Galatian 4:19 - "My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you"

How is or how doe we form Christ in us?

Our Answer:

Again, we need to turn to context to help with explaining this.  The book of Galatians may very well have been the first book Paul wrote.  Galatia was a Roman Province in what we today would call central Turkey.  It was established by Augustus in about 25 BC with its capital in Ancyra.  We know Paul established a congregation in Antioch of Pisidia, Acts 13:14 to 49.  From there Paul and Barnabas went to Iconium and from there to Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, Acts 13:51 to 14:7.  This all took place during Paul’s First Missionary Journey in about 48, 49 or shortly thereafter.  In each place Paul first went to the Jewish synagogue and proclaimed Jesus to both Jews and Greeks.  Also, in each place, Jews had a large hand in causing trouble for Paul and Barnabas driving them out of several cities.  It seems likely that the book of Galatians was written shortly AFTER Paul returned to Antioch, from which he had departed on his First Missionary Journey, and prior to the Council at Jerusalem in Acts 15.

Both Acts 13:43  and Acts 14:1 indicate that many of the new believers were both Jews, natural born and proselytes, and Greeks.  A close reading of the book shows that as soon as Paul departed the area some “Judaizers” moved in and began to create trouble for these new Christians in Galatia.  The Judaizers claimed that in order to be saved one had to obey the Law of Moses in addition to believing and obeying Jesus.  They were attempting to require that new Christian converts be circumcised (Galatians 5:2) and that they observe the feast days of the Jews, Galatians 4:10.  These men were spreading false doctrine, and discord and they were scornful of Paul’s apostleship and the gospel he preached which was free of the law.

With this background Paul wrote to the Galatians appealing to them to return to the pure gospel he had preached to them.  Paul begins by declaring there is NO OTHER gospel other than which Paul had delivered to them, Galatians 1:6 to 10.  Paul then explains and defends his apostleship by pointing out, 1) he was appointed by God (Galatians 1:11 to 24); 2) he was accepted by the apostles (Galatians 2:1 to 10); 3) he opposed Peter to his face (Galatians 2:11 to 14) and in connection with that confrontation with Peter explains Christians are justified by faith not by keeping the law, (Galatians 1:15 to 21).

Next Paul presents the fact to the Galatians that they received NOTHING from the law but what they received, they received by hearing with faith, Galatians 3:1, just as Abraham had (Galatians 3:9).  Paul then proceeds to explain in Galatians 3:19 to 22 that the Law was inadequate, and that it was temporary, Galatians 3:23 to 4:7.  Then in Galatians 4:8 to 20 we see a personal appeal by Paul to the Galatians because they have returned to spiritual slavery (Galatians 4:8 to 11) and then he expresses his perplexity concerning the behavior of the Galatians in Galatians 4:12 to 20.

In Galatians 4:19 Paul wrote, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you …”  Verses 19 and 20 express the heart of Paul: he is laying bear his love, concern, and his longing to be with them in their time of trouble.  He begins with an endearing term calling the Galatians “My children” which stands in contrast to Galatians 3:1 where he  said, “You foolish Galatians.”

Paul then explains he is “again in labor.”  This is a description of a mother in the process of giving birth.  Paul had taught these Galatians the gospel through sacrifices, perils, and sufferings: he had been stoned and left for dead, Acts 14:19.  Paul and Barnabas had returned to Antioch, no doubt excited and enthused because of their success in Galatia only to hear Judaizers were corrupting their work in their absence.  Now, Paul is saying, even though you are my children in the gospel, (see also Philippians 2:20; 1Corinthians 4:17; 1Timothy 1:2, 1Timothy 1:18; 2Timothy 1:2; and Titus 1:4), it is necessary that I give you birth once again because you are falling away from the gospel which you have been taught concerning Jesus.

He then says, this process, this birthing will last “until Christ if formed in you.”  This is exactly what the Hebrew writer was saying in Hebrews 5:11 to 6:3.

Hebrews 5:11 – Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. [Just as the Galatians had become dull of hearing the gospel when they accepted the influence of the Judaizing teachers]

Hebrews 5:12 – For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. [These Galatians had been taught the pure word of God by Paul and some had matured to the point that elders were appointed among them, Acts 14:23.  YET, they were returning to Judaism and leaving Jesus and the teaching they had receive behind.]

Hebrews 5:13 – For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. [As long as the Galatians progressed no further that the need for the basics of spiritual life, spiritual milk, they would never grow just as a baby will never fully develop if it only receives milk.]

Hebrews 5:14 – But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. [As we mature as Christians, as the Galatians should have matured as Christians, they should have been able to receive more advanced teaching – food as for a growing, maturing physical body – which would further enlighten them concerning good and evil.]

Hebrews 6:1 – Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Hebrews 6:2 – of instruction about washings, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Hebrews 6:3 – And this we shall do, if God permits.

Look at what the Hebrew writer does in Hebrews 6:1 to 3.  He LISTS specific things that are basic to being a babe in Christ: repentance, faith, washings (baptism), laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead and eternal judgement.  The Galatians should already know and understand all this yet they were slipping back into false teaching to the point the in Galatians 5:4 Paul would write, “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”  Paul then is saying in the last part of Galatians 4:19, he is “in labor until Christ is formed in you” that is until, as the Hebrew writer put it until they are capable of going beyond the basic teaching of the gospel and are able to receive solid food.  This is what “until Christ is formed in you means:” developing into a full grown, mature Christian who seeks solid food and not the basics.

Romans 8:29 - "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren ..."

How do we conform to the image of His son Jesus?

Our Answer:

The is very closely related to the answer we provided concerning Galatians 4:19: in fact, I believe Paul is saying the same thing on two different occasions using different analogies.

In Galatians 4:19 Paul is urging the Galatians to have Christ formed in them.  Here, to the Romans he is admonishing them to be conformed to the image of His Son, that is to be exactly like the Son.

The word “image,” carries with it the idea of a statue, a figure, a likeness, or an duplicate.  For example, consider 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Colossians 1:15.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Colossians 1:15 says, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature …”

The emphasis here is on the equality or Jesus to that of the original, God.  Jesus is, “the exact representation of the nature of the Father, Hebrews 1:3 meaning that, as Jesus said in John 14:9, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

Paul is telling the saints in Rome they are to “conform” to the exact likeness of His Son, that is the Son of God, Jesus.  This word, “conform,” in the original, is the word from which we get our English word “morph” with a prefix added to it.  To morph is “ to change shape or form,” or as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary says, “To change shape or form, often from one object to another …” or “To transform or undergo dramatic changes.”

Genesis 1:26 and 27 says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’  And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Unfortunately man chose to break that image, to deform that image when he chose to sin rather that to follow God’s word.  Jesus came into the world and was the “image of the invisible God” – Colossians 1:15 and 2 Corinthians 4:4, AND He – Jesus – was the “exact representation of His nature,” Hebrews 1:3.

The challenge to every Christians then is to “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 2:5.  Peter said in I Peter 2:21, “ For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps …”

In Ephesians 1:3 & 4 Paul wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”

Finally, I would have you consider:

1Corinthians 4:16 – I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me.

1Corinthians 11:1 – Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;

1Thessalonians 1:6 – You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

1Thessalonians 2:14 – For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews,

Hebrews 6:12 – that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

When Jesus found us, when we:

• heard the gospel,
• believed,
• confessed and believed in our heart Jesus is the Son of God,
• when we repented of our sins,
• and when we were immersed for the forgiveness of our sins into Jesus in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

we were then, Romans 6:4, “raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

We were NOT raised to continue to walk as we had, in sin, but rather in a new life in which we are continually conforming to the image of His Son.