Would you turn in your Bibles to two very familiar verses: Romans 8:28-29. I believe most of us who know the Lord know these verses quite well, and I hope that does not hinder what the Spirit wants to say to us.
Beginning in verse 28:
And we know that all things work together for good
to those who love God,
to those who are called according to purpose.
Verse 29:
Because whom He has foreknown, He has also predestinated
to be conformed to the image of His Son,
so that He should be the firstborn among many brethren.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, once again, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that Your words are spirit and life. As we come to You and open Your Word, we are asking that You breathe upon it once again, that You anoint it by the Holy Spirit.
We say, as Peter said, “You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?” We look to You. We pray You quicken us by the Holy Spirit to give Your Word and to hear Your Word, and that Your Word coming forth would fulfil that great promise of the Scriptures: that Your Word would not return unto You void, but would accomplish the very thing You send it forth to do.
It is for that reason we come to You, and it is in that spirit we pray before You. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.
Well, these verses are quite familiar. I believe all of us know them. Lately, as I have been thinking about what I would share if I ministered, this phrase has come to me over and over—inescapably, inescapably—“changed into His likeness.”
Now, do not make that the title, by the way. Conformed to the Image of His Son is the title. But the impression that kept coming to me in the Spirit, that seemed to be on the Lord’s heart, at least if I was to share, was this phrase: “changed into His likeness.”
These verses are so familiar that we often have a tendency to separate the first part of verse 28 from the latter part—the rest of it in the latter part of verse 29. I myself have been guilty of this numerous times.
You know, we see a saint, a brother or sister, in some difficulty, and everyone knows the first part of Romans 8:28. We say, “Brother, sister, do you not know all things work together for good?” I have often said it. But often it stops right there.
Dear brothers and sisters, if our thought stops with the beginning of verse 28, then all we are seeing is what I need. All we are seeing is what will meet us for that moment. Now, God is gracious to meet us, and I can tell you many times when I have heard this verse, it has encouraged me to press on in the Lord.
But to understand the full thought of God, to enter into the full thought of God, you need to take into account all of Romans 8:28 and all of Romans 8:29. You cannot just begin; you have to see the latter part. In seeing the latter part, you see the divine purpose behind everything that we go through.
Now, I do not want to discourage some of you young people. Young people are in the flower of life—you know, early life, when everything is changing moment by moment and week by week. It seems like every year is a new adventure.
I do not know about you, but I am not sold at fifty-seven. I still remember when I was able to drive. That was a great day. Then I was waiting until I was eighteen, and that was a great day. I thought, “One day I will be twenty-one.” Now I wonder how to put this thing in reverse, and it does not work quite so well.
In our early youth, life is changing so rapidly and things are changing so much that we can hardly contain it. But later on in life—and this is the part I do not want to discourage you about—things tend to get a bit mundane.
Now, young people, do not walk out of the room. Stay with me, and you just may be encouraged today. Things begin to be somewhat mundane, somewhat the same. I have come to a conclusion that in our early life we are always sprinting. It is always a hundred-yard dash.
“When can I drive? When can I do this? When will I get to high school? When will they finally call me a senior?” A hundred-yard dash. But later in life, it is a long-distance race. We need to run the race with patience, and to run the race with patience and apprehend what God is after, we need to see the purpose behind it all.
There is a neat marketing ploy—I like it. It is a coffee shop called Daily Grind. I like that. I think that was wonderful. I am sorry I did not mention Blanchard’s Coffee; maybe I should mention that for equal time. Or Starbucks—I understand there are Starbucks people here too. My goodness, we have competing interests.
But the Daily Grind—sometimes, if we do not understand the purpose behind life, it is a daily grind. It becomes monotonous, and there is no purpose. We do not see why we have been called, what we are here for, or what our purpose is.
That is what I believe Romans 8:28-29 speaks about. It does not just say that all things work together for good. It says, “for those who are called according to purpose.” You have to see that.
Every believer is called according to purpose. Everyone who has seen that purpose begins to understand that all we go through in life—everything—is engineered for that greater purpose. Whether it is trials or blessings, failings or successes, everything works together for that one and same purpose, because we are called according to purpose.
It is a divine purpose. If you read verse 29, you discover what that purpose is. There is a little linking word—engineers do not always understand English—but there is a linking word in there, and it says simply, “because.”
