Thrust Statement: Christians are to reflect the rays of His light in their lives.

Scripture Reading: Galatians 4:19; 5:16-26

Understanding the Implications of the Gospel

The second aspect of “Until Christ is formed in you” discusses the ethical implication of what it means to say “Until Christ is formed in you.” Having developed the first part of this essay concerning the Gospel, one must ever be conscious that in the sacrifice of Christ that God has rights over one’s conduct. In seeking to understand this statement by Paul—“until Christ is formed in you”—one must examine his or her life in reflection upon Paul’s statement. Is Christ formed in you? How long have you been a Christian? Is there a difference in your lifestyle today in comparison to your lifestyle before conversion?

Do you still do the same things you did before you became a Christian? Do you still use the same language you did before you became a Christian? Do you still treat individuals with rudeness? Do you still refuse to love the unlovable? Do you still walk according to the flesh? Do you still treat Sundays the way you did before you became a Christian? Do you still exhibit anger, rage, malice, slander, and so on, in the same way you did before you became a Christian? As a Christian, have you clothed yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? As a Christian, do you forgive grievances that you have with others?

Do you forgive others as the Lord forgives you? Is there a difference between the “then” and the “now” in your daily walk with God? If so, how? Is there a difference in your Sunday attendance with God’s people? Is there a difference in your study of the Bible? Do you put God first in your life? Or do you put the pleasures of life before your devotion to the things of God? Is your love for alcohol, drugs, sex, fishing, hunting, working on Sundays, and so on, greater than your love for God? How would you describe your spiritual life—burning zeal or lukewarmness? Are you zealous for the things of God?

Does your concept of worship influence your behavior? Is your Christian worship a total adoration to the One who is Eternal? Your worship—all of your life—must exhibit a foundation in the Eternal God—the One who is Maker, Lover, and Keeper of your soul. For Christ to be formed in you, your adoration for God must include a response to the threefold Reality in the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Unless one is awestruck, as it were, with the holiness of God, one will not emulate holiness in his or her way of life. What does the word holiness convey to your mind? Do you manifest the Spirit of God in your daily walk with the Father? Do you grieve God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live? Unless one is captivated with reverence for the self-existent One, one will not imitate Godlike attributes in his or her life.

If one wishes to turn his or her lifestyle around to God’s glory, one’s worship must be God-centered, Christ-centered, and Holy Spirit-centered. One’s daily walk should bring honor and glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One’s reflection upon the creative love of God in and through His Son Jesus is a powerful redemptive force to transform one’s behavior. One’s daily walk with God testifies to the unspeakable love of God in the gift of His Son Jesus. One’s worship of God—twenty-fours hours daily—is a witness as to one’s belief in the historical fact of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Even though one is conscious that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, one can say with straightforwardness that unless Christ in born in you, you will be eternally lost. Is Christ born, as it were, in you? Are you clothed with a new garment? Is the birth of Christ, really and truly, in your heart? Even though the Bible may not express this truth in the exact same way that this author has expressed it, nevertheless the germ of this thought still jumps out at everyone. Take note of Paul’s words in Galatians 4:19: “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” The KJV renders the verse this way: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”  Paul, in his struggles for the Galatians, suffers birth pangs until Christ comes to birth in the inner life of the believers.

It is true that Christians are to seek to understand more clearly the mysteries of salvation, but, at the same time, Christians are to allow Christ to be formed in them through their earthly life. In the Galatian letter, one discovers that Paul desires that the inner life of every believer be a life lived in such a way that Christ comes to birth in them. When one lives in sin, one’s life is not only empty of God, but also his or her life is separated from God. How can one really and truly know that she or he is a child of God? Listen to John as he zeros in on the very crux of the matter: “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10). Toward the end of Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, he develops the means whereby the Lord comes to birth in the life of every believer.

Jesus Christ has been given for the salvation of humanity in order that a transformation may come into the lives of those who have allowed the Gospel of God to be formed in them. When the Good News of God’s Way of salvation—Jesus Christ—is formed in the lives of men and women, this development of Christ will also result in this second aspect of “until Christ in formed in you” (Galatians 4:19), that is, this new life in Christ will manifest itself outwardly in characteristics, or behavior, that will glorify God the Father. This new life in Christ in not intended to be merely inward, but rather to manifest itself outwardly in fruits that speak of true repentance. Whenever one experiences the new birth from above, this unique event of Christ becomes the property of one’s own life. Has the Christ event become the property of your own daily walk with God?

