Conformed into His Likeness
Romans 8:29
Purpose Statement: We are called to be coformed to Christlikeness.
“In Discipleship Journal, Carole Mayhall tells of a woman who went to a diet center to lose weight. The director took her to a full length mirror. On it he outlined a figure and told her. “This is what I want you to be like at the
end of the program.” Days of intense dieting and exercise followed, and every week the women would stand in front of the mirror, discourged because
her bulging outline didn’t fit the director’s ideal. But she kept at it, and finally one day she coformed to the longed for image.” People try very hard
like this woman to conform to a physical image. But, our passage today will tell us that God’s goal for us is to coform to a very different kind of image.
(Read Verse).
Here is this wonderful chapter Romans 8, where Paul identifies for us what the purpose is for Christ calling us to believe in Him. The end goal, is
for us to be coformed to His image or likeness. We need to take a look more closely at a few of these words to understand what they mean:
To be coformed is the word SUMMORPHOS in the greek. It means the same form as another. The word “image” is the word EIKON which means the glorified body having the same type of spiritual body and moral character.
It’s not about becoming deity, but about becoming Christlike.
In “From Heaven’s View” by T.W. Hunt and Melana Hunt Monroe, they ask this question “What would it be like to live each hour of the day
seeing your words, choices, reactions, prayers, temptations, thoughts, views and feelings from the perspective of heaven?” One of the things it means to
be conformed into the likeness of Christ is to see ourselves and our world from the viewpoint of Christ. I specifically want you to think about what it would be like to view things from Christ’s viewpoint
1. In the way I look at sin. Jesus says in Matthew 5:29-30 that “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go
into hell.” Do we understand how seriously our sin is viewed in the eyes of God? That to Christ sin is sin and sin is vile, a violation of God’s law and
must be judged. One of the characteristics I should be growing in is my hatred of sin as a believer. Not my hatred of sinners, but hatred of sin.
2. In the love that I have for others. 1 John 4:7-8 “let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows
God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” When I look at what the standard is for loving others it is impossible for me
to follow with my own strength and abilities. I have to lean on God to grow within me the fruit of the Spirit of love for others. His love is defined as a
agape love- a unconditional love. It reflects not just a desire, but a choice. I have to chose first to love someone, then the feelings may follow later. Jesus tells me to “love my enemies and to pray for those who persecute me.” Matt 5:44. I can’t do that on my own. But, God can give me that kind of love
because he is love.
Two things to remember about God’s transforming us:
1. We do so under the power of the Holy Spirit as we surrender to His leadership.
2. It is a process that is never complete until we see Jesus. You are always going to be in process. None of us is perfect. Our goal though isn’t to
become like someone else, but rather to be like Christ.
When the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article likened him to some of the apostles, Judson replied, “I do not want to be like a Paul or any mere man. I want to be like Christ. I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet
in His footprints. Oh, to be more like Christ!” This is whose example we should be following.
3. In my fellowship with the Father- except on the cross, the fellowship that Christ had with the Father was unbroken. Jesus could say that He and the
Father were one. The fellowship He had with the Father was unbroken.
Jesus said theirs was a love that began before the world was created John 17:24.
