From Adam’s Nature to Christ’s Expression
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son…”
— Romans 8:29 (KJV)
Introduction
One of the central purposes of God in salvation is revealed in Romans 8:29: believers are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Many understand salvation as the forgiveness of sins and the promise of heaven. While these are glorious truths, God’s purpose extends further. He desires that the life of His Son be expressed through those who belong to Him.
To understand this purpose, we must understand the difference between what we inherited through Adam and what we receive through Christ.
1. Christ and Man: Two Different Beginnings
To understand God’s purpose for the believer, we must first understand the difference between Christ’s beginning and man’s beginning.
John writes:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
— John 1:1
A few verses later he declares:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”
— John 1:14
Jesus did not begin as fallen flesh trying to become spiritual. He was already the Word. When He entered this world, the Word became flesh.
Everything Jesus did outwardly was the expression of who He was inwardly. His words, actions, motives, love, obedience, holiness, and compassion all flowed from the life within Him. He was perfect because His source was perfect. In Him, there was no difference between the inward life and the outward expression.
Man begins from an entirely different starting point.
We do not begin as the Word. We begin as descendants of Adam. Through Adam, humanity inherited a fallen nature that no longer lives in fellowship with God or expresses His life. Just as Christ’s life expressed who He was, man’s natural life expresses what he is.
This is why man’s greatest need is not self-improvement but regeneration. The problem is deeper than behavior. Man does not simply need better conduct; he needs a new life.
Through regeneration, God gives the believer the life of Christ. Yet receiving Christ’s life and expressing Christ’s life are not the same thing. The life is received in a moment, but learning to live from that life is a lifelong process.
God does not stop with giving us a new life. He begins the work of conforming us to the life we have received. This is the purpose revealed in Romans 8:29:
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son…”
— Romans 8:29
Christ is not only our Savior; He is God’s pattern for the believer.
What does it mean to be conformed to the Word?
It means that the life of Christ within us increasingly becomes the life expressed through us.
Consider a fruit tree. It does not produce fruit in order to become alive. It produces fruit because life is already present within it. In the same way, conformity to Christ is not the believer’s attempt to become something God has not made him. It is the increasing expression of the life God has already placed within him.
Conformity is not merely gaining knowledge of Scripture or improving outward behavior. These things may accompany spiritual growth, but they are not the goal.
God’s purpose is to bring every part of our lives—our thoughts, desires, motives, words, actions, and responses—into harmony with the life He has placed within us.
Christ was the Word made flesh. God’s purpose is that the life perfectly expressed in His Son may increasingly be expressed in those who belong to Him.
God is not making Adam better. He is forming Christ in the believer.
This is what it means to be conformed to the Word.
Key Truth
Christ was the Word made flesh. God’s purpose is that the life perfectly expressed in His Son may increasingly be expressed in those who belong to Him. God is not making Adam better. He is forming Christ in the believer.
2. Christ — The Word Made Flesh
If God’s purpose is to conform believers to the image of His Son, then we must first understand who Christ is.
Christ is more than an example for us to follow. He is the full expression of God Himself.
John writes:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
— John 1:1
We use words to express what is in our hearts and minds. In the same way, Christ is God’s expression of Himself. If we want to know what God is like, we look at Christ, because everything God wanted to reveal about Himself is seen in Him.
John continues:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”
— John 1:14
God wanted man to know what He is like. Therefore, He did more than speak words from heaven. He sent His Son. The eternal Word became a man and lived among men so that God’s life and nature could be seen in human form.
In Christ, the invisible God became visible. Everything God desired to reveal about Himself was seen in the life of His Son.
Jesus said:
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
— John 14:9
Paul also said that Christ is:
“the image of the invisible God”
— Colossians 1:15
This means that when men looked at Christ, they were seeing God’s life expressed through a human life. His love, obedience, humility, mercy, righteousness, and dependence upon the Father were not simply good qualities to admire. They were the nature of God being lived out in a man.
Christ shows us what man looks like when he is fully governed by God’s life.
This is why Christ is God’s pattern for the believer.
Christ did not merely come to show man how to live. He came to reveal the life that man was created to live but could never attain apart from God.
Jesus declared:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life…”
— John 14:6
Therefore, God’s purpose is not only to forgive us and take us to heaven. His purpose is to bring us into agreement with the life of His Son.
Romans 8:29 says believers are:
“predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son”
Christ is not only our Savior; He is God’s pattern for the believer.
The Christian life is not man trying to imitate Jesus by his own strength. It is Christ’s life being formed in us and expressed through us.
Because of the fall, man no longer lived in proper fellowship with God. His life had become governed by the flesh. For redemption to reach fallen man, God came in a form man could understand. Christ became man so He could reach man; yet He was without sin, so He remained in perfect fellowship with God.
