Conformed

This past Sunday as our pastor was preaching about living in victory, he described Jesus’s example of obedience to the Father, of His example of suffering because He really wasn’t a part of this world (in the sense of agreeing with the pervasive sinfulness around Him—around everyone since the fall). As believers we are being conformed to His image.

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29, NKJV)

We are being conformed to the image of this One who suffered as He obeyed God. This One who communed without interruption in His heart with God. This One who walked in humility and dignity, with compassion and mercy, in meekness and strength. He didn’t have to prove who He was. He simply lived and worked as He saw the Father moving.

How comfortable are you with this idea of being conformed to His image? Does the idea make you squirm, because you envision suffering and a life that is pleasure-less? Do you esteem your priorities higher than God’s for your life? Do you esteem yourself higher than the humble Christ who gave Himself on behalf of the world? I wrestled with some of these questions as I sat in church on Sunday.

I’m going to do a series on this concept of being conformed, but not in the way you might think. Instead of focusing on what we’ll have to do to change, how we’ll have to fight our nature and let God mold us, I’m going to use the principle of “beholding is becoming.” When we behold something we become like it. If, for example, we were to focus on fashion magazines. Soon, we’d be dressing like the models we’ve seen and changing hairstyles and accessories to match new fads.

When we behold Jesus, in the many facets that make up His character, we will become like Him. The more we behold Him (through the Word, through prayer, through communion with Him) the more we will become like Him. We will be conformed to His image.

So, let’s cooperate on that Potter’s wheel and entrust ourselves to God’s hands, just like Jesus did.