BEING CONFORMED INTO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST
Rediscovering Our Potential
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
- Romans 8:29
Within the Word of God we find various aspects of God's nature and character. One of the most often discussed is his being love. Not just that he has love, but that his very nature is love! Love is actually the quality of his life. Unfortunately, because we fail to grasp the significance of God's life being now in us, we oftentimes overlook the fact that all that we possess in spirit and in disposition is equal to what he possesses. According to the second epistle of Peter, it tells us, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of his divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4).
The truth that has so long been held captive by religion is that when we became born again we received the very same life that God has. In John's first epistle, he points this out: "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world..." (1 John 5:4). Twentieth Century translation reads: "For all who have received the new life from God conquers the world..." To be born of God is to receive his life. Over in Ephesians two, verse five, the Amplified Bible says, "...He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him..." If all that we now possess in Christ is to be relegated to the future; that is, when we get to heaven, then why would God see fit to give it to us now? Why impart his life into our spirit, if we have to wait to get to heaven to enjoy it? No! The reason we have life is so that we can walk in all that this life holds.
This is one reason why Paul prayed that God would grant the church of Ephesus, "...a spirit of wisdom and revelation IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM" (Eph. 1:17). In other words, as we gaze into the Word of God, it is then that the Holy Spirit can begin to teach us who Christ truly is. And as we begin to gain knowledge of him, we discover who we are and what is now in us as a result of his life being our life (Col. 3:3-4).
What is so necessary for us to grasp as sons of God is that when Adam sinned it caused the activities of God's life to become null and void. But when Christ came, he restored that life so that now God's nature and character is revived in us. Each day that we let this life gain greater ascendancy, we are giving place to the image of God. Our being conformed into his image comes by letting his life live in us. This is what Paul came to realize when he said, "It is not longer I that liveth, but Christ which liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). Once we become awakened and behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, then and only then shall we be changed into the same image from glory to glory! It is where we rediscover our potential, and what God intended for us! It is where we step over into the path of our ultimate destiny.*
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emotions. And, we live in a body. In other words, we are more than what we may appear to be. Much of what defines our makeup was lost in the fall of man. That is why we have to become born again. It is here, in the new birth, that we find a re-making, a re-creating, and most importantly, a re-discovery of our spiritual potential. That is what must be awakened in us. It is by our being conformed into the image of Christ that we unveil our ultimate destiny.