If Christ is not born in you, you will be forever vanished from the presence of God. Does the Spirit lead you or does the flesh lead you? It is in and through Jesus that a transformation comes about. If one professes belief in Jesus without any thing new coming to birth in his or her life, this sort of belief, or profession, the Bible does not recognize as true faith. It is in this same vein that John writes:

^16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ^17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ^18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. ^19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence ^20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything (1 John 3:16-20).

            What is John saying in these verses? How do you feel about others who are less fortunate than yourselves concerning the necessities of life? One’s personal life of worship, or devotion, to God involves, on the human side, an utter self-abandonment of oneself to God. When one dwells in God’s love, one must become an effective channel of His love, even loving the unlovable. The living core of an individual’s worship is a dedication to the will of God in one’s life twenty-four hours a day. One’s religious zeal to God contributes to that total transfiguration of one’s life so that Christ is formed in each one to such an extent that he or she works toward redemption of the world. In one’s new birth from above, one observes that this new life is not just something inward, but rather it is something outward that expresses itself through actions, or fruits of the Spirit, that brings honor and glory to God. One’s actions of commitment to God will turn one’s life in its wholeness toward God.

THE SPIRIT AT WAR WITH THE FLESH

            As one reflects upon the Spirit, one cannot but help reflect upon the new birth from above  (John 3:5). It is through the Gospel of Jesus and the faith of the individual and the operation of the Holy Spirit that both men and women become new persons in Christ. As stated above, this new life in Christ is not to be merely inward, but to display itself outwardly through appropriate fruits. Jesus Christ has been given for the sins of humanity, but, at the same time, He has also been given in order to bring about a transformation in the lives of men and women (Jeremiah 31:31-34). For one to merely believe in Him without anything new coming to birth in the believer is a faith that God’s Word does not recognize. It is in this frame of mind that Paul writes: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17)!

            When John the Baptist came on the scene announcing the kingdom of God, Matthew captures very vividly the message of John, a message which calls for repentance: “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea ^2 and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’” (Matthew 3:1-2).  Repentance demands a change in one’s behavior, a behavior that results in a lifestyle that is worthy of repentance. Pay attention to John, once more, as he calls attention to the necessity of a change in one’s outward behavior: “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ^8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (3:7-8). Following the arrest and imprisonment of John the Baptist, Matthew describes the preaching of Jesus about the kingdom of God, which preaching demands a change in behavior: “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’” (4:17).

            As one examines his or her own life, one should ask the question: Have I surrendered my life to the One whom I deserted? God does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather He desires conversion of the sinner. Have you repented? Have you turned your life toward the Lord? Repentance is not just a change in one’s disposition, but it is a surrender of oneself to God. In and through Jesus, God draws everyone who responds in faith into the death of His Son. To die with Jesus is God’s grace; it is not your work, but the work of God. This death is a gift from God; it becomes real in the voluntary act of each individual in obedience and trust to Jesus as Lord.

When one is gripped by God’s love and His holiness, one responds to this grace through faith and baptism. Repentance means that one accepts the death of Jesus as a divine judgment, a judgment that should have fallen upon him or her. Yet, this sentence of death is consummated in Him in order to exempt the one who puts his or her faith and trust in Jesus for his or her salvation. Have you allowed Christ to be formed in you? When one fails to repent, this rejection brings upon oneself God’s wrath. In the Book of Romans, Paul develops the concept of repentance in its radical form—the death of Christ corresponds to the death of both men and women:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ^2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ^3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ^4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ^5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. ^6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,^a that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ^7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. ^8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ^9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ^10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ^11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ^12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ^13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. ^14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:1-14).

            Repentance is, in essence, the death of the person who has deserted God. Through death, one is reborn—born from above. In this new birth, one depends, not upon Law, but upon the Holy Spirit for guidance and strength to walk in this new life. Just a perusal of the Book of Galatians reveals that some wanted to base justification upon law keeping. Yet, this book reveals that justification can only be through faith in the finished work of Christ: “know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 3:16). Paul, having gone to the very core of the Gospel—justification by faith—he then writes about this new life in Christ:

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ^20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ^21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing”^a  (3:18-21)!

