Conformed

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. - Romanns 8.29

We hear and read a lot about predestination. When I was posting on a Baptist Internet discussion board the three topics that stirred up the hottest fights were politics, Bible versions, and predestination. Predestination has been fought over for centuries. People question each other's salvation over the topic. If you walk into a room with more than two Christians you are probably going to have a split of the topic of predestination.

Well I am not going to enter that fight. I am going to briefly address a predestination that I think we can all agree on. (Now as soon as I say that someone is going to disagree and let me know about it.)

Those who God foreknew were going to be saved He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. That’s means that believers are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. We are predestined to be like Jesus.

John talks about that when he writes that when we see Christ we are going to be like Him. That of course speaks of our total sanctification which is not going to be completed in this lifetime. Because we still have to deal with the flesh so are not going to be totally conformed to Him until we see Him.

But Paul’s writes about conformity when he says ‘Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ Another place Paul tells us that our mind should be the mind of Christ – ‘let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.’

Since our destiny is to be one day conformed to the image of Christ why are we so concerned about being conformed to the image of the world? Why do we mind the things of the world instead of minding the things of Christ?

He is our destiny. We ought to be living now in such a way that we reflect that destiny.