Because. I do not know if you have ever noticed that word, but that word is very important. You need to understand that not only do all things work together for good for those who are called according to purpose, but it is because of something. Do you get it? “Because of something” is the whole key.
That single word begins to open the door so that we can see what the meaning of life is, what the purpose of life is. If you read verse 29, it says:
Because whom He has foreknown, He has also predestinated
to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Now, is that not extraordinary? Did you know that your purpose in life—all of life, the daily grind, the mundane things, the spectacular things, whatever you go through from morning to evening—everything is designed with a single purpose in view?
In the end, for the believer, that purpose is to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. That is the purpose. That is the reason these verses are so important: so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
In other words, in God’s great purpose, the divine purpose, He has a plan. His plan has everything to do with His Son. Now, those of you who have heard this before, do not get bored and go to sleep. If you get bored and go to sleep, I will yell at you.
There is a very great purpose in view. Because we do not see that purpose, and because we do not hold on to that purpose, life becomes meaningless. But God’s purpose has to do with His Son, the Lord Jesus. The whole of the purpose revolves around the Son.
When we look at Ephesians 1:10, we see how God’s intention in the end is to sum up all things in Christ. That is God’s purpose. But here is the other part of it. It is just as glorious. It is almost too spectacular for me to take in.
You also are included in God’s purpose. Do you know that? God has a purpose for you, not just for His Son, and those purposes merge together. God is interested that His Son fill all things, and that we be with His Son, conformed to the image of the Son.
Together, there is a full expression of all that Christ is: Christ the Head and the church, which is His Body. That is the eternal purpose of God, as we often refer to it.
The next time you are tempted to take Romans 8:28 and just say, “Dear brother, dear sister, do you not know what you are going through right now? All things work together for good,” remember the rest of it. There is a purpose behind it, and absent that purpose, it is meaningless.
This is what gives meaning to all things—to our daily existence. I believe if we saw this, it would revolutionise our life. No longer would we take for granted the trials and tribulations; no longer would we take for granted the blessings and all that we go through.
We would see them as opportunities to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. In other words, without some pressure—let me put it this way—without some pressure, you cannot conform anything to anything.
The Holy Spirit works, conforming us in our circumstances, shaping us, moulding us, perfecting us. He will use everything in your life, if you let Him, for this singular divine purpose: to conform you to the image of the Lord Jesus.
Here is another thing by way of introduction. Sometimes we think this is so high that it is unattainable, and that is unfortunate. The Bible never tells us this divine purpose is unattainable. As a matter of fact, the Bible makes it very clear that it is attainable.
The Bible makes it very clear that every provision has been made for us, that this divine thought of God can happen and is possible through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we are going to look at just three things:
This is for people who like outlines and things. Some of you get through a message and say, “Oh, what did he say? The joke I remember. Daily Grind, I will not forget. Sorry, Starbucks. But what did he say?”
We are going to talk about the divine law. Unless we see that there is a divine law behind everything, we will not understand the divine purpose. Second, we want to look at the divine image. Is there an image? Is there a standard? What is the standard? Thirdly, we want to touch upon the divine process.
In the end, brothers and sisters, I hope you are encouraged. Especially when I got to thinking and meditating on the divine process, it seemed the Lord Jesus encouraged me in a fresh way that not only is this possible—not only is this high calling of God in Christ Jesus possible—He has made every provision.
We should be rejoicing and excited by that provision.
The word conformed in Romans 8:29, as we begin to think about the divine law, means to be jointly formed in Greek. Now, that is very precious to me. We are jointly formed with the Lord Jesus. It is not some independent life; it is jointly formed.
There is a whole different meaning in the Greek. As a matter of fact, the English word conformed is only used twice in the whole Bible, and that is in the New Testament. By the way, both occurrences are in Romans: Romans 8 and Romans 12.
What this tells me is that there are only two things you can be conformed to. If you read Romans 8:29, it says we are conformed to the image of God’s Son. If you read Romans 12:1-2, it says, by the mercies of God, present yourselves a living sacrifice.
What does it go on to say? Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, that word conformed there means self-conformed. There is a difference.
It not only means self-conformed, but self-conformed to the fashion of this world. To me, for all those critics who say the Bible is too complicated, I say the Bible is simple. It deals with one subject, one purpose, and two choices. You may not agree with me.
