Galatians 4:19 NASB My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you-
Ephesians 4:13 NASB until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Paul was laboring in prayer for his spiritual children in Galatia that Christ would be formed in them. That word “form” in the Greek is the word “morphe.” Think about what Paul was praying for these Galatian believers. He was praying that their inner man would be morphed into Christlikeness; that in their inner being they would take on the form of Christ. This is at the heart of Christian growth and Christian maturity; people on the inside being morphed into Christ. I’m not saying that believers become Christ, but what Paul is saying is that Christ would so take over from the inside out, with full liberty to live his life in and through us, that we morph into Christlikeness; thinking and feeling in union with Christ.
As a matter-of-fact, look at that verse in Ephesians 4 where Paul says that it is God’s will for ALL to mature to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. What God does in you is infinitely more important than what God does through you, because what God does in you, will in the end, totally determine what God can do through you, and what God wants to do in you, and ultimately therefore through you, is to release and manifest the fullness of Christ. I’m not talking about an imitation of Christ, but I’m talking about your inner man morphing into the fullness of Christ.
Our call in life, as believers, is to love God with all of our heart and be conformed to the image of Jesus. To love God with all my heart and have my inner man morphed into Christ likeness is my great dream and the great priority of my life. Our assignment in this world is to manifest the fullness of Christ everywhere we go, to everyone we meet, and in doing so, bring heaven to earth. But that can never happen by trying or striving. Our assignment can only be fulfilled if our calling to be morphed into Christlikeness in the inner man is satisfied.