In this way, Christ stood between God and fallen humanity. As man, He could identify with us. As the sinless Son of God, He could reveal the Father and bring man back to God.
In Christ, we see man according to God’s purpose.
To understand why God must conform us to Christ, we must now understand what happened to man in Adam. We turn next to man’s condition apart from Christ and the life he inherited through Adam.
3. Man — The Life of Adam Expressed
To understand why God is conforming believers to the image of Christ, we must first understand what man became through Adam.
When God created man, He created him for fellowship with Himself. Man was designed to live in dependence upon God and to express the life he received from God.
In the Garden of Eden, God placed before man two trees:
“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
— Genesis 2:9
These two trees represented two distinct principles by which man could live.
The Tree of Life represented dependence upon God as the source of life. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil represented independence from God—the attempt to live by one’s own understanding, judgment, and resources.
God’s intention was that man would receive life from Him and live in continual fellowship with Him. But Adam chose independence.
When Adam ate from the forbidden tree, something more occurred than the violation of a commandment. The fall was a change of source. Instead of living from God as his source, man began to live from himself. He chose to act from his own understanding, his own judgment, and his own will.
The problem was never merely what man did.
The problem was what man became.
Sin entered the world, and with sin came spiritual death.
This does not mean that man ceased to exist. Rather, the fellowship for which he was created was broken. The life that once depended upon God became centered in self.
From that moment forward, humanity inherited a fallen nature.
Through Adam, man retained the ability to reason, choose, build, create, learn, and accomplish many things. He still bore the marks of being created in God’s image. Yet he no longer possessed the ability to express the life of God. The vessel remained, but the fellowship and life for which it was created were lost.
What was lost in the fall was not man’s humanity, but the fellowship with God for which he was created.
Scripture describes this condition as being “in Adam.”
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:22
Every person enters this world connected to Adam’s life. Therefore, every person inherits Adam’s nature.
This is why the problem of man is deeper than behavior.
The issue is not merely that man commits sins. The issue is that man possesses a nature that produces them.
A corrupt tree produces corrupt fruit because corruption exists within the tree itself. In the same way, sinful actions reveal a deeper problem—the fallen nature from which they proceed.
This is what Scripture refers to as the flesh. Flesh is more than the physical body. It is man living from his own resources, independent of the life of God. Whether expressed through obvious sin, self-effort, religious pride, or self-reliance, the flesh is humanity functioning apart from God.
This explains why human effort, religious activity, education, morality, self-discipline, and good intentions can never solve man’s deepest problem. They may improve behavior, but they cannot change the source from which that behavior flows.
What man needs is not merely correction.
He needs life.
What man lost through Adam cannot be restored through human effort. It can only be received from God.
This is precisely why Christ came.
Christ did not come simply to improve Adam. He came to bring an entirely new source of life.
The life inherited through Adam cannot be repaired, educated, disciplined, or perfected into the image of Christ. It must be replaced by a life that originates from God Himself.
This is the necessity of the new birth.
Before God can conform a man to the image of His Son, He must first give him the life of His Son.
Every believer discovers a conflict within himself because two opposing sources of life are now present. One comes from Adam and expresses the flesh. The other comes from Christ and expresses the life of God.
To understand this conflict, we must now examine the relationship between the flesh and the new life that God has placed within the believer.
4. The Conflict of Two Natures
One of the most common questions among believers is this: If I have received a new life from God, why do I still struggle?
The answer is found in the conflict between two opposing sources of life.
At the new birth, God does not improve the life inherited through Adam. He imparts a new life through Christ. The believer therefore possesses something he did not possess before—a life that originates in God Himself.
Though the believer has received a new life through Christ, the habits, tendencies, and influences of the old life do not immediately disappear.
The result is an inward conflict.
The Apostle Paul describes this struggle:
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other…”
— Galatians 5:17
This conflict is not between two physical bodies, nor is it merely a struggle between good habits and bad habits. It is the conflict between two opposing principles of life.
One source comes from Adam and expresses itself through the flesh. The other comes from Christ and expresses itself through the life of God.
The believer is not divided between two identities. His new identity is found in Christ. The conflict exists because the habits, tendencies, and influences of the old life continue to oppose the life God has placed within him.
The flesh continues to seek independence from God. It trusts in self, depends upon self, and seeks to accomplish spiritual things through human ability. The life of Christ, however, lives in continual dependence upon the Father and expresses His nature.
Because both are present, the believer often discovers desires moving in opposite directions.
He desires to follow God, yet finds another influence drawing him toward self-reliance, self-will, fear, pride, unbelief, and the countless expressions of the flesh.