Two choices: you can either be conformed to the image of God’s Son, or you can be conformed to this world. Two choices.
I do not know about you, but every time I go to a restaurant and it has one of these multi-page menus that looks like a book, I always get confused. You fold this thing out, and it is page after page. I never know what to look at.
I look at the pasta section, then the chicken section, then the pork section, then the beef section. Sooner or later—you may not believe this is true—you would think I would be intelligent enough at fifty-seven to make a choice, but I say, “Linda, what do I want to eat?”
Too many choices. But when it comes to the Word of God, there are only two choices. You can choose to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, or you can choose to be conformed to the image of this world.
What is your choice? You have to make a choice. If you do not make a choice, you have made a choice. But there are two choices.
If you are here today and you do not know the Lord Jesus, you have to make a choice in life. Either this world has everything for you, and all you see in it is everything you want, and you choose to be conformed to that image—
—or, for those of us who were saved out of darkness, somehow the Spirit of God arrested our attention, spoiled our life, touched us deeply in our spirit, and we were born again by the Spirit of God. We see another option.
By the way, for the believer, it is the only real option. We are to be conformed to the image of God’s Son and to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.
This is a process we go through—how we need to be conformed and how we need to be transformed. I do not know if you know too much, and I do not want to bore you with Greek, but transformed is the word metamorpho. It is the word we get metamorphosis from.
I think everybody knows a little about metamorphosis. Yesterday, I took the kindergarten view of metamorphosis and went to a website and looked up butterflies. It was this beautiful thing. I think it was for about age five, so I was right at home with this website.
They talked about how beautiful butterflies were. Now, you may not think butterflies are beautiful, but I think they are beautiful creatures—the colours. I never had that urge, like some kids do, to collect butterflies and impale them to a board of Styrofoam. I never had that urge.
But I always thought they were such beautiful creatures: wonderful colours, and they fly with such freedom. Remarkable—all the varieties of butterflies.
But do you know a butterfly is not a butterfly in the beginning? Did you know that? It has to go through a process. It has to be transformed. There has to be a metamorphosis.
It all begins with a little egg. There are only four stages. Now remember, this is kindergarten, so if you do not stay with me, we are going to pray with you after the meeting. We are going to lay hands on you right in front of all the people of God and pray for you.
There are only four stages. There is an egg, with life in that egg that has all kinds of potential, but undeveloped. It is just an egg. Now, I have been called an egghead, but it is just an egg.
Then there is a second stage of a butterfly: the larva. I think some of you may know that. That is that little caterpillar fellow that goes crawling. Every time Jessica sees one, she screams, I think.
That is that thing that just inches along—the caterpillar. Ugly little fellow, if you do not mind me saying. No offence to any caterpillars in the room.
But then there is a third stage: that cocoon, that pupa—if that is the right word—the pupa stage. Is that close? I told you I was on a five-year-old website. We did not go to the senior high website, by the way.
In that stage, there is that resting stage. There is a stage that almost looks like death. It does not look like anything will happen. There is that hidden stage, and in that hidden stage, something is happening.
That is life. Something is happening. Some transformation process is happening. You do not see it. It looks hidden. It is called the resting phase.
I believe when we rest in the Lord Jesus, and when we go through the cross in something of denying ourselves, something spectacular happens. We begin to develop. We begin to be conformed to His image.
Then, all of a sudden, after just ten to fifteen days, you have this beautiful butterfly. Now, that is transformation.
Do you want to be transformed into something beautiful? There is nothing more beautiful than the image of God’s Son. Of God’s Son, they had to rend the heavens and say, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom is all My delight.”
There is nothing more beautiful. This is what we are to be transformed into.
Well, I told you we would get to the divine law. That is what we are talking about. There is a life inside of that butterfly, if you would like me to stay with the analogy. There is a life inside of every believer that has to be developed.
The divine law can simply be described as the law of life. It is that life— that life within—that develops a life just like it. In other words, the life within the believer is attracted to the Lord Jesus and drawn to the Lord Jesus.
The more we are drawn to Him, the more we allow Him to deal with us, the more we allow Him to work in our heart, then gradually we are conformed to the image of God’s Son. It is all through that life that is within us.
That is the divine law.
