God forms Christ in us
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)
We have just described the doctrine of eternal judgment. This is the negative side of redemption. The positive side is the forming of Christ in us.
Christ is the House of God and the only House of God. Before the Father and the Son can make Their eternal abode in us in fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, Christ must be formed in us; for God will dwell only in Christ.
The evidence that Christ is being formed in us is that we are able to discern between good and evil, and to accept the good and reject the evil.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14)
We are of no use to God in His war against His enemies until we are sons of God, led of the Spirit to judge between good and evil, and determined through Christ to embrace the good and hurl the evil from us.
Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. (Jeremiah 15:19)
As the evil is cast from us Christ must be being formed in its stead. This will take place if we are living as a Christian, if we are staying in the place where the Lord can feed us with His body and blood. Permanent deliverance cannot take place until we are living as a dedicated disciple of the Lord.
As evil is removed and Christ grows in us we increasingly are able to distinguish between good and evil. This is the mark of maturity. It is not possible we can be fed the meat of the Word of God until we grow in the ability to choose between good and evil.
Everything that takes place in the Divine plan of redemption is against the backdrop of the original rebellion of angels. God's response to the original rebellion is shaping what is happening in the world. It is for this reason the Bible is a book of war, continually referring to enemies and warfare.
Until we begin to grow in the ability to choose good and reject evil we are of little or no use to God. If every person on earth were forgiven his or her sins it would not solve God's problems. It only is when a believer begins to grow in Christ that there comes a solution to the problem.
Present-day ministry concentrates on getting great numbers of people to "make a decision for Christ." Not only is this an unscriptural expression it has an unscriptural implication. It implies that God wants us all to come up to Paradise to live forever in mansions. If we may say so, this is a humanistic emphasis. It does not look to God's needs and desires, only to man's needs and desires.
It is time for God's prophets of today to begin to let the churches know about God's needs and God's desires. There are multitudes of people in the world who have been taught the basics of the Christian message. How many of them are genuine disciples of the Lord? How many are offering their body a living sacrifice to God? How many are obeying the Father sternly in all He says? Eighty percent? Sixty percent? Forty percent? Judging from what we have seen, probably one percent.
We have come to the conclusion that today's Christian message is not the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. It is a religious philosophy. Preachers and teachers are attempting to make converts to their religious ideas. They define faith as belief in their ideas rather than what faith actually is-our daily trust in the faithfulness of the living God. This is why their converts do not become cross-carrying disciples.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is not a religious philosophy. It is God in Christ. God in Christ is ready to come to each person and set him or her free from sin. After God comes to us the purpose of our life becomes that of working out our deliverance from sin with fear and trembling.
If all the Christians in the world would turn away from sin, take up their cross, and follow the Lord Jesus, the course of history would be changed. But this is not going to happen. More and more people will "have their sins forgiven and be on their way Heaven," but the roles and tasks of the Kingdom will find very few indeed who can fill them.
This will continue to be true unless Christian leaders everywhere begin to teach the people of the plan of God that operates after we have been saved and filled with the Spirit of God. It is time to call the churches to repentance before God; for the people to turn away from worldliness, lust, and self-will, and to approach God for the power to put sin to death.
Until Christ is formed in us we will keep being led astray by doctrines that come short of the Glory of God. Also, we are of little use in God's war against Satan.