This struggle often confuses believers. Many assume that the presence of conflict means they have failed spiritually or that something is wrong with their salvation.
In reality, the conflict itself is evidence that a new life is present.
Consider a house that has been occupied by the same owner for many years. One day, a new owner takes possession. The house now belongs to him, but much of the old furniture, old arrangements, and old patterns remain. The new owner does not take possession because the house is already in perfect order. He takes possession in order to bring it into agreement with his purpose.
In the same way, when God gives new life through Christ, the believer belongs to Him. Yet many patterns learned through life in Adam still remain. The inward conflict exists because the life of Christ has entered and is bringing every area of the believer’s life into agreement with its rightful Lord.
Before regeneration, there was no conflict. Man lived according to the life inherited through Adam because no other life was present. The struggle begins because God has introduced a new source of life within the believer.
Through the death and resurrection of Christ, the believer’s relationship to Adam has fundamentally changed. The flesh remains present, but it no longer possesses the rightful authority it once held. God calls the believer to live from the life he has received in Christ rather than from the life inherited through Adam.
The Christian life is therefore not a battle to improve the flesh. God has not called believers to reform Adam, educate Adam, discipline Adam, or perfect Adam.
The flesh can be restrained, disciplined, and controlled to varying degrees, but it can never become the life of Christ.
This is why God’s answer is not self-improvement.
His answer is Christ.
God’s answer has never been a stronger Adam, but a greater revelation of Christ.
The Christian life advances not as self becomes stronger, but as Christ becomes more fully expressed.
The believer’s growth does not come from making the old life better. It comes from learning to live from the new life God has given.
As this new life grows in expression, the believer increasingly discovers that God’s purpose is not merely to change behavior. God’s purpose is to bring every part of his life into agreement with Christ.
God uses this conflict to expose the insufficiency of self and to teach the believer that the Christian life cannot be lived through human strength.
Through this process, God reveals the difference between what originates in Adam and what originates in Christ.
Many believers spend years trying to overcome the flesh through determination, discipline, or increased effort. Yet God allows them to discover a vital lesson: the life of Christ cannot be produced by human strength. It can only be expressed through dependence upon Him.
The Christian life is not lived by human strength attempting to imitate Christ. It is lived by the life of Christ expressing itself through those who have been united with Him.
The more clearly a believer sees this distinction, the more he begins to understand the true meaning of spiritual growth.
The goal is not the improvement of Adam.
The goal is the expression of Christ.
This brings us to the practical question every believer must face: How does God conform us to the image of His Son?
Key Truth
The presence of conflict does not prove the absence of spiritual life. It often proves that a new life is present. The Christian life is not a battle to improve Adam, but a process through which the life of Christ is increasingly expressed.
5. The Process of Conformity
If God’s purpose is to conform believers to the image of His Son, how does He accomplish that work?
Many assume that spiritual growth comes primarily through acquiring more knowledge, developing greater discipline, or exerting more effort. While these things have their place, they are not the source of conformity.
God’s method is not self-improvement.
His method is transformation.
The Apostle Paul writes:
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
— Romans 12:2
The word transformed speaks of an inward change that produces an outward expression. God is not merely adjusting behavior. He is bringing the believer into increasing agreement with the life He has already placed within him.
At regeneration, God imparts a new life. Conformity is the process through which that life increasingly finds expression.
This is an important distinction.
Many believers spend years trying to become something they already are in Christ.
Scripture does not teach that believers gradually receive the life of Christ. It teaches that they have already received His life and are being brought into agreement with it.
The Christian life therefore begins with a finished work and proceeds through an ongoing transformation.
This transformation touches every area of life.
God works upon our thoughts, desires, motives, attitudes, words, relationships, and actions. He exposes everything that originates in Adam and brings it into the light of Christ.
This process is rarely instantaneous.
More often, it unfolds through the ordinary circumstances of life.
God uses success and failure, joy and sorrow, blessing and disappointment, victory and struggle. He uses relationships, responsibilities, trials, and even our weaknesses to reveal what is in our hearts.
Jesus prepared His followers for this reality:
“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
— John 16:33
Tribulation is not evidence that God has abandoned His people. Nor is it proof that His purpose has failed. Often, the very pressures we ask God to remove are the circumstances He uses to expose our dependence upon self and teach us to draw upon the life of Christ.
What appears to be an obstacle to spiritual growth is frequently one of God’s instruments for producing it.
Consider a sculptor working with a block of stone. Before he begins, he already has a clear vision of the image he intends to produce. With each strike of the chisel, he removes what stands in the way of that purpose. To someone watching, the process may appear harsh or even destructive. Yet every cut is guided by the image the sculptor has in mind.
