The Image of Christ

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Explain that Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
2. State that God's purpose for every Christian is to be conformed to the image of His Son.
3. Distinguish the two sides of that change — transformation and conformation — and cooperate with both.

Thesis

Christ is the perfect image of God, and God's settled purpose is to remake every Christian into that same image — a change worked from within (transformation) and aimed at the likeness of Christ (conformation) until each trait of Jesus becomes ours.

Burden

We talk easily about "being saved," but Scripture tells us what we are saved for: to look like Jesus. That is not a poetic flourish; it is the stated goal of God for your life — to be "conformed to the image of His Son." Most of us aim much lower. We want to be forgiven, comfortable, and basically decent, and we would rather not be remade. But God will not settle for touching up the old self; He intends a new likeness. This lesson asks whether we have accepted the actual goal of the Christian life, or only the parts of it that cost us nothing.

Introduction

"Image" means likeness, and Christ is the One who reveals God to us. Two truths stand together in the text: Christ is the image of God, and Christians are being changed into the image of Christ — "transformed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:18), "conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29). Boles works it in stages: Christ as God's image, our destiny to become like Him, the process of transformation, the process of conformation, and the task that falls to us.

I. Christ Is the Image of God (Col. 1:15; John 14:9)

Scripture piles up the language:

• He is the exact representation of God's nature (Heb. 1:3);
• "the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4);
• "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15). He is, in effect, the photograph of God — the One in whom the unseen God is seen. So Jesus could say, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9); and the request of the Greeks, "we wish to see Jesus" (John 12:21), is the deepest request a soul can make, because to see Jesus is to see God. If you want to know what God is like, you do not speculate — you look at Christ.

II. Christians Are Destined to Become Like Christ (1 John 3:2; Rom. 8:29)

This is our destiny and our glory: "we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2). God "predestined" His people "to become conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29) — that is the goal toward which He is working everything. To become like Christ is to become like God in character; it is to be made "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4) — sharing His holiness and moral likeness, not His deity. We do not become God; we are remade in the image of the One who is God's image.

III. The Process of Transformation (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2)

The word transform (Greek metamorphoō — "to change the form") is the word used when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain (Matt. 17:2; Mark 9:2). The same word describes what happens to us: we are "transformed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:18). And Paul tells us how it happens: "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2). This is an inside-out change. It is not behavior painted on the surface; it is a new form worked into the mind and heart, which then shows in the life. The instrument is the renewed mind, shaped by the word as we behold the Lord.

IV. The Process of Conformation (Rom. 8:29)

Alongside transformation runs conformation. The word means to be made like in form, to be brought into harmony with a pattern. We are to be "conformed to the image of His Son" — an inward conformity to Christ as our pattern. Transformation describes the change in us; conformation describes the standard we are changed toward. The two work together: God renews the form within (transformation) and shapes it to match Christ (conformation). One without the other is incomplete — inner change with no pattern drifts, and an outward pattern with no inner change is hypocrisy.

V. The Christian's Task (2 Cor. 3:18)

So the Christian has a task, and it is lifelong:

1. To become like Christ — to make this the actual aim of life, not a vague hope.
2. As transformation moves us further from the world, conformation to Christ must be going on at the same time; we are pulled out of one likeness and shaped into another.
3. Every new trait we see in Jesus is a new obligation we have taken on. To see His compassion, His honesty, His patience, His courage, is to be bound to put it on. Beholding Him is not safe; it commits us.

Application

Make the goal concrete this week. Open the Gospels and watch Jesus until one trait stands out — His refusal to retaliate, His mercy to the outcast, His steadiness under pressure — and recognize that, having seen it, you are now obligated to it. Then feed the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2), because transformation comes through a mind soaked in the word, not through willpower alone. The Christian life is not self-improvement; it is being remade into the image of Christ. Stop aiming lower than God aims.

Conclusion

Christ is the image of the invisible God, and God means to stamp that image on you. He renews you from within and shapes you to His Son until, at last, "we will be like Him." That is your destiny and your glory — and your daily task. Behold Him, and be changed.

Invitation

The image of Christ is first put on at the new birth, where one is baptized into Christ and rises to "walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:3-4) and to "put on the new self... renewed... according to the image of the One who created him" (Col. 3:10). If you have never been clothed with Christ, come and put Him on today — believe, repent, confess Him, and be baptized into Him (Gal. 3:27; Acts 2:38). If you are His but have stopped being changed, return to beholding Him and be transformed. Come while we sing.

Word Study

• "Image" (Gk. eikōn): a likeness, a portrait, an exact representation — used both of Christ as God's image and of our being remade into Christ's image.
• "Transformed" (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2, Gk. metamorphoō): an inward change of essential form — the "transfiguration" word — not a surface alteration.
• "Conformed" (Rom. 8:29, Gk. symmorphos): shaped to share the same form as a pattern; brought into harmony with Christ.

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