            Overcoming the works of the flesh cannot be through the Law but through the Spirit. The Spirit of God plays an essential part in the salvation of both men and women. In this same epistle, Paul writes about how the Galatians received God’s Spirit:

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. ^2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? ^3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? ^4 Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? ^5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard (3:1-5)?

            How does one overcome the works of the flesh? Is it through the Law or through the Spirit? How can Christ be formed in one? As Paul concludes His brief epistle, he calls attention to the necessity of the Spirit in one’s daily walk with God, a walk that produces fruit worthy of repentance. The demands of the moral life can only be accomplished, not through the Law, but through the Spirit and God’s presence and activity in one’s life. The flesh is no match for the Holy Spirit. Just a casual reading of this book reveals that the Spirit and the flesh war against each other (5:16-18); the works of the flesh get in the way to the kingdom of God (5:19-21); the Spirit produces fruit that fulfils the Law (5:22-24); and since it is the Spirit that gives life, then the Spirit should guide the daily conduct of the believer (5:25-26).^[1]

The Spirit versus the Flesh      

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ^17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. ^18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law (5:16-18).

            The Spirit and the flesh are at war with one another. One observes two spheres of power in opposition to one another. One must not discount the Spirit in one’s walk with God. The Spirit of God has been sent with the Son to bring about a new relationship with God, a relationship in which individuals are no longer slaves but sons and daughters of God. Keep your minds on the following words of Paul as he seeks to convey the role of the Spirit in the believer’s life:

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ^5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. ^6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,^a Father.” ^7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir (4:4-7).

            The Holy Spirit, so it seems, is not emphasized in the scheme of redemption among many Christians. In this short epistle, the apostle mentions the Holy Spirit seventeen times. The Greek word spirit occurs eighteen times in this epistle. All but one occurrence refers to the divine Holy Spirit (Galatians 6:18).^[2] Throughout the New Testament writings, one observes the Holy Spirit’s activities in the inbreaking of the new age. Jesus, while preaching in the towns of Galilee, encountered some religious leaders—Pharisees—who sought to discredit Jesus’ miracles by attributing His work to Beelzebub (Matthew 12:22-24). After healing the man who was blind and mute, Jesus calls attention to Spirit’s role in this inbreaking of God’s kingdom into this new age: “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (12:28).

            Luke, too, recalls for his readers the role of the Holy Spirit in the birth of the Savior of the world: “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called^a the Son of God’” (Luke 1:35). John, the apostle, mentions the Holy Spirit’s activity in the rebirth (John 3:3-5, “born of water and the Spirit” = water which is Spirit)^[3] and worship in the Messianic age (4:21-24, “in Spirit and truth” = Spirit of truth).^[4] After the resurrection of Jesus, shortly before His final departure from His disciples, He informed them:

^7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ^8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The disciples waited in Jerusalem for this manifestation of the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost, Luke records this outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the one hundred and twenty (1:15):

This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ^17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. ^18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. ^19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. ^20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. ^21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’^a  (2:16-21).

            The author of Hebrews, possibly Paul, writes about the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who responded to the Good News of God about salvation by grace through faith in His Son Jesus:

^ It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ^5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, ^6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because^b to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace (Hebrews 4:4-6).

Christians, in their rebirth, have experienced, or tasted, the Holy Spirit in their lives. In the Galatian letter, Paul sets forth the battles that wages between the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh (sarvx sarx) is an antagonistic power that wars against the Spirit. The word Spirit in Galatians designates God’s presence and the inbreaking of the new aeon (Messianic age).  The Holy Spirit functions as a cosmic force, as it were, in its fierce combat with the flesh—the old world that is passing away. In the closing remarks of Paul, he assures the Galatians that their life can, and should be, guided by the same Spirit that brought them to faith (3:3; 5:16-18). As one battles the flesh, one discovers that God’s Spirit—God’s presence and activity in both men and women—is the only weapon against the flesh. As noted above, the Holy Spirit is mentioned seventeen times in the Book of Galatians.

