When Christ is Formed in Us

The past couple of days I have been meditating on the parallel between a prophecy of Jesus being “formed” in Mary’s womb[1] and Paul’s use of the imagery of childbirth to speak of Jesus Christ being “formed in you!”[2] Here they are side-by-side: 

Isaiah 49:5	Galatians 4:19-20
And now the Lord says,     he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him;     and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,     and my God has become my strength—	It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

There aren’t enough words to convey the glory of this, that in a rhyming thought to the way God formed Jesus in Mary’s womb, he is at work to have Christ formed in us. 

One thing I have often been in trouble for is making everything about Jesus. People have accused me of not having normal interests like everyone else (ignoring my love of writing, songwriting, gardening, woodworking, photography, guitar playing, backroad drives, hiking, camping, exploring the seashore, and playing with my little friends in our daycare). 

However, when I consider the anguish Paul described as he felt like a woman in labor, I can’t see how he would have accused me of being too much about Christ. He knew that the Galatian Christians were being led astray to a works-based religiosity that completely nullified the gospel of grace through faith. What was being formed in them was a message of despair, a toxin poisoning the womb, so to speak. 

Paul’s message was that, while the false teachers were making much of themselves and their so-called brilliance in designing a gospel that added the old covenant to the new, Paul was urging the Galatian Christians to get their eyes back on Christ so that Christ himself would be formed in them. 

To show how all-encompassing this was in Paul’s mind, here are the words from a couple of commentators to help you see where I’m going with this. One describes “Christ is formed in you” as meaning, “that you may live nothing but Christ, and think nothing but Christ, and glory in nothing but Him, and His death, resurrection, and righteousness.”[3] 

Another expands on this to mean, 

…until Christ be formed in you, that is, until your whole inner being proclaims Christ’s being and his ways, so that you will trust fully in your Savior, will be like him in your thoughts, wishes, and aspirations, and will reflect him in the common words you speak, in life’s common looks and tones, in intercourse at hearth or board with your beloved ones, in brief: in the entire gamut of your existence and manifestation among men.[4] 

What this tells me is that the concept of Jesus Christ being formed in us is all-consuming. It does mean that our lives are all about him. And Paul wanted us to know that the apostles felt anguish as a woman in labor, seeking that the life of Christ would be birthed in the children of God as fully as is possible this side of heaven. 

But when Paul says “again”, it speaks of this impossible picture of a child turning away to deadly things and the mother somehow having to go through the same anguish of childbirth all over again to bring the child back to life. Paul was perplexed as to how it had happened that these people needed to be brought back to Jesus when they had already welcomed him into their lives. 

One of my life-themes has been God calling me to suffer for people when they are not willing (or able) to do anything for themselves (that’s what babies are like, after all). When we are burdened for the lost who don’t care one little bit about their eternal destiny, or church folk who had started so well in their love for Jesus grow cold and don’t seem to care how they are doing, God burdens our hearts to love these people like a woman would go through the anguish of labor all over again if she could bring her rebellious child back into the life of Jesus Christ. 

Paul’s mentoring makes it clear that God wants us to let ourselves feel the anguish of childbirth as we labor over the lost and deceived to seek their turning or returning to Christ. For starters, that means expressing this anguish-of-childbirth in a willingness to feel anguish in prayer as we agonize over our intercession for others. 

However, we do this with the expectation that the Holy Spirit will also orchestrate ways for us to do this in person. And when he does, we join God in his work like a woman who desperately wants to give birth and welcome the child for which she labored!  

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] Isaiah 49:5

[2] Galatians 4:19

[3] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 334). Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[4] Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of Galatians (Vol. 8, p. 176). Baker Book House.

The Glory of Forgiveness of Sin

I am now going through Psalm 65 applying the first verse to the whole rest of the Psalm. The first verse identifies Zion as the place where God’s children give him our praise, and each verse highlights different aspects of the praiseworthiness of our God. 

This morning I began here: 

1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,     and to you shall vows be performed.

3 When iniquities prevail against me,     you atone for our transgressions.

What filled me with awe and wonder was the “everyday” sound to this. It wasn’t referring to David’s big sin with Bathsheba and his manslaughter charge against her husband. It was just describing a generic experience of being overcome by sin. 

Under the Old Covenant, Zion was the place where God atoned for the transgressions of his people. David didn’t say, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day”[1] because he perfectly kept the Ten Commandments. He rejoiced in God’s law because it had provisions for any kind of sin that could overcome him!

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,

    O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,

    that you may be feared.

(Psalm 130:3-4) 

This has been a favorite expression in the Psalms for a long time. I like the way the NIV expresses verse 3, “If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?” If God had a record book where he marked down our iniquities, sins and transgressions, rhetorically speaking, who could possibly stand in his presence?! 

But everyone under the old covenant knew there was forgiveness of sins. Every conceivable way someone could sin had a provision for it in the covenant. The people simply had to have the faith to obey and observe what was required, but they knew that it was their God, glorious in Zion, glorious in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, who forgave their sins through the death of a sacrifice. 

It is fascinating to me that I felt compelled to begin a journey through the scriptures to learn why Christians, especially us Gentile ones, could appreciate what it means in Hebrews that, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…” What is the imagery of Mount Zion that would give us so much hope and encouragement even when being persecuted and beaten down by worldly authorities? 