Let me try to convince you, because I see some faces that are not convinced yet. If you turn back to Genesis 1, I just want to touch upon a little understanding of the divine law. It is helpful.
Remember, today we are going to deal more with purpose and principle. So do not get all upset with me and say afterwards, “Brother, you did not tell us how we get transformed.” You are right. We might even ask another brother to tell us how we are going to get transformed.
But we will look at the what today. We will look at the provision today. Maybe that will inspire us to press on.
As you turn to Genesis, it is remarkable to me that this is the opening of the whole Bible. In the opening of the whole Bible, God puts forth His case.
I do not know how many of you are familiar with trial law. Every lawyer has what they call the opening statement. No lawyers in the room, we trust—but I promise I will be good.
In that opening statement in trial law, it is the one opportunity to make the case in the beginning. It is the one opportunity to make the case absolutely clear. It is to be succinct; it is to be to the point; it is to convince the jury that you have a case and that this is what the whole purpose is about.
That is the opening statement. To me, Genesis 1 and 2 are the opening statement of God in this trial of life that we live in. All is laid out for us in that opening statement. If we understand what takes place in that opening statement, then we will understand the divine law.
Now, we will not cover all this, and I do not know what you think about the creation story. I know there are people who have different views about the creation story. I think it is remarkable that all the answers are not there.
Some of us have a different view about what happens between verse 1 and verse 2 of Genesis 1. Others have different views about different things. Others insist that we are only talking about six thousand years, while others insist we are talking about millions of years.
Now, brothers and sisters, one thing I want to tell you is that I do not think all of that is made exceptionally clear. But I do think there is one thing that is exceptionally clear.
If you read the creation story and do not see this one thing that is exceptionally clear—exceptionally clear—you have missed the whole of the creation story. God, in leaving things maybe not spelled out in perfect detail, goes to one point and makes one point: there is a divine law of the universe that will control everything.
Now, let us see if I can convince you. Forget the first part—when we have the heavens or the earth, the seas and the separation of the waters, and the separation of the lights. You can read that on your own time. Go up to about the third day, and you begin to see how God begins to create life.
He is done with all the inanimate. Now He goes to the animate things, the things with life in them. Look at Genesis 1:11:
And God said, Let the earth cause grass to spring up,
herb producing seed,
fruit yielding fruit after their kind.
Now, I want you to underline that in your Bible. Some of you refuse to do that, but please do it for me—or pretend you do it. Close your pen.
Fruit trees yielding fruit after their kind,
the seed which is in them.
That is a remarkable statement. It would be remarkable if it were only one time, but it occurs numerous times when He talks about this botanical life. Look at verse 12:
And the earth brought forth grass,
herb producing seed after its kind,
and trees yielding fruit, the seed which is in them,
after their kind.
Underline. You begin to get the point. There is something God wants to do. It is life, and that life is going to reproduce life after its kind. It was the divine law in botanical life.
Look further. Look at marine life. Turn to Genesis 1:21. It is the same law:
And God created the great sea monsters,
and every living soul that moveth,
with which the waters swarm, after their kind,
and every winged fowl after its kind.
And God saw that it was good. Not only that, think of animal life—not only botanical life, not only marine life, but look at verse 24:
And God said, Let the earth bring forth living souls after their kind:
cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind.
You get the repetition, I hope. I do not know how many of you notice this short little three-word phrase, “after their kind,” but it unlocks the whole key to creation and the whole key to life.
Verse 25 says:
And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind,
and the cattle after their kind,
and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind.
And God saw that it was good.
This is the divine law. It is the law of life. Life that comes out of God goes into something, and it produces something that is after its kind. That which follows that life will be conformed to the original life.
It will not be different than the original life. It will be the same as the original life. I think it is humorous what people do with their dogs. I am a dog lover, so do not get mad at me, okay? I love dogs.
But some people dress their dogs up in people clothing, and they think, “It is a person.” I have heard people say, “He is just like a son.” I thought, “Boy, he is an ugly son.”
Now, I love your dog. Dogs are good. I have a different view of cats, but we will not go there. You can dress a dog up, but it has dog life in it. If it reproduces, it is going to reproduce a dog, not an elephant.
You understand the point: after its kind. So this is the divine law. God wants to put the life of His Son, our Lord Jesus, in the believer. That life is to produce a corresponding life that matches the original.