If one wishes to overcome the works of one’s lower nature—the flesh—one must appropriate the Spirit as a reality and conduct one’s life by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit that one receives in the rebirth must be allowed to guide and direct one’s way of life twenty-four hours a day. If one wishes to overcome illegal drugs, one must allow the Spirit to guide his or her daily walk. If one desires to defeat alcoholism, one must permit the Spirit to direct his or her day-after-day walk. If one wants to conquer anger and rage, one must consent to the Spirit’s escort in his or her pace day after day. If one wishes to season his or her language with salt, one must say yes to the Spirit’s steering his or her stroll. The Spirit has been sent by God in conjunction with His Son to create a new relationship between Himself and humanity. Listen to Paul as he sets forth this critical understanding as he seeks to bring the Galatians under control:

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ^5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. ^6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,^a Father.” ^7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir (4:4-7).

            If Christians are conscious of the conflict between the Spirit and the flesh (5:16-18), they can allow the Spirit’s instructions to guide them in the way that will bring honor and glory to God. One’s behavior must not be inconsistent with one’s profession. In 5:16, Paul uses the Greek imperative peripatei'te peripateite (“walk”) to reinforce his emphasis that everyone should conduct his or her daily life by the Spirit. Are you conducting your daily walk by the Spirit? Paul pleaded with the Ephesians:

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ^31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ^32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Ephesians 4:30-32).

            “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature,” writes Paul (Galatians 5:16).  The NIV translates the Greek verb peripatevw peripatew as “live,” but the KJV translates this verb as “walk.” Have you appropriated the ways of the Holy Spirit in your daily life? Do you allow the Spirit to guide and direct your daily actions? If not, Christ is not formed in you! Are you conscious that the works of the flesh bar the way to heaven? In 5:19-21, Paul lists fifteen specific items that the flesh produces.  As you read the following list, one is reminded that no belief is genuine unless there is commitment, loyalty, and devotion to the Spirit’s guidance.  For Paul, the distinctive mark of one’s faith in Jesus is his or her behavior. Listen to Paul as he enumerates behavior that bars the way to the kingdom of God:

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ^20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ^21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God (5:19-21).

CONCLUSION

When one allows the works of the flesh to take hold of his or her life, this choice permits neither Jesus nor the Spirit to break in upon him or her. The kingdom of God challenges one’s lovelessness, one’s hardness, one’s drunkenness, one’s fits of rage, one’s selfish ambition, and so on. In the Book of Galatians, one discovers the activities of God, Jesus, and the Spirit breaking into human life. Are you allowing Jesus to be formed in you? Are you allowing God to break into your life? Are you allowing the Spirit to conduct your life? The new life in Christ is not intended to be merely inward, but it is to be manifested in outward behavior that brings honor and glory to God (Matthew 5:13-16). It is in this same disposition that Paul exhorts the Christians in Ephesus to holy living:

 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ^18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ^19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. ^20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. ^21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ^22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ^23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ^24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:17-24).

            The epistles of Paul stress the necessity of living lives worthy of the Gospel of God. The life of faith takes cruciform shape. In other words, one puts to death the ways of the world. God wants one’s life to be an expression of the prayer—“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). When God calls men and women to be His partners in redemption, He expects their cooperation in the whole range of human activity. God wants Christ to be formed in all His children (Galatians 4:19). Christians are called out of the world only to be sent back into the world to bring about transformation in the lives of men and women. One cannot bring about renovation in other’s life unless one’s own life is guided “by the Spirit” (5:16). Do you live by the Spirit? Or do you live by the flesh? Has Christ come to birth in your life? As long as one fails to put off the works of the flesh, Christ cannot be formed in that one.

            Where is your allegiance? Do you “live by the Spirit” (5:25)? Do you “keep in step with the Spirit” (5:25)?  If so, you will not be self-seeking, self-willed, or worldly. Listen to Paul as he enumerates the “fruit” of the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ^23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ^24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ^25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ^26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other (5:22-26).

            Have you “crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” (5:24)? Is your soul blocked from spiritual things through the works of the flesh? If you do not allow Christ to be formed in you, then you are legislating yourself, as it were, to the throne of God. Do you seek to be self-ruling?  Have you opened your heart to the message of God? Are you giving access to the Spirit of Christ who reduces your will to the will of God so that Christ may be formed in you?  Are you a child of light? Do you pay homage to God in your daily walk? Or do you honor yourself in your day after day activities? If one wishes Christ to be born in his or her life, one should think about the words of Paul to the Philippians:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ^2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ^3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ^4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. ^5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ^6 Who, being in very nature^a God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ^7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature^b of a servant, being made in human likeness. ^8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross (Philippians 2:1-8)!