service! We can understand the expression in verse 10, “the glory that excelleth”; it refers to this wonderful ministration of the new covenant, so that we take on divine impressions. We leave none out of this blessed ministry; all believers have their part in it. Those who have necessarily taken a separate path are often spoken of as narrow and sectarian, but in truth they are broader than any people in the world, for in their affections they take in all saints. So here it says, “we all” with unveiled face looking on the glory of the Lord; it is all — no Christians are left out. The face of the Lord Jesus is not veiled, it is to be looked at by those who have the Spirit. If you [p. 169] do not know what it means, ask the Lord to teach you; we have to learn what it is from Himself. And so “we are transformed ... from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. It does not say that we should be changed, but that those who look at the glory of the Lord are changed; the process is going on, and no Christian can afford to be out of it. Beholding the glory of the Lord we are changed; what is in the heart of God for us is that there should be a real, substantial, and complete change in us, so that there might conformation to the image of His Son.