That is the divine law. It is the law of life.
I do not believe you can understand the story of creation without understanding this principle. I believe the whole of God’s thought is made in this opening statement. But then God begins to unveil His heart, because for man there is a special place—not like the animal, but for man there is a special place.
Look at Genesis 1:26:
And God said, Let Us make man in Our image,
after Our likeness;
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the heavens,
and over the cattle, and over the whole earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Verse 27:
And God created man in His image.
In the image of God created He him.
Male and female created He them.
Brothers and sisters, man has a special place in the economy of God. We are not like animals. You can go on and on, and you can wax eloquent, and you can be the most studied PhD you want to be, but man is not an animal.
Man is made in the image of God. There is a great difference. Now, in particular, the life of God is not in this created man—by the way, man and woman. But God’s intention is that man would partake of the tree of life, that life of God.
Then not only would there be an outward conformance, there would be an inward conforming to what the original is. Do you get the point? I am going to try to make this clear. I will either bore you to tears or you will get it at the end.
This is the divine law—how we need to see it. As a matter of fact, God has such a special place for man. We read later in Genesis 2 how special a place He has for man.
You know the story. Let me back up for a moment. He created a void in the heart of man, a longing for something that would answer to his heart, because this is the divine purpose.
You remember what He did to Adam. He brought every animal before Adam to name them, and it says whatever he named them, that was their name. You remember the story. I always think that is a humorous story in the Word. I cannot imagine how Adam came up with some of those names.
But what God was trying to do was to see if there was some answer to Adam’s heart, some companion, some help meet, something that was like him, as the Word says. He brought all the animals, asked Adam to name them, and Adam named them.
Yet it says Adam could not find a help meet for his life. My granddaughter loves animals. She thinks she is a companion to every animal.
Do not make the mistake of talking about animals around my oldest granddaughter, Lily, because she will get too excited. Recently she was at our niece’s Hair Cuttery, and a customer made the mistake of saying, “It is like a zoo around here.”
Lily heard the Z word. Lily mustered every bit of her energy, went up to this unknown lady, and said, “Can you take me to the elephants?”
God is looking for something like Him. He put it in the heart of man: looking for something like Him. This is the divine purpose.
Oh, we need to see: the divine law is life within that transforms us and conforms us to the original. Then we come to the story where we see Adam put to sleep, and God taking from his side a rib and, from that rib, fashioning a woman.
Because she came out of man, she was called woman. When man awoke and this woman was brought to the man, he said:
This is bone of my bones,
and flesh of my flesh.
There was a corresponding likeness. Now, dear ones, this is the revealing of the whole purpose of God in a story. Our Father is after a help meet for His Son, one who is like His Son, one who answers to His heart.
In this greatest foreshadowing, in this story of creation, the whole story is told. Our Lord Jesus was put to sleep on the cross. He slept the sleep of death.
When that Roman centurion pierced His side and out from His side came blood and water, it was for the church: that we might be cleansed and that we might have life.
Ultimately, that life which is in us would produce a correspondence and an answer to the heart of the Son. He would say to His church, His bride:
This is bone of My bones,
and flesh of My flesh.
Brothers and sisters, that is the great privilege of man. That is the great destiny of man. This is the divine purpose, and this is the divine law: His life in us transforms us and conforms us to the image of the Lord Jesus.
Without His life, it would be impossible. I am still tickled that some people think the Christian life is possible. Long ago, I failed enough to know that in me the Christian life is not possible.
What the Lord Jesus teaches in this creation story is that a life has to be in you that is different than your own. That is the only way the Christian life is possible. It is a divine law.
Paul the apostle discovered this. You remember Romans 8, the beginning of Romans 8. Through all those great doctrines in Romans, he discovers justification, first of all—the true condition of man, the true decrepit condition of man without Christ.
Then he discovers that great salvation and how God justifies us in the Lord Jesus, and how we become identified with the Lord Jesus, as we look in Romans 6. All these great doctrines are unveiled. To me, it is just unbelievably spectacular—God’s plan.
But then we read Romans 7, and we see how, with this great man who understood all these great things, the Christian life became impossible. He uttered a cry that I do not think was just prose:
O wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
That was a real cry. Then he discovered a secret. He discovered a divine law. Turn with me to Romans 8. I will read you that divine law, and this is the secret of the Christian life.
