What does "until Christ is formed in you" mean (Galatians 4:19)?

Paul calls them "my little children" (v.19), he himself laboring in travail as though seeking to bring them again to birth. They hardly realized they were spiritually alive. While trusting Christ, they were practically destitute of the inward, experimental knowledge of who and what He is. He had not been formed in them, that is, they had not comprehended His fullness for all their needs. They had given Him a place, but had confined Him to a small place, instead of allowing Him to take His full, true form in them.

As things were however he could but stand in doubt of them. When first he visited them it was with great exercise and travail of soul. He did not preach himself but Christ Jesus as Lord, and their spiritual birth only came to pass when Christ was formed in them. The photographic artist takes care to have a good lens in his camera, that will throw on the screen a very accurate picture of the features of the sitter. But the photograph only comes to the birth when the sitter's features are formed in the sensitized plate as the result of the joint action of light and certain chemicals. This may serve as an illustration of the point. Paul travailed that as the fruit of Gospel light Christ might be formed in them. Then his birth pangs on their behalf were over.

This phrase “My little children,”is only found once in Paul’s writings. It is found seven times in 1 John, and once in John 14. It is a very affectionate term. Of course, they were sons, we have seen this earlier. This was the position they had, but at the same time they were Paul’s little children, referring to the fact that they had accepted the Lord through Paul’s ministry. In this sense they were his little children. Why then, if they had accepted the Lord through his ministry, he goes on to say, “of whom I again travail”? It is as if he had to give birth to them a second time. This was how he compared the situation. He had given birth to them when they were born again, but now he was, as it were, in travail to give birth to them a second time. This second birth was in view of formation, “that Christ be formed in you.”The exercise Paul had was like a mother giving birth to a child; he was very affectionate, he loved them a lot, just as a mother loves her child, and he wanted now also, with the same zeal, with the same love, Christ to be formed in them. It was now not to receive Christ as their Saviour, it was now being formed after Christ, a further development.

This is the desire that the Lord has for each one of us and that Paul had for all the Christians, that Christ would be formed in them. I will give you one example; if we turn to Colossians we see how Paul had a deep exercise for the believers, writing to them, “God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we preach [or ‘announce’], warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”(Col. 1:27-28). Here we find the concept of what a mature man in Christ is: that is, Christ formed in the believer. This was Paul’s exercise, to lead the believers to maturity. This matter of spiritual growth was a spiritual battle, as we see in this conflict. Paul’s exercise for the Galatians was to help them, and that is why in the last part of Galatians 4 he goes back to Abraham a second time. Now, as I said earlier, those false teachers probably liked to go back to Abraham, the father of all believers, but it was to make their wrong conclusions, but when Paul went back to Abraham it was to set the record straight.

Then follows a tenderness of pleading, as to his ministry in weakness among them, such as only a heart filled with the constraining power of the love of Christ could use; for there were others who were desirous to exclude the Galatians from Paul, whose ministry had once brought such blessedness to them, and thus to acquire influence over them in order to bring them again under law. Surely it did not need the wisdom of Solomon, which detected the deep interest of a mother in her child, for these Galatians to discern what a place they held in the ardent affections of Christ's apostle, as he says, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." The other Judaising teachers zealously affected them, not well, for they were leading them back to the weak and poor elements of the world, while the ministry of the Spirit by the apostle was to form Christ in them. There is no power in the law to form the Christian state; that is done by the Spirit's writing Christ upon the fleshy tables of the heart. The apostle desired to be present with them, but how should he then speak to them, for he stood in doubt of them? Could he speak to them as on Christian ground? or must he alter his manner of address to them as those needing to be brought there? It is not every converted soul that is in faith in the true Christian position, that is, "of Christ" (3:29), nor can such a position be enjoyed apart from the corresponding state. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." (Rom. 8:9.) It does not say he is not converted - he may be, and still in bondage under law, but while in that state, he is not "of Christ." The true Christian state is Christ formed in us by the Spirit of God, who is therefore called the Spirit of Christ. This is not the renovating, or correcting by law of the old man, but the bringing in of another. The Christian position is, that I am no longer of Adam but of Christ, for our old man has been crucified with Christ. The Christian state is, that Christ is formed in me by the Spirit of God. The old "I" is displaced by Christ.