In the same way, God uses trials, disappointments, and difficulties to remove what hinders the expression of Christ. What may appear to be loss or hardship is often part of His work of conforming believers to the image of His Son.
The goal is not merely to make life easier.
The goal is to make Christ more visible.
Through these experiences, God teaches us to recognize the difference between self-dependence and dependence upon Him.
He exposes our confidence in the flesh so that we might learn to trust the life of Christ within us.
This is why conformity is not primarily the result of human effort.
It is the result of God’s work.
The believer certainly has a responsibility. He must respond in faith, submit to God’s dealings, renew his mind through the truth of Scripture, and walk in obedience to what God reveals.
Yet even these responses flow from the life God has provided.
The believer’s responsibility is not to produce the life of Christ, but to yield to it. He submits to the Word, obeys the Spirit’s conviction, turns from self-dependence, and walks in faith as God reveals His will. In this way, conformity is not passive, but neither is it self-produced.
The Holy Spirit faithfully works within the believer, taking the things of Christ and making them increasingly real in daily life.
Conformity is therefore a cooperative work. God is the One who works within, and the believer responds to that work.
As Paul writes:
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
— Philippians 2:13
The more a believer yields to God’s work, the more the life of Christ becomes visible through him.
Gradually, God’s thoughts begin to shape his thinking. God’s desires begin to influence his desires. God’s priorities begin to govern his choices.
This is not the suppression of personality.
It is the transformation of a life.
God does not erase individuality. He redeems and brings it into harmony with the life of His Son.
The process may be slow, and it is often painful, but it is purposeful.
God is committed to completing what He has begun.
The believer may see only weakness, failure, and unfinished growth. Yet God sees the finished purpose toward which He is working.
The same God who imparted the life of His Son is faithfully conforming believers to the image of His Son.
This is the hope and confidence of every child of God.
The process of conformity continues throughout the Christian life until the image of Christ is increasingly expressed through us.
Key Truth
Conformity is not the result of human effort. It is the result of God’s work. The believer’s responsibility is not to produce the life of Christ, but to yield to it.
6. The Expression of Christ in the Believer
If God is conforming believers to the image of His Son, what does that conformity look like?
The answer is not found merely in outward actions. Two people may perform the same act while operating from entirely different sources. One may act from self-effort, while the other acts from the life of Christ.
This is because God evaluates more than outward actions.
Scripture says:
“For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
— 1 Samuel 16:7
Man often measures spirituality by what can be seen. God looks deeper. He looks at the heart and the source from which our actions proceed.
The same outward act may appear identical to man, yet originate from entirely different sources before God.
For example, one person may give in order to be seen, praised, or recognized by others, while another gives quietly from a heart moved by the love of Christ.
The action may look the same, but God sees the source.
God is concerned not only with what we do, but also with the source from which it proceeds.
The Christian life is therefore more than a change in behavior.
It is the expression of a new life.
As the life of Christ finds increasing expression within a believer, His character begins to appear in practical ways.
There is a growing dependence upon God.
There is a growing obedience to God.
There is a growing love for others.
There is increasing humility.
There is a growing sensitivity to the Spirit of God.
None of these qualities are separate virtues that believers strive to manufacture. They are different expressions of the same life. As Christ becomes more fully expressed, dependence, obedience, love, humility, and spiritual sensitivity emerge as the natural fruit of His life within us.
None of these qualities appear instantly or perfectly. They emerge progressively as God continues His work of conformity.
The believer may still see weakness and failure. Yet over time, the life of Christ becomes increasingly visible.
This is the true measure of spiritual growth.
Spiritual maturity is not merely the accumulation of knowledge, the performance of religious activities, or the ability to discuss spiritual subjects.
Spiritual maturity is the increasing expression of Christ.
The evidence of conformity is not that a believer becomes more impressed with himself.
It is that Christ becomes more visible in him.
Conclusion: The Expression of Christ
This brings us to the great purpose toward which God has been working from the moment of regeneration.
God’s desire is not merely that believers possess the life of His Son.
His desire is that the life of His Son be seen through them.
This is the fulfillment of His purpose revealed in Romans 8:29:
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son…”
— Romans 8:29
Therefore, the believer must learn to ask more than:
“What am I doing?”
He must also ask:
“From what source am I doing it?”
Is it self seeking to appear spiritual, or is it the life of Christ being expressed through me?
This question brings the matter of conformity out of doctrine and into daily life.
God is not merely producing outwardly religious people.
He is forming a people through whom the life of His Son can be seen.
The Christian life begins with receiving Christ’s life.
It continues through God’s work of conformity.
It reaches its practical expression when the life of Christ is increasingly manifested through those who belong to Him.
The goal has never been the improvement of Adam.
The goal has always been the expression of Christ.
