Hymns 948
Scripture Reading:
Rom. 8:29-30 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.
BEING CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF
GOD’S FIRSTBORN SON
How can we be conformed to the image of God’s Firstborn? To know how to be conformed to the image of God’s Firstborn, we must understand how God’s Firstborn lived on earth. The firstborn Son of God is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. He is the God-man, and He lived the life of a man on earth. The life which He lived on earth was the very life which God desired man to live when He created man. After the fall, man was not able to live the life which God wanted man to live. Hence, the only begotten Son of God came to become the Son of Man. In the four Gospels, from beginning to end, the Lord called Himself the Son of Man (Matt. 8:20; 26:64); He lived as a man on earth. He lived as a man daily under the shadow of the cross, denying and crucifying Himself daily. He told people that none of the words which He spoke was spoken by Himself and none of the things which He did was done out of His own desire (John 8:28-29; 14:10). He spoke words and did things according to His Father’s will. By doing this He fulfilled what God required judicially. This was why He was qualified to die for us on the cross. In His human living on earth for thirty-three and a half years, the Lord Jesus was tested and tried by God. Eventually, according to God’s requirement of righteousness judicially, He was qualified to go to the cross to bear our sins and die for us. God considered Him a sinner, even sin (2 Cor. 5:21), and condemned Him on the cross. His death was altogether a judicial matter for the accomplishment of God’s requirement of righteousness judicially. This was what He did as the Son of Man. The crucified life which He lived on earth as the Son of Man became a mold; we should be conformed to such a mold (Phil. 3:10b).
BEING CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH IN ALL THINGS
THROUGH THE RESURRECTION POWER OF CHRIST
In summary, conformation is the consummation of the believers’ transformation in life, and it is also to be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, who is Christ as the God-man. To be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son is the believers’ becoming full-grown in life as God-men. This is to be conformed to His death in all things through the resurrection power of Christ (Phil. 3:10) and to live Christ for magnifying Him through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the God-man (Phil. 1:19-21a). This is to be the reprints of the God-man, Christ, that we may be exactly like Him, the firstborn Son of God (1 John 3:2). (The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation, pp. 68-73)
Further Reading: The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation, msg. 5; The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation: ‘The Spirit Himself with our Spirit’, ch. 5; CWWL, 1963, vol. 1, “The Believer’s Experience of Transformation,” ch. 7
