In God’s full salvation, after we have enjoyed the growth and maturity in the life of Christ, the next step is conformation. This conformation is not accomplished by our outward following of some model; rather, it is worked out by the growth of Christ’s life from within us. Therefore, conformation comes from the life of Christ within us, and this conformation in turn becomes our experience and enjoyment in His life.
1) “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26).
Image is inward, whereas likeness is outward. This reveals to us that when God created us in the beginning, He purposed that we should be like Him, having His inward image—love, light, holiness, righteousness, and so on—and having His outward likeness.
1) “...Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4); “Who [Christ] is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15).
Christ, the Son of God’s love, is the image of God. He declared God that man may see God (John 1:18). We were created in God’s image, that is, according to Christ. Thus Adam, who was created in God’s image, is a type of the Christ who was to come (Rom. 5:14).
1) “Who [Christ Jesus] subsisting in the form of God...equality with God...taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7).
This verse tells us that Christ, who is the image of God, subsisted in the form of God. He then took the form of a slave (a man) and became in the likeness of men. In this way He became a God-man, having both the image of God and the form of man. On the one hand, He is like God, and on the other hand, He is like man.
1) “God...raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second psalm, You are My Son [firstborn Son]; today [the day of Christ’s resurrection] I have begotten You” (Acts 13:33).
In eternity Christ was God’s only begotten Son (John 1:18; 3:16). Later, He took the form of man and the likeness of man to become a son of man. This Christ, who became a son of man, after passing through His death and resurrection, was begotten to be God’s firstborn Son. This firstborn Son of God possesses both divinity and humanity, being both the complete God and the perfect man. This is different from His being the only begotten Son of God in eternity, having only divinity and not humanity, being only God and not yet man. Since the firstborn Son of God, who already had divinity, now possesses humanity, He can be like us.
1) “God...has regenerated us...through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3); “He should be the Firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29).
These verses show us that not only Christ, who became man and took the form of man, was born to be God’s firstborn Son in His resurrection, but also we, His believers through the centuries, have been born together with Him as God’s many sons in His resurrection, that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers, and that we the believers may be like Him. He was the Son of God, having only the nature and image of God, who became the Son of Man, taking the human nature and form; we were the sons of men, having only the human nature and form, who were later born to be God’s many sons in His resurrection, having God’s nature and image. Now, He is both the Son of God and the Son of Man, having God’s nature and image as well as the human nature and form; and we are both the sons of men and the sons of God, having the human nature and form as well as God’s nature and image. Therefore, we and He are completely alike in God’s nature and form as well as in the human nature and form.
1) “We all [the believers]...are being transformed into the same image...even as from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
In the resurrection of Christ, the believers are first regenerated to be God’s many sons, who have the likeness of Christ, the firstborn Son of God. They then are gradually transformed into the same image as Christ’s in the Lord Spirit to become more like Him.
1) “Whom [God’s many sons] He [God] foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He should be the Firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29).
This verse says that in eternity God predestinated us, the many sons of God, to be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, Christ. This will be accomplished when the firstborn Son of God comes again to the inhabited earth (Heb. 1:6) to rapture us and to transfigure our body. We were regenerated in the resurrection of Christ to be the sons of God, who are like Him, the firstborn Son of God. Following this, we are being transformed daily in the Lord Spirit into the same image as Christ’s, who is the firstborn Son of God. When the Lord comes again, our body will be redeemed, transfigured, and conformed to the body of His glory (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21). By that time, we shall be completely conformed to His image, to be fully like Him even in our body (1 John 3:2), enjoying with Him the eternal divine glory. Such a glorification is the ultimate peak of our conformation in the life of Christ.