Until Christ be Formed in You

By Joyce Webb 2023

Galatians 4: 19
Paul is writing to the believers in Galatia.

He said, “I travail” (work very hard) ——-in praying and teaching —-”until Christ be formed in you.”

We first come to Christ to be forgiven of our sins. That should mean —that we are sorry for our sins—-and that we intend to stop sinning.

Some Christians use sentences like—-”I asked Jesus to come into my heart.” or “I ask Jesus to come into my life.”

This means—that from now on—you intend to choose to live and speak—the way Jesus would want you to do.

When we first begin to follow Jesus—-we are like a baby taking first steps. The steps are small, and we are not steady. But as we go along—we get more steady and stronger.

Our walk with Jesus is like that. At first, we may still have bad habits in our life.

We may still get angry quickly. We may still say words that we should not say.

We will still be self-centered—-doing our own will—not what God would want.

As a new Christian—we may not know what the Bible teaches. We may not know that some things are a “sin”.

We may not know what God wants from us.
That is why we need to read the Bible.
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The Bible most people know about was written back in the 1600’s.
The King of England—King James—had 47 men who had studied the old languages of Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and Latin.

Those are the languages that the scriptures were first written in.

These men came together to write the scriptures into the English language.

In the 1600’s—the English language used words that we do not use today—or now—we use the words differently.

When people read the “King James Version” of the English Bible—-they can find it hard to understand in some places.

Nowadays—the Bible has been written into more modern English. You can find newer English Bibles in bookstores or online.

There are some that are written in very simple easy English words.

(I have a list of some on my website.)

It would be good for you to find a Bible that is easy for you to understand.

Then read it everyday. Read a chapter or two—everyday.

It will take about 1 year to read all the way through the Bible.

There are some books of the Bible that are about Jewish laws that are hard to read. You could skip over those at first. Go on to other parts.

Some chapters are lists of people—you could skip over those, too.

It would be best to begin in the New Testament. It is the easiest to read. It talks about Jesus.

The Old Testament is important. But it is harder —in places—to read.

At some point in time—you need to read it. But probably not start there.

As you read the Bible—-you will learn what God wants you to do.

You can also go to Bible Study groups that your church has—or maybe someone has in their home.

If you go to a Bible Study in someone’s home—you need to be sure of what they believe and know.

You do not want to be part of a study that is not teaching the truth—-and not just someone’s ideas —-that is not what the Bible teaches.

It would be better to go to a Bible Study in a church where you know what they would be teaching.

Churches have papers that tell you what they believe and teach—-it depends on the kind of church they are.
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As we walk with Jesus—-the Holy Spirit begins to speak to us in our mind and spirit. The Holy Spirit whispers into our mind that something we are doing or thinking —is wrong.

That is for our learning —to listen to God. We need to change that thing —-we need to think different, we need to stop doing something, we need to start doing something.

When that thing is hard for us to change—we need to pray to God to help us learn how to change it—so we can please God.

Some changes —take time.
God is patient and works with us—we have to be honest about wanting to change to please God.

Over time we are able to change to do things and think in ways that please God.

This is what we mean —when we say—”until Christ be formed in you.”

Being like Christ does not happen in a minute.

God forgives our sin in a minute. But we do not become like Christ in our ways of thinking, or living—-in a minute—it takes time to learn and change.

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When we feel the Holy Spirit speaking to us in our mind about something—–the word for that is “conviction”.

A feeling –knowing—that a certain thing does not please God and we need to stop doing it.

A small child does not like to share. He has to be taught.

A small child does not control his anger—he has to learn.

A small child does not control his feelings and actions —-he has to learn.

The child does not know that those things are “faults”, “wrong”
“failing” “not mature”—he learns.

As new Christian believers—we have to learn those things, too.

At first, we may not know that some of the things we do or say do not please God. We have to learn.

We have to learn to be more like Christ. That takes time.

Some people learn faster than others. Some people have a hard time learning to control certain things about themselves— and it takes them years to improve.

The Holy Spirit is a wonderful teacher. He is patient. He is gentle.
He keeps on it—He does not give up.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit will point out something to you—you need to change it. You work on it awhile —but then give up or ignore it.

Later, the Holy Spirit brings it to your mind again. You need to change this. So you work on it again.

This is the way we learn to be like Christ. Paul said, “until Christ be formed (shaped) in you.” Until the shape of Christ —is in us.

The “shape” the “form” of Christ is in us—and we act more and more like Jesus would.

It is a life-long process of learning.

There is always something more we can do better to be more like Christ.

Our human nature has many weaknesses. Our basic nature is selfish. We want our own way. We do not want anyone to tell us what to do. We do not want to surrender (give up) our will and what we want —to do someone else’s will.

That is human nature. It will always be with us. We will always have to fight against it—-to give up our will to follow Christ’s will.

That is just the way it is.

But as we go along—-learning—yielding to the Holy Spirit—obeying becomes easier—giving up our will to do God’s will— gets easier.

We start obeying quicker. We learn to be sensitive (quick to feel) the Holy Spirit speaking to us.

He does not have to “shout” at us—we learn to hear his “whispers”—-his gentle speaking to us.

At this point—- in our growing as a Christian—we can see Christ being “formed” in us. Other people can see it, too.

It would be a wonderful thing—-if when people meet us—and know us—they can see Christ in us.

It would be a wonderful thing—if people felt Christ’s presence and spirit—when we were near.

This is our goal—-to have Christ formed in us.

In another “lesson” I speak about being the “salt” of the earth. That is what Jesus called Christians.

When Christ is shaped in us—formed in us—then we are like “salt”—-to add “flavor”— to add a good thing—-to help save and “preserve”, to heal, to make clean,—all those things that salt can do.

Christ in us. Not of ourselves. It is Christ in us—-showing His love and His thoughts—-to others.

Let us give attention—to letting Christ be formed in us.