I.　God's intention is to give us Christ as everything—Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 3:27; 4:19:

A.　Christ, a living person, is the focus of Paul's gospel; Paul's preaching was to bring forth Christ, the Son of the living God, in the believers—1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; Rom. 1:1, 3-4.

B.　According to Galatians, the most evil thing is to distract people from Christ; God's will is to reveal Christ in us, to have Christ live in us, and to have Christ formed in us, but religion distracts people from this purpose—5:2, 4.

C.　The book of Galatians reveals that Christ is deeply related to our inner being and that He desires to have a very subjective relationship with us; the specific characteristic of Galatians is that Christ should be wrought into us—1:15-16; 2:20; 3:27; 4:19.

II.　In Galatians 4:19 Christ is presented as the One who is formed in the believers:

A.　According to Paul's usage in the New Testament, the word form refers to the outward expression of the inner being (Phil. 2:6); what we are is expressed in our form, that is, the outward expression of our inner being.

B.　To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ fully grown in us—Gal. 4:19; Eph. 4:13-16:

1.　To have Christ formed in us is to allow Him to permeate our whole being and saturate our inward parts—Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17a; Col. 3:4, 10-11:

a.　When Christ occupies our inner being in this way, He is formed in us.

b.　We need to allow Christ to saturate every part of our inner being; He must occupy us and saturate our mind, emotion, and will—Phil. 2:5; Eph. 3:17a.

c.　To have Christ possess our entire being is to have Him formed in us—Psa. 51:6; Gal. 4:19.

2.　To have Christ formed in us is to allow the all-inclusive Spirit to occupy every part of our inner being—v. 19; 3:2-3, 14:

a.　Christ should not only spread into our mind, emotion, and will; He should actually become our mind, emotion, and will—Phil. 2:5; 1 Cor. 2:16.

b.　Everything other than Christ must diminish, and Christ must become everything to us in our experience; this is to have Christ formed in us.

3.　To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ mingled with our whole being—6:17:

a.　In every part of our being, Christ should be mingled with us—Eph. 4:23.

b.　Christ must permeate us and saturate us until He is completely blended with us; then He will be formed in us—3:17a; Gal. 4:19.

4.　Paul's word about Christ being formed in the believers implies that we are being constituted with Christ—Col. 1:27; 3:4, 10-11:

a.　Christ is living in us, He is being formed in us, and He is becoming our constitution; Christ is now living in us so that we may be constituted with Him organically—Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:4, 10-11.

b.　Eventually, our whole being will be constituted with the element of Christ, for He will constitute every part of our soul so that we may have His form, His image, in every part of our being—2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29.

5.　The word formed in Galatians 4:19 corresponds to the word image in 2 Corinthians 3:18:

a.　Christ's being formed in us depends on our being transformed into His image—v. 18.

b.　Our being transformed into His image and His being formed in us cause us to be conformed to His image; our being conformed to His image is the issue of His being formed in us—Gal. 4:19; Rom. 8:29.

6.　For Christ to make His home in our hearts, He needs to be able to settle down within us, and this requires that we allow Christ to make His home in all the parts of our inner being; this is to have Christ formed in us—Eph. 3:17a.

7.　Christ needs to be formed in us so that we may be sons of full age and heirs to inherit God's promised blessing and so that we may mature in the divine sonship—Gal. 3:14, 26, 29; 4:5-6:

a.　Christ must mature in us in order for us to be heirs for the full enjoyment of the Triune God as our inheritance; the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance—Eph. 1:13b-14; 1 Pet. 1:4.

b.　We need to pray that the Lord will bring us into the experience and enjoyment of Christ, who has been born into us, is now living in us, and will be formed in us at our maturity in order that we may be sons of full age and heirs of God's promised blessing and that we may mature in the divine sonship—Gal. 3:29; 4:6, 19.