We continue now in our discussion of the great need of our time. In episode one, we talked about the fact that growing in Christ-likeness is the essence of the Christian faith, and that apart from progress in Christ-likeness, one simply is not a Christian at all. In fact, in Romans 8, we learn that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. And it is impossible, of course, to possess the Spirit of Christ, to have His very life within you, and not give evidence, not have some tangible expression in your character, in your conduct, and in your daily thinking and your affections. So this is a very serious topic, but at the same time, it is very glorious and very joyous to know that God has granted us to have that level of intimacy with his son, so that we not only know about him, but that we know him. And we not only know him from a distance or some abstract form, rather we know him because we are becoming like him, because he has taken up residence within us. And so that our very expression of our daily thinking, our affections, our conduct, are becoming more like his. I told you in the first episode that it is God's primary purpose to conform you into the image of His Son. I also mentioned to you that it's not about perfection. We recognize that we all stumble in many ways and that we are in a now and not yet position as far as the eschatological aspect of our salvation. Salvation itself is an eschatological salvation. It was something that was expected to occur only at the end of human history. But when our Lord came into this world and he took on human flesh, he lived the perfect life, he died and made atonement for his sins, for his people, for the sins of his people, And after making atonement for the sins of his people, after making that glorious propitiation, he rose from the dead. God raised him from the dead, which is the beginning of a new creation and a new humanity of which you are a part. If you are in Christ, you are part of a new humanity. And while we don't expect that to be absolutely perfected in this lifetime, we should pursue it as though it were possible. and not simply concede, as many do these days, well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. Because in as much as that is true, technically, you are a sinner saved by grace. But grace is a transforming power. It isn't just a get-out-of-jail-free card. We are saved with a purpose, and that purpose is to be conformed into the image of Christ to the greatest degree possible in this lifetime, so that we ought to pray rather than, I'm just a sinner saved by grace and dismiss the sins of ourselves and others, Rather, we have to pray, Lord, conform me into your image to the greatest degree possible in this lifetime. And before we get into my exegesis or my Bible study about what this looks like in Scripture, let me begin that by giving you a text from 1 John, which is one of my most favorite texts because it has so much to do with this topic. You know, this is really like a hidden gospel. It is like a missing gospel in the church today. We hear so much about get saved and behave. We hear so much about, in conservative circles, about the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and rightly so. That is a very precious doctrine. We hear a lot about justification by faith alone, and that too is a precious doctrine, as the basis for the Reformation in the 16th century. What we don't hear about is completing the whole counsel of God so that the believer not only is brought into a state of justification and the new birth, but that that new birth by necessity will result and produce new life through the life of Christ in inness, so that Christ in you becomes the hope of glory. 1 John chapter 2, we'll begin there, and now little children abide in him. So you have been born again, you have been born of the Spirit, you are now in Christ, and now he's saying, and now, little children, abide in him. That when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. So this is not just an imputed righteousness. This is not just what God has given us as far as status with himself. This is a righteousness that is practiced. It is Christ's own righteousness still. It's not about us acquiring merit through our own righteous acts. It is about a righteousness that is ours in Christ that is practical, that is being worked out in your heart, mind, and affections, and in your daily conduct. Then in chapter three of 1 John, we read this. Behold, take a look, examine, peer into, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. See, you're either in the world, including your worldly religion, or you're in Christ, and the world does not know you. If you're too cozy with the world, and the world's too cozy with you, you ought to examine yourself Because the love of the Father may not be in you, you may not be in Christ at all. Therefore the world does not know us, John says, because it did not know him. Verse two, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. So we are in a now and not yet status. But we know that when he is revealed, When he returns for us, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. There's a coming a day when we shall see him as he is. We shall see him, we'll behold him face to face, and we'll be perfected in his likeness. And then it goes on in verse three, and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure, end quote. So this is a cause for great motivation. It is the purpose that gets me up in the morning. The thought that I can experience the great privilege, the unspeakable honor and gift and grant of grace to be transformed into the image of God's dear Son in a very practical manner, in a very real, practical, existential way. is daily astonishing to me, especially, of course, when I see it working out in my own life, and how I conduct myself, how I think, and my affections, my relationship with my wife and children, my relationship with people in the church, all become conditioned by this life of Christ that is being worked out in my character. This is truly a hidden gospel. You would think that this had nothing to do. This is like a foreign language to some Christians. They just don't understand that to be in Christ means to grow ever increasingly more like him. So what I want to do today then, is I want to take some time to walk you through some texts, not just a verse here, a verse there, but a context as well, so that you can see that throughout the New Testament, this is God's primary purpose for you as a Christian. Not only the new birth, not only justification, but that you would come to a saving knowledge of Christ in such a manner that the new birth leads to new life in Christ, where you are progressively more and more like him. Let me just tell you, the devil's worst nightmare is that Jesus Christ would be replicated untold numbers of time on the earth. And so this is why the resistance is so strong on this point. This is why so much of this has been dismissed in the church as being necessary. So that salvation becomes kind of an abstract concept. Are you saved? Yeah. How do you know you're saved? Well, I've said the prayer and I was baptized and I go to church regularly and it's all these things that we talk about. the sanctuary we hang our eternal destiny on that have nothing to do or are not reliable evidences that we are even in Christ. The only reliable evidence that we can have boldness on the day of judgment is that we are becoming like Jesus. So I want to share with you now a few passages that will be helpful to you to understand this important topic much deeper. So, it is God's primary purpose to conform every believer to the image of his dear son in thought, word, and character. To be born again means one has been infused with a new nature by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. That principle alone is, again, foreign to most Christians. So let me say it again. To be born again means one has been infused with a new nature by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. It is this new birth, then, that develops into ever-increasing conformity to Christ. And this conformity to Christ is God's primary purpose in your life. It isn't about who you marry. It isn't about what you do for a living. It isn't about how you take care of yourself. It isn't about where you live. It is about conforming to God's Son. It is the good, in fact. It is the good for which God causes all things to work together. Now, in this current environment, in this current evangelical environment, it may be hard to imagine that this is the case. But that simply means you need to change your way of thinking. You have to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Romans 12.2. So the best way to change our thinking is to expose our mind to the text of scripture. So the first text I'll read to you is Romans 8.26-30. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. What's that purpose? Verse 29. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. end quote that's romans 8 26 through 30 so that's the essence of god's purpose in your life right there that's the message that god has an eternal purpose for you a purpose that he determined in eternity long before you ever heard the gospel, long before you were ever born again, long before you were ever justified by faith alone, long before you ever entered the church. It was in the heart and the mind of God in eternity. when he foreknew you to predestine you to be conformed to the image of his Son in thought, word, deed, and character. And I might add, very important, it's a matter of nature. So as Peter says in 2 Peter 1, we are made partakers of the divine nature. We share in the very nature of Christ. Isn't these astonishing things? Aren't these things just things that make you pause and consider how shallow I have been living my Christian life? You need not stay there, my dear brother or sister. In his letter to the Corinthians, the same apostle refers to he and his associates as, quote, ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. This means Paul and the other apostles went about declaring that the promise that God would literally create a new people for his namesake has been fulfilled. And what is the outcome of this new covenant? Paul continues in 2nd Corinthians, saying, quote, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." This is God's purpose for you, is that His image in you would be renewed. that the image that was lost and tarnished and shattered was by sin can be restored so that in Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ and by Jesus Christ God has made his image visible again in the earth. in the person and work of Jesus Christ and now in the people to whom he belongs and to the belong to him. So God has from eternity decreed to create a people for his name who bear his glorious image. a decree that is fulfilled in the person and gospel of Jesus Christ and in all those united to him by grace through faith. In a different letter to the Colossians, Paul instructs that his readers, having put off the old man, must now put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him." That's Colossians 3.10. You see there's a thread, there's a theme, there's a constancy to this message, and it runs throughout the New Testament. A similar instruction, for instance, is given in the letter to the Ephesians, where he tells them to put on the new man, quote, put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness, end quote. You are a new creation in Christ. You are a member of a new humanity in Christ. That new creation, which is yet to be fully realized in a new heaven and a new earth, has nonetheless been manifested in the now. And that you, who are in Christ, are a new creation. You are living evidence, present day evidence, of that promise, of that which is yet to come, but nonetheless is clear in you. We're going to pause there. Again, I want to give you this in segments that are not too hard to process and to contemplate on. We don't have to be in a hurry. We do need to be urgent. We do need to be careful to pursue this with all vigor and all passion. We're talking here about your eternal destiny. And we're moving away from an era in which we assumed that if a person believed rightly about justification, or they could make some kind of a considered confidence that they had been born again based upon things that are unreliable, that they were in fact on their way to heaven, that they could have boldness at the day of judgment. But it's been fallacious. And I dare say that untold numbers of souls have already stepped into eternity at death, having believed that they were secure in their salvation when they were not. And while I won't speculate on that, it is an awesome, fearful, trembling thing to consider. Because the only confidence that we have The only assurance that we can have that we are in Christ and that we may have boldness on that day, so that when you take the final breath and slip into eternity, or that the Lord returns for us and we stand in judgment, will be that we are like Him. That as He is, so are we in the world. that we are like Jesus. However imperfect, however haltingly, we are making progress. We are nonetheless making progress. But let me end with this. There is, in addition to the progress that you make in Christ, in growing in his character, There is this element also, there's just an aspect of that, and this is this, and that is this, the passion that if you could be perfected in this lifetime, you would. You see what I'm saying? Very important. Every time I hear somebody shrug their shoulders and throw up their hands and say, well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. And so dismiss their sins and the sins of others. I get nauseated. I tremble. When the fact is, if you are growing in Christ, if you're in Christ, the only thing you want is to become more like him. So in addition to your progress and becoming more like him, it's a progress that is fueled by a passion that pursues that conformity to Christ as though it were possible to be perfected in this lifetime. So keep that in mind as well. I really want to encourage you to examine yourself and to consider those about you. And if you have pastors who insist on speaking from the pulpit by affirming you as a sinner and affirming you as though you were once a train wreck who didn't believe in Jesus, but now you're a train wreck who believes in Jesus and therefore it's okay, beloved, that's not, that is not the gospel. I labored myself under that kind of teaching for 20 years. I could not understand how I could be a Christian and still be living like the rest of the world. And I went to pastors, I went to teachers, I went to fellow Christians and asked for guidance and got none. That's not the gospel. And so the gospel is that if you know Christ, You know you're in him because you're becoming more like him. God's eternal purpose, as I've told you today, God's eternal purpose is to conform you into the image of his son. Jesus remains the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to him. No one comes to him except that the Father draws him. And so he is the only way. There's only one set of footprints. There's only one narrow way. And those footprints are his, and we must walk in them. In the next episode, in part three, I will talk to you about the agony of the Apostle Paul. That even though he had led a whole region to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, He remained in agony. And I'll talk to you what that agony was tied to. It wasn't just getting people saved and teaching them to behave. There was more to it than that. And Paul agonized until that was fulfilled. We'll look at that closer in part three. And may the Lord keep you in his grace and mercy. And may the Lord, the Holy Spirit, illuminate your heart and minds to the things that we are saying here. It is biblical truth that will transform you as you embrace it and begin to change your thinking about what it means to be a Christian, to live and to love as Christ did. Amen.