With the Galatians it was not so. Taking advantage of the apostle's absence, they had soon fallen into a fleshly use of the law; and with teachers who humoured it, they were fast losing all real affection for him, and the blessedness they had once enjoyed. Although it would have been better that they should have looked up to God, and found strength to stand for Him when left alone, yet, considering the state in which they were, he could have wished to have been with them. Their faith had been shaken, and they were slipping from Christ, to make things more secure by ordinances; and as the apostle had gone through an immense deal about them in their first coming to the knowledge of Christ, — had known, as he expresses it himself, deep painful throes about it, so he went through all, in spirit, again now. "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." Legalism had so disfigured the truth in their souls, that they needed to be rooted and grounded in the first elements of grace over again. They had lost their hold of the cross, and the apostle stood in doubt of them. Outwardly they might be very zealous; but as far as testimony for Christ, and their souls' enjoyment of Him, was concerned, all was gone. The apostle desired that the work should be renewed from the very beginning in their souls. "I desire to be present with you and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you." The meaning is, he wished to deal with them according to what he found their condition called for. There might be an effect produced, and he would speak softly to them; or they might be light, proud, and hard, and then he must deal sternly: he would change his voice, as he says to the Corinthians: "What will ye? shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and the spirit of meekness?" Here the apostle was perplexed as to them.

But what about Christ being formed in us? This expression occurs but once in Scripture as follows:- “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). The Apostle's language here makes it certain that to his mind, — and therefore in the mind of the Spirit — “Christ formed in you” is an elementary thing. He stood in doubt as to these Galatian saints, as he tells them in verse 20, and hence he was passing again through birth pangs of soul-exercise over them — “until Christ be formed in you.” That accomplished, his birth pangs would end in deliverance. The Scriptural presentation of this truth is such as to place it amongst the elementary things that lie at the start. If Christ be not formed in those who take the place of Christians, an Apostle doubts if they are Christians at all! The way this phrase, as to Christ being formed in us, is wrested from its scriptural setting in these extracts is very mischievous.

He needed, so to speak, to travail in birth afresh with them till Christ should be formed in them. Nevertheless, he calls them his children: his love inspired him with confidence, and yet filled his heart with uneasiness. He would have desired to be with them that he might change his voice, suiting it to their state; not only teaching them the truth, but doing whatever their need required. Mark here the deep love of the apostle. Moses, faithful as he was, grew weary of the burden of the people and said: Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swearest unto their fathers? (Numbers 11: 19); but the apostle is willing to travail in birth with them as his children a second time, in order that their souls might be saved.

If possible, the state of the Galatians was more critical than that of the Corinthians. He has to say, "I stand in doubt of you." Were they really Christians? He says, "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." His confidence is in God; for he says, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." Ah! what is religion (and there was plenty of it in Galatia) without the display of the life of Christ? It is but the path of decline, whatever people may once have known, or however faithfully they once trod, the right path. They are not now in it. If Christ is formed in us, His life must express itself in our lives. Anything less than this, anything other than this, is decline. It is not in law keeping, not in circumcision, nor in obedience to ordinances that Christianity consists. It is in the display of the life of Christ, which can only be found where Christ is put first.

That is Christ formed in you. You get it in the type. Isaac gets his right place. There is a moment in the history of the believer when Christ gets His right place in his soul, and there is a great advance in him from that time. I do not say that he is altered. The flesh is like Jack-in-the-box, the same as ever, but it is kept down.

Here the “formation” of Christ is treated as a work of the Spirit of an advanced character. You may have the Spirit, and even Christ may be in you, since you have the Spirit of Christ, without Christ being “formed” in you. As a sample case the Corinthians are cited. They had not even Christ in them according to this teaching, let alone Christ being formed in them.