The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Forming of Christ in Us

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

The believers in Galatia had been saved and filled with God's Spirit. Paul spoke to them, as he did also to the believers in Ephesus, that they were to be strengthened until Christ was dwelling in them in the fullness of God.

There are numerous people in the world today who have been saved through the blood of Christ and have been filled with God's Holy Spirit. This is not the end. We must go on from here until Christ is formed in us.

We are using the term "born again" incorrectly today. It is as though all a person has to do is "make a decision for Christ" and he then is born again. No such usage is found in the Book of Acts or in the Epistles of Paul.

Making a decision for Christ is just that—it is deciding that Christ is our Redeemer and that we must come to Him if we are to be spared in the day of God's wrath.

But being born again has to do with our entrance into the Kingdom of God. Each moment of each day we must decide to go God's way or our own way. If we go our own way, nothing happens. We do not enter the Kingdom of God even though we have "made a decision for Christ."

If we go God's way of prayer, Bible reading, and obedience, our old adamic nature keeps dying and Christ keeps being born in us. Christ is formed in us, as the Apostle says. All the ministries of the Church keep on working and travailing that we might put our old nature on the cross and rise with Christ in newness of life.

Dying and living. Dying and living. Christianity is a religion. Salvation is a personal experience with the living Christ who gives us daily His body and blood that we might live by Divine Life.

This world is boring at best (unless one is living in the wild excitement of the fast lane—and the end of that is terrifying!) and a horror at worst. He who endures to the end shall be saved. But during this endurance contest we can know the joy of exchanging our adamic nature for the eternal life, wisdom, and power of God.

We cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God except as we are born again. Every member of the Kingdom must be born twice: once of woman and once of God. It is that second birth, birth of the Divine Nature, that brings forth the Kingdom of God, the rule of God, in us.

The weeds and the wheat are coming to maturity in our day. Each one of us is being forced to a decision. The middle ground is disappearing. Either we lay hold on the living Christ or we default to the power of Satan. We are only particles of dust confronted by two colossal personalities.

Choose Christ and you will walk the compressed, thorny path that leads to the gates of splendor.

Neglect Christ and you will walk in increasing deception until you realize you have been the plaything of forces greater than yourself and are driven to the flaming ovens that give no light.

O Lord, give us all eyes to see spiritual reality!