Romans 8:29 tells us that God predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. We are persons who have been called and justified (v. 30); our destiny has already been determined by God. Before the creation of the world God predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. This means that to be conformed to the image of Christ is our destiny and also our goal. Our destiny is not to go to heaven but to be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son.
We have already been predestinated to be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son so that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers. God’s purpose is to produce many brothers of His firstborn Son for His expression. When Christ was the only begotten Son, He was unique, but God desired to have many sons who would be the many brothers of His Son. In this way the only begotten Son of God becomes the Firstborn among many brothers. He is the firstborn Son. According to God’s predestination, we are the many sons being conformed to the image of the Firstborn. God’s purpose is that we would express Him in a corporate way. Therefore, for the accomplishment of God’s purpose, He predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Those who are being conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son are the believers who are passing through the process of maturing to become the many brothers of the Firstborn. We are now in the process of maturing, that is, in the process of transformation and conformation. When this process is accomplished, we will reach maturity. Therefore, maturity is the full completion of the process of transformation for conformation.
Presently we are in the process of being conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son. This conformation is reached through transformation. The more we are transformed, the more we are conformed. The metabolic process of transformation produces conformation.
Through the processes of transformation and conformation we are becoming more and more like Christ, our elder Brother. He has the divine nature and the human nature; as His many brothers, we have the human nature and the divine nature. Just as Hebrews 2:11 says, “Both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” He who sanctifies is Christ as the firstborn Son of God, and those who are being sanctified are the believers in Christ as the many sons of God. To say that He and we are “all of One” refers to the Father as the source. Both the firstborn Son and His many sons are born of the same Father in resurrection. Therefore, the firstborn Son and the many sons have one source, one life, one nature, and one essence. Because both He, the firstborn Son, and we, the many sons, are the same in the divine life and nature, He is not ashamed to call us brothers. As His many brothers, we are now in the process of reaching maturity.
This process of maturing includes the believers’ experience of the divine life. Conformation actually reveals the molding of life. When the divine life grows in us and transforms us, it conforms us to the image of God’s firstborn Son. We do not have to endeavor to conform ourselves into the image of Christ; this kind of self-effort is useless. We only need to let the divine life grow in us, sanctify us, transform us, and mold us in order to experience more fully the divine life with its essence, power, law, and shape. In this way through the all-inclusive function of the divine life, we are gradually conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son.
The conformation of the believers into the image of Christ is through the renewing of the mind. When we are regenerated, the Spirit of the Lord enters into our spirit, dispensing Christ into our spirit as life. The Lord desires that this change in life would continue to spread into our soul, transforming our mind, emotion, and will. The transformation of the soul is by the renewing of the mind; if our mind is renewed, our soul will be transformed. Therefore, the believers need to be gradually transformed in the spirit of the mind. Being renewed in the spirit of the mind is the result of the divine element being wrought into us, discharging the old element of Adam and adding the new element of Christ, thus issuing in a continuous transformation in our mind and subsequently in our emotion and our will.
Through transformation by the renewing of the mind, we become precious materials—gold, silver, and precious stones. Gold signifies the nature of God the Father, which is unchanging like gold; silver signifies the redemption accomplished by Christ which includes termination, being brought back to God, and being replaced by what Christ is; precious stones signify the work of the Spirit, transforming us metabolically through the divine life and the cross of Christ to make us grow in life for God’s building.
Transformation produces conformation; conformation is the consummation of transformation. Transformation is a matter of inward essence. Conformation is a matter of outward shape, causing us to be the same in life, nature, and image as the firstborn Son, Christ, to express Him but not to have any part in His Godhead. Conformation is to be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son. In resurrection Christ was begotten to be God’s firstborn Son, and we were also regenerated to be the many sons of God, that is, the many brothers of Christ. As the firstborn Son of God, Christ is the prototype; as the many sons, the believers are molded into the image of Christ, God’s firstborn Son. This conformation is according to God’s predestination so that He may have a corporate expression.
We are now in the process of transformation, conformation, and maturing to be the many brothers of God’s firstborn Son. Through the process of transformation and conformation, we become more and more like Christ, our elder Brother, having both the human nature and the divine nature. This process of maturing involves our experience of the divine life and the transformation through the divine life which conforms us to the image of God’s firstborn Son. Therefore, we need to let the divine life grow in us to sanctify, transform, and conform us until we are gradually conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son.