Romans 8:1-4:
There is therefore now no condemnation
to those that are in Christ Jesus.For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set me free from the law of sin and death.For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh,
God, having sent His own Son
in the likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh;in order that the righteous requirement of the law
should be fulfilled in us,
who do not walk according to the flesh,
but according to the Spirit.
This is the divine law. It is the law of life. It makes the Christian life possible. It makes being conformed to the image of God’s Son possible. Without it, it is impossible.
Now, the second point I want us to think about: not only is there a divine law, but there is a divine image. We can be conformed to a lot of things, but God’s choice is narrowed to one thing.
Let us read a few verses. Second Corinthians 4:4:
In whom the god of this world
has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving,
so that the radiancy of the glad tidings
of the glory of the Christ,
Who is the image of God,
should not shine forth.
Now, here is the phrase I want you to notice: “Who is the image of God.” Underline it—or convince me that you did. Here is the divine image. It is none other than the Son of God’s love. There is only one image.
Look at Colossians 1:15:
Who is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
Who is the image of the invisible God? How are you going to know God? There is only one way to know God: through His image. That image is His beloved Son.
There is no other way to God, as the Lord Jesus said Himself: “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.” He says in John, “I am the door. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”
He is the sole image of the invisible God. In other words, He makes the invisible God visible. Through the revelation of the Lord Jesus, we begin to see what the invisible God is like.
It is remarkable how we need to see that there is only one image. In Hebrews 1:1-3, we read:
God, having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly
to the fathers in the prophets,
at the end of these days
has spoken to us in Son.
In my version, the words “in the person of the Son” are in brackets because they were added for understanding. So it says God has spoken to us in Son—the one and only image.
If you are going to know God, it is the only way: through the perfect image of His Son. The passage continues that He was established heir of all things, by Whom God made the worlds. Think about the creation story: He made creation.
It says that He is the effulgence of God’s glory. Now, that is a tricky word. I do not know how often you have used the word effulgence lately. Go up to your bride and say, “My dear, you look effulgent today.”
But I suspect not too many of you have used that word. It can only apply to the Lord Jesus. He is radiant. He is the full expression of that hidden glory.
Nothing fully expresses what God is like but the Lord Jesus. Therefore, He is the effulgence. He is the expression of that glory, the full expression of that glory. He is the radiance of God. He is the shining forth of God.
Everything that God is like is seen in our Lord Jesus. You remember the story of Philip—not our Philip here, but Philip in the Bible. Philip came to the Lord and said, “Show us the Father, and it suffices us.”
“Show me the Father. It will be enough.” The Lord Jesus said, “Philip, have I been with you so long, and you do not know Me? If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”
There is only one image. Hebrews 1:3 says that He is “the effulgence of His glory and the expression of His substance.”
That word substance comes from another Greek word. It means the very essence of what God is like, the very nature of what God is like.
I already spoke to you about Daily Grind. I do not think I am on this advertising kick, but I think there are some brilliant advertising strategies. One was when they took this perfume, and somebody had the idea—because perfume means essence—to call it Essence.
I imagine everybody was floored at that moment around the great table. They said, “That is it. That is it. It is Essence.” I understand it is all the perfume is supposed to be.
The Lord Jesus is all that God is. Colossians tells us, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” This is it.
Brothers and sisters, how we need to see not only the divine law, but the divine image. God has but one standard to conform us to, and it is the Lord Jesus.
We are conformed to the image of God’s Son. It is His gold standard. It is the mark to which we aspire. It is all we want to be: like Him.
When we read 1 John 3, we realise that in the end, when this conforming process is complete, we will be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. Remarkable. That is the process complete.
You know, we no longer have a gold standard anymore. What that means is that no government has a gold standard, by the way. It used to be that all money was backed by what was called a gold standard. Because of wars and because of this and that, they have retracted the gold standard.
That simply meant that whatever note you had was as good as gold. That is where the term comes from: “good as gold.” You could exchange it for gold. Now, I suppose if I handed Jerry my wallet with what little is in it, he would not give me gold.
Now we have what is called fiat money—no relation to the car. I remember when I took an economics course in my recent midlife crisis. The professor took out a twenty-dollar bill and said, “Do you know what is behind this?”