I have already gained so much from this journey, and stopping at each viewpoint to take in whatever new facets of Zion are revealed in the scriptures, but today’s vantage point is to see the praise that is due to God in Zion because that is where the Tabernacle was, and that is where the people observed all the sacrifices that provided for the forgiveness of their sins, and that is where my mentor would go whenever he was overcome by sin, iniquity and transgression, absolutely assured that Yahweh God would forgive him. And for that, Yahweh was worthy of overwhelming praise! 

And that was all under the Old Covenant! 

Under the New Covenant, we have so much more!!! 

On the night that Jesus would be betrayed by Judas, deserted by all the disciples, and denied three times by Peter, our Savior said these words, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”[2] What Jesus’ death the next day would provide forever was a new covenant in which we would never again need to bring a sacrifice for sin in order to receive forgiveness. Jesus himself is that sacrifice, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[3] 

The point in this is that we must bring David’s expression, “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,” and let it attach to our own experience of, “When iniquities prevail against me,” so that we are all the more convinced that “you atone for our transgressions,” under the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood than David understood under the Old Covenant in the endless sacrifices that were required. 

After all, that is the point of the passage in Hebrews 12 that spurred me on to make the journey through scripture to get to know Mount Zion. We have not come to Mount Sinai where the Old Covenant with all its laws was given to Moses. 

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.[4] 

This reality gives us every bit as many reasons to praise Yahweh and Jesus Christ in the heavenly Zion as David worshiped with sacrifices of praise in earthly Jerusalem. God still forgives sin, but by a much greater sacrifice than David had ever seen. 

It is no wonder that Hebrews would conclude with such a glorious expression of praise as this: 

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.[5] 

 And all God’s people said, “AMEN!!!!!!!”

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] Psalm 119:97

[2] Luke 22:20

[3] John 1:29

[4] Hebrews 12:22-24

[5] Hebrews 13:20-21

Zion: The Place of Praise and Vows

If there was only one thing I could teach anyone, it would be how to attach to God in his word and prayer on a daily basis. After all, faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the word of Christ, and letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly rhymes with being filled with the Spirit, and since the righteous shall live by faith, why not attach to the person and words that give us the faith to live! 

I am continuing on a journey of understanding Zion throughout the whole Bible. This originates in what the writer of Hebrews expresses when he reminds persecuted believers that we have not come to Mount Sinai with all its terrifying revelations of God but “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem”.[1] I realized that Jewish believers of the time would have had a much clearer idea of what this meant, but Gentile believers would need to know the background to such a description. And that is how I began my journey. 

At present, I am working through Psalms that refer to Mount Zion by name (there are so many others that speak of it in other ways). Each reference is like a viewpoint on a trail that leads around Mount Zion, and each time I stop to take in the view, I learn new things about what it means for us today, while also seeing themes developing to reinforce why even Christians today would be so encouraged by the reminder that we have come to the Mount Zion of heaven. 

Today I moved on to the next reference to Zion, and it is this: 

Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
    and to you shall vows be performed.[2] 

Zion was Jerusalem, and David is picturing the people coming before God in Zion, the place where the Tabernacle expressed God’s presence with his people, soon to be replaced by the Temple. 

My main focus was on “praise” and “vows”. If Christians come to the heavenly Mount Zion, and praise and vows are the characteristics of our relationship to the Triune God, it says, on one side, that Yahweh is worthy of all our praise and all our vows, and, on the other side, that praise and performing our vows is how we relate to him. 

I found a parallel between this verse and another passage: 

Who shall ascend the hill of Yahweh?

    And who shall stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

    who does not lift up his soul to what is false

    and does not swear deceitfully.[3] 

The “hill of Yahweh” and “his holy place” also mean Zion, Jerusalem, the Tabernacle/Temple. 

“Clean hands” and “a pure heart” signify both the inner and outer expressions of faith. Our hearts are pure in that we truly have faith and love for God. And our hands are clean in that what we do in our actions expresses our faith and love for God. 

Also, under both the old and new covenants, this did not mean that people didn’t sin, but that they dealt with sin as the covenant required. Under the old covenant this means performing appropriate sacrifices; under the new covenant it meant confession and repentance of sin, what we call “keeping short accounts with God.” 

The application is that when Christians are reminded that we come to Mount Zion, the city of the Great King, we must continue to see God as worthy of praise even while the world goes to hell in a handbasket, as they say, and we must perform our vows to God (things we have agreed with him about over the years that are his will for our lives), and continue to live by those vows no matter what we see happening around us. 

I am thankful to see how this journey of exploring Zion in the scriptures is helping me get the picture of why the writer of Hebrews wanted to remind persecuted Christians that this is where we come today as the one new man in Jesus Christ. Zion is where the only true God resides, and he is so glorious and good that praise is due to him no matter how bleak things look on earth, and no matter how the name of Jesus Christ is blasphemed all around us. We keep praising him, and we keep performing our vows of faith to his glory.

 

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] Hebrews 12:22

[2] Psalm 65:1

[3] Psalm 24:3-4