We give thanks to the Eternal and Almighty God because He allows us this time to expose ourselves to His word under the covenant of the Holy Spirit, so that each one of us may walk according to the will of God and above all things, according to what He has determined for each one. We also give thanks to the Lord for his life, because He has deposited in his house a word by which He is making him walk according to the work that He has determined for these last days.
We are living in prophetic times, not only because prophetic words from the Old Testament are being fulfilled, but especially because we have been called to live in the times in which it shall be revealed to all humanity what was the original purpose for which God formed man and woman in the Garden of Eden. We are the generation that is bringing closure to this creation that the Lord formed several thousand years ago regarding man, and millions of years regarding all the things He has created in the entire universe.
The Concept of Perfection
We have been studying a topic of vital importance for the man and woman of faith: perfection. Many had the mistaken concept that perfection is only achieved when we reach heaven, that it does not belong to man or woman on this earth. However, we have seen through the word that there is sufficient doctrinal content to make us understand that perfection is a demand that the Lord establishes for the man and woman of faith.
Perfection is precisely the life of faith. To live the life of Christ Jesus is to live the life of faith, and to live the life of faith is to live in perfection. When the Lord reveals Himself to Abraham He tells him: “Walk before me and be perfect”. If Abraham is the father of faith and we are the children of faith, that word declared and that demand established for Abraham also pertains to each one of us.
Likewise, in the New Testament, the words of Jesus are in the same line: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. Perfection is a demand for the man and woman of faith while we are living on the face of the earth.
The Central Text: Galatians 4:19
In tonight’s teaching we go to the epistle of the apostle Paul to the Galatians, chapter 4, verse 19, where the apostle, addressing the men and women of faith of the churches of Galatia, tells them: “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you”.
This declaration establishes that there is a goal, a purpose, and a demand. Paul says: “This is my responsibility,” but there is also a demand for you: Christ must be formed in you. It is not only the competence of the apostle Paul, but it is the demand for each one of those who formed part of the faith community of Galatia. When we come to ourselves, we realize that it is also a demand for our lives.
The Central Question
How is Christ formed in us? It is not by evangelizing them, because Paul is already speaking to a faith community, to believers, not to unbelievers or people who have not known God.
Christ Formed as Dressing and Undressing
Paul is proposing that the formation of Christ in a man or woman of faith is something similar to dressing and undressing. In Galatians 3:27 he says: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. In Ephesians 4:24 he proposes: “And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”.
To the extent that man is clothing himself with Christ, to that extent Christ is being formed in us. To the extent that man or woman is undressing themselves of Christ, they are walking according to the law of sin and death.
This means that we are proposed a path of perfection where Christ must completely occupy the totality of our lives. Christ cannot be only our arm, our shoulders, or our feet, leaving out the head, hands, or some member of our body. The Spirit of God is establishing that perfection is nothing other than Christ occupying completely all our being: our mind, our appreciations, our judgment, our decisions, everything that is man, everything that is woman.
The Three Key Points
First Point: Breaking Free from the Law
In Galatians 3:10-11 we read: “For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith’”.
Christ is formed to the extent that man and woman break free from the law. The law only brings a curse upon man. The Galatians were not Jews, but they wanted to adopt Jewish practices to find greater fullness or to be sure they were walking according to the truth of the Gospel.
History repeats itself. There are many congregations that have accepted the influence of Judaism. There is a troubling tendency to approach Judaism. People are no longer using the term “Jesus” much, but are appealing to the term “Yeshua,” and are making constant references to Judaic tendencies, including “discovering the Hebrew roots of the Gospel.”
The Gospel is not the property of a nation. The Gospel is the message of grace, of salvation, of eternal life of the kingdom of heaven. It is not the product of a nationality; it is the message of Jesus as God incarnate, not as a Jew or Hebrew.
The law also applies to everything that represents a law for us: methods, processes, rituals, rites, protocols, norms, habits, daily and routine activities. As Galatians 4:10-11 says: “You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you”.
The man of faith and the woman of faith are not subject to a routine, norm, or ritual, because the Spirit is not subject to a rule, formula, or recipe. The Spirit does as He wills, according to the will of God.
Second Point: The Revelation of Grace
In Galatians 1:6-7 Paul says: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ”.
Christ is formed in us to the extent that we walk in the revelation of the grace of God. To the extent that man and woman walk in the revelation that God is delivering to them by grace and mercy, Christ Jesus is being formed in each one.
The parable of the talents illustrates this. Three servants received talents according to their capacity (understood as commitment). The one who received five made five more, the one who received two made two more, but the one who received one was afraid and hid it. All the others worked at 100%.
Many men and women of faith do not receive teaching from the Lord because when God revealed something to them at a certain moment, they did not walk by revelation, but took it and converted it into knowledge, taking it to the library of their reasoning. The life of faith is not theoretical.
If God declared something to you, even if it’s just one verse, it’s not only for you to marvel and forget. It’s for us to live it, exercise it, and establish it. Christ is formed in us to the extent that we walk in the revelation that the Lord is delivering to us.
Third Point: Living by Faith
In Galatians 2:20 we read: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”.
Christ is formed in us when each one of us lives by faith. Faith is not only the means to wait for something or for when we present a petition. We have developed a very poor concept of what faith is. Faith is the life of perfection.
Living by faith has to do with a commitment that each man and woman develops before the Lord. Understanding what it means that He took our place on the cross of Calvary, that He sweated drops of blood in agony, should provoke commitment in us. If He did not pay me back as I was, now I put my hand to the plow and do not look back.
Conclusion: The Demand for Formation
To the extent that we are unfaithful (not walking by faith is unfaithfulness), we are stripping ourselves of Christ, of His image and likeness. What good does it do a man or woman to be careful not to fall into sin if they do not live by faith?
Christ is formed in each one of us:
- To the extent that we distance ourselves from all law, from every norm, routine, ritual, and everything that binds or subjects the person, limiting our capacity to see God acting in our environment.
- To the extent that we walk in the revelation that He delivers to us by His grace and mercy. What the Lord delivers to us today should lead us to action, not just admiration.
- To the extent that we learn to walk and live by faith, understanding that the life of faith is the life of perfection, and that God has established us on this earth with a purpose, a mission, and a demand.
As the apostle Peter said: “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him?” It is not right, and we cannot stop our lives because of what society, laws, or others have determined. If God has told me, I do it. If God has determined it, I do it. This is the word of faith that each one of us must establish.
“My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” – this is the goal, the purpose, and the demand for every believer in our prophetic times.