I said, “No, I do not know what is behind this.” He said, “Just the promise: fiat money, the full faith of the government of the United States of America.” Now, that ought to make you a little bit nervous today.
That is what is behind it. That is fiat currency. It is a pledge. It is worth what it is. If you do not believe us, we will print more.
But God has a gold standard. His gold standard—all of gold—is His precious life. Nothing like it. The most valuable. The most precious.
This is the divine image. It is a derived image. That is what the Greek word means. It comes out from Him, and He comes into us. It is derived from the original. It is not part of us; it comes from Him.
Remember that: it is a derived image. It is an image, as we said in the beginning, of divine life that is full of life. That is what makes it possible to live the Christian life.
This is God’s standard. It is the real thing. I got stuck a little on marketing. I remembered from my youth that you used to have a Coke commercial saying, “Coke: the real thing.” That was perfect marketing.
I do not know if these things have stuck in your mind, but they have stuck in my mind a little bit. The Lord Jesus is the only real thing. Everything else is excluded. He is the image. He is the divine image.
Well, I think you begin to understand. The last point, I hope, is an encouragement to you. All of this is part of a great divine process. It does not happen overnight.
I remember when we were first starting out here years ago, and Lance, as only Lance could do, got on his instant-coffee analogy. We all roared in laughter. We thought, “Ha! That is so funny.”
But do we not do that? Do we not want everything instantly? Do you understand that being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus does not happen overnight? But it is a divine process.
You can slow the process down. You can hinder the process. You can actually cause it so that nothing will be done benefiting that process, and in the end there will be wood, hay, and stubble.
But for some, something happens in the process, and there is gold, and there is silver, and there are precious stones. Those endure the test.
This is a divine process. Now, there is a little encouragement I just want to offer as I close about the divine process. I believe we see something of being conformed to His image, but there is something we have to understand about the process before we can go to the how.
The first part of the process is that there is a divine workman. Brothers and sisters, this is not your work. Often, when we put our hands on it, we spoil the work.
But when you read Ephesians 2:10—this is one of my favourite verses—it says:
For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus.
Is that not good news? There is a divine workman, and we are His workmanship. What a difference that makes.
Not only that, when you read Philippians 1:6, it says:
Having confidence of this very thing,
that He Who has begun a good work in you
will complete it unto Christ’s day.
Is that not good news? Brothers and sisters, not only is He the divine workman, but He says He will complete that work in us. Boy, that is good news. That is real encouragement.
You do not start the work, and you do not finish the work. I will make a confession to you. Last night, between preparation, I did slip a little bit and watch a little UVA baseball in the College World Series.
After all, I was convicted, so I could not do much. But I would catch little bits and pieces and ask Linda what was going on. One thing I discovered of spiritual worth through all that was that the fellow who began the work—the pitcher—did not finish the work.
They were always replacing the guy. I am not much of a baseball person; you will be able to tell this shortly. But you have these starters, and then you have these finishers. All of a sudden, they were going through this bevy of pitchers. Some people were just finishers.
Our Lord Jesus says, in His encouragement to us, that He Who has begun a good work in us will complete it unto Christ’s day. Is that not good news?
So much so that when the Bible closes with the book of Revelation, it is the only place it occurs four times: “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Four times.
Now, Alpha, for those of you who do not know, is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. So, in the beginning of Revelation, the very first words of our Lord Jesus in Revelation 1:8 are:
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end.
In verse 11, in the King James Version, it says:
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the first and the last.
Is that not good news? He Who begins the work will complete it. When you come to the end of the book of Revelation, it is not only at the beginning. In Revelation 21, when you see the bride, it says:
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end.
In Revelation 22, when it talks about His coming, it says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.” That is encouragement. Praise the Lord. He Who begins the work will complete the work.
Secondly, there is divine power. You know, we need power, but we cannot live this Christian life apart from divine power. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 3:17-18. I will read you these verses:
Now the Lord is the Spirit.
But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord
with unveiled face,
are transformed according to the same image
from glory to glory,
even as by the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, not only is there a divine workman, but there is divine power. Is that not wonderful?
You remember the Lord Jesus in John 14. Just before He left, just before His crucifixion, He said, “I will go to the Father, and I will beg the Father, and He will send another Comforter.”
