Post by Brother Ben on Nov 7, 2005 2:21:03 GMT -5
Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
The real "second" work of grace in the Christian life is not, being filled with the Holy Ghost, but the yielding of the Christian's life for the formation of Christ in them. Paul, likening himself to a mother, said that he was going through the birth pangs "again" because of his great love and jealousy of his converts at Galatia.
We are to be transformed individuals. Our old man died on the cross. The blood and the cross dealt with two distinct things in the Christian life. The blood washed away sin, and the cross dealt with the "old man." Until we, by faith, embrace the death of the old man, the work of having Christ "formed" in us cannot procede.
Christo morpho en humin. I am no scholar, nor the son of a scholar, just a fellow with a Strong's concordance, but it is easy to see here that God wants there to be a metamorphosis in our life. For Christ to be morphoed, (changed or fashioned,) en humin, into us humans. Paul said,
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
How much of us is "still" us and how much of us has been transformed into Christ? Remember the believers were called "Christians," little Christs, first at Antioch. That may have actually been an insult hurled at them, but what an insult to receive, huh?
The real "second" work of grace in the Christian life is not, being filled with the Holy Ghost, but the yielding of the Christian's life for the formation of Christ in them. Paul, likening himself to a mother, said that he was going through the birth pangs "again" because of his great love and jealousy of his converts at Galatia.
We are to be transformed individuals. Our old man died on the cross. The blood and the cross dealt with two distinct things in the Christian life. The blood washed away sin, and the cross dealt with the "old man." Until we, by faith, embrace the death of the old man, the work of having Christ "formed" in us cannot procede.
Christo morpho en humin. I am no scholar, nor the son of a scholar, just a fellow with a Strong's concordance, but it is easy to see here that God wants there to be a metamorphosis in our life. For Christ to be morphoed, (changed or fashioned,) en humin, into us humans. Paul said,
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
How much of us is "still" us and how much of us has been transformed into Christ? Remember the believers were called "Christians," little Christs, first at Antioch. That may have actually been an insult hurled at them, but what an insult to receive, huh?
