Transformation and conformation are two very significant words. They are windows through which we can see into the depths of the revelation implied in the book of Romans. Transformation is related to the life process, and conformation is related to the life goal. It is crucial that we all have a full understanding of this process and this goal. What I intend to share regarding this is the product of more than fifty years of Christian experience considered in the light of God’s holy Word.
The New Testament says explicitly that we have been crucified with Christ and resurrected with Him (6:6; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 3:1). When I was young, I tried to figure out how I could have been crucified with Christ and buried with Him when His crucifixion and burial took place more than nineteen hundred years ago. Eventually, I read a book that pointed out that with God there is no time element. We are bound by time, but God, being eternal, is not bound in this way. Although it was helpful for me to see this, it had no practical effect on my life. I could believe that I had been crucified and resurrected with Christ, but I was troubled and dissatisfied by the fact that there was still no practical effect in my living. I simply could not be satisfied with doctrine or theory.
Later, I began to see that in the life-giving Spirit there are many elements, many ingredients. In Exodus 30 we have the compound ointment, an ointment composed of olive oil, which signifies the Holy Spirit, compounded with four spices. These spices mainly signify Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection. In Old Testament times, before the Spirit was compounded, the Spirit was merely the Spirit of God, signified by the oil. The Spirit had not yet become the ointment, the compound Spirit produced through the addition of the spices. But through the process of Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection have all been compounded with the Spirit of God. Therefore, the Holy Spirit today is the compound Spirit, the compound ointment with the elements of humanity, death, and resurrection.
Suppose you have a glass of plain water. Then a number of nourishing ingredients are added to the water to form a delicious drink. Thereafter, it is impossible to take in the water without drinking these ingredients. Sometimes a mother may add medicine to such a drink for a sick child. Although the child may refuse to take the medicine itself, the child will drink it when it is part of such a compound beverage. In this way, the medicine, added to a sweet-tasting drink, gets into him and spontaneously works within him.
Today the life-giving Spirit is an all-inclusive dose of divine “medicine,” full of ingredients. This dose is actually the processed Triune God Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. In this Spirit are divinity, humanity, and Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Therefore, when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, this all-inclusive Spirit with all these marvelous ingredients comes into us.
Now we come to a crucial point. In 6:5 Paul says, “For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” As believers in Christ, we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death. The likeness of Christ’s death refers to baptism. Furthermore, we shall also be in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection. This also implies the matter of growing together with Christ, as understood from the first part of this verse. Therefore, Paul is saying that if we have grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death, we shall also be growing together in the likeness of His resurrection, that is, in the newness of life mentioned in the previous verse.
Romans 6:5 includes two steps of our growth in Christ. The first step has already taken place, whereas the second is progressive. On the one hand, we have grown together with Christ, but, on the other hand, we shall be growing in the likeness of His resurrection. We have grown in baptism, and we shall be growing in the newness of life.
According to 6:5, Paul regarded baptism as a step in our growth in life. However, few Christians view baptism as related to growth. Nevertheless, to be baptized is to grow together with Christ. According to the Greek word used here, we have “co-grown” with Him. This means that as we were being baptized, we were growing together with Christ. In order to understand transformation by the grafted life, it is vital that we grasp this point. After our baptism had been completed, we had grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death.
When we repented, called on the name of the Lord Jesus, and believed in Him, the divine life that is complicated in a positive sense came into us, and there was a marriage, a grafting, of the human life with the divine life. Immediately, this grafted life began to grow. This means that we began to grow in our Christian life together with Christ. Furthermore, as we were baptized in water, we continued to grow together with Him. Baptism is the best soil for spiritual growth. When we were placed in the water, we were like a seed planted in soil. Then we came forth in resurrection, having grown together with Christ in baptism. Such a baptism is certainly not a mere ritual or formality.
As a believer experiences a proper baptism, the divine Spirit within him puts to death the old man with his worldly, sinful elements. Then he rises out of the water a new person. In this way he takes a major step in the growth in life. From that time onward, the believer continues to grow in Christ in the likeness of His resurrection, that is, he walks day by day in newness of life. This is real growth, not mere outward activity. The more a believer grows, the more the divine life works within him to crucify him and to resurrect him. Through such growth we experience the application of our crucifixion with Christ, which was accomplished more than nineteen hundred years ago. No longer is our crucifixion with Christ a mere theory, doctrine, or belief that has no practical effect on our living. On the contrary, it is applied to us in a full way. Therefore, day by day we grow in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection, and we walk in newness of life.