Another Comforter means another of the same kind, just like Me. He said, “He will be with you forever.” Is that not good news, brothers and sisters?
Not only is He the workman who does the work, but He gives us the divine power resident in us to do the work. He gives us every resource we need so that we might be conformed to the image.
He does not just send anybody. You could think, in our way of thinking, that He could send some miscellaneous angel whose name He could not remember and say, “Would you go there and take care of them? Would you conform them unto My image?”
But no. What He does is most remarkable. The third Person of the Godhead—He takes God Himself and sends Him to live in you, to be that power to conform you to His image. That is remarkable by any standard.
That separates Christianity from everything else: God the Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence in us. This God has a single mission, and that single mission is to conform us, as the people of God, to the image of the Lord Jesus.
He does not have multiple tasks. He has a single mission. That is the divine power. Without that power, you cannot live.
You remember the Lord Jesus said, “Go, wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high.” Do not make light of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is your resident expert—and even that makes it sound menial.
God Himself in you, to conform you and to transform you into the image of God. A single mission.
Thirdly, there are the divine promises. I do not think we make enough of the promises. But I am convinced—and you have heard me say this before—that if you would begin to memorise the promises of God, it would change us.
There are over ten thousand promises of God in the Bible. How many of them do you know? If you would begin to remember the promises, recall the promises, and begin to speak to one another the promises of God, I think it would transform our meetings.
I think it would transform us as a people. I have often said this. I guess people thought I was kidding, because no one called me. Suppose Tuesday night somebody called me and said, “Kenny, can you listen to this promise?”
Instead of what Barack is doing, listen to this promise. It could change our life.
Divine promises. Not only is He the workman, not only does He give divine power, but He gives us divine promises. Listen to what the apostle Peter said about the divine promises in 2 Peter 1:4:
Through which He has given to us
the greatest and precious promises,
that through these we may become
partakers of the divine nature.
This is what we can do through the promises. These promises are not just words. So often your promises and my promises are just words. God’s promises are not just words.
It says in Hebrews that He Who cannot lie swears by Himself. The King James Version says, “exceeding great and precious promises.” Not just great.
I had a professor once tell me, “Quit using great so much. Great is mundane. Great is overused.” So Peter said, “Exceeding”—beyond anything you can imagine—“great and precious promises.”
Oh, the precious promises. Not only that, it says of the promises in 2 Corinthians 1:20:
For all the promises of God in Him are yea,
and in Him amen.
Is that not wonderful? You remember when your dad promised you the car: it is not always yes and amen. Try me out on that one.
But it says of the exceeding great and precious promises, every one in Christ is yes and amen. This is how we are conformed.
Listen to Hebrews 8:6. Speaking of the Lord Jesus:
But now He has got a more excellent ministry,
by so much more He is mediator of a better covenant,
which is established on the footing of better promises.
This is supposed to be the interactive part. Are you asleep? Better promises. That is what makes a difference.
Promises that mean something. Promises that can change you. Promises that can conform you to His image. Promises that do an eternal work, on the foundation of better promises.
Well, this is at least something of what the purpose and principle of being conformed to His image is. It is the highest calling there can be. Every provision is made for that calling.
He gives us life—the divine life. Not your life. Not human life. Not your best effort. Divine life. That is the divine law.
He does all these things that we may be able to live the Christian life. He shows us the ideal, the standard. When you look into the Lord Jesus’ face—I am going to give you a hint on the how—we are transformed from glory into glory into the same image.
That is how it begins: looking unto Jesus, the divine image.
Finally, there are the divine promises. The divine process has all those three things we talked about: divine workman, divine power, divine promises—all the divines. I hope you have that embedded in your memory.
May we be those who see Romans 8:28 and Romans 8:29 not as separate things, but as one thing, with God’s full heart expressed in it, and His full investment and His full power behind it.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we just commit to You these thoughts, however incomplete, that You will help us and teach us what it means to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
Oh God, we want to make the right choice in this life. We do not want to make the wrong choice. We want to choose life. We want to choose the Lord Jesus. We want to choose to be conformed to His image.
So we pray in the name of Jesus that You will be working in us, that our daily existence will be to this end, that everything that we touch in this life will be for that one end.
You will do this marvellous divine work in us that You have made every provision for. By Your grace, we will be transformed from glory to glory. We ask this in Jesus’ precious name.