The word ‘conform’ means to be fashioned jointly, or to become like Him, through the same process. It's a process of experiences, of revelation, and we'll go into exactly what's involved in it, and how God works to change us. With every child that's born in the kingdom of God, God takes you into a process of growth, with a purpose of changing you. But if you don't understand the process, then you just react, and fight, and get disappointed. You say: oh, God didn't come through for me - this happened, that happened. Many Christians fall over and fail, because they just don't get what God is trying to do, and how He goes about doing it, and then what our part is.
We want to open up here in this passage again, what God is trying to do, and then what our part is in it. We think things are a bit random - we have bad things happen, some disappointing things happen, but it says in Romans 8:28, that He can use every circumstance that we walk through. God can use it to get us to where He wants us to get.
Romans 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
It doesn't matter what you've been through, what pain, what issue - if we're responding to His call, then every situation in life, when God is allowed into it, and we lean into Him in faith - He can use it to grow our character, and make us more Christlike. In doing that, we've got to learn to stop reacting to problems. When problems come up, issues come up - with finances, marriage, life, people, whatever - the thing is, we need to enquire what God is doing, and how we should respond. Then when you do that, then the situation, although it's painful, negative, difficult, and seemingly overwhelming, is used by God to shape your character, because you're leaning into Him. That means, mainly, you can just enjoy your life. Even with things happening - we just don't react anymore; we enquire of God how to respond.
Paul in his writings, in Romans 8, makes it clear that the whole of creation is waiting for this process to be fulfilled…
Romans 8:18 – “I consider the sufferings of this present time are nothing, or not worthy, to be compared to the glory to be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of all creation is eagerly awaiting the revealing or manifestation of the sons of God”.
He's saying that “all of creation is in an expectation”, because creation understands that God has a plan, and that it takes time to work the plan out, and it's all waiting for that moment, when the sons of God will be manifested, in the coming of Jesus Christ. That word ‘sons’ is mature, fully grown sons.
Now you see the issue, that much of the church remains immature. Christians remain immature. They have no understanding of why personal growth is important, so they just come to church. It's about a meeting; but not about a kingdom, and a bigger purpose. With that in mind, now we look into the passage of 2 Peter 1, where Peter is ensuring we've got a written record of what he sees is incredibly important.
Like all these passages, you always need to look at the context - what is the scenery, the background, the overview, that gives meaning to what we're doing? In this situation, in this passage, the context is that Peter is saying: I'm about to die, and I want to make sure you never forget this. I've taught it. I'm reminding you, and now I'm going to write it, and this is the letter.
Peter is talking about the End Times; and about the majestic coming of Christ in glory; and he says that there's an entrance we can have into that kingdom, via the First Resurrection; and that we must prepare. That's similar to what we've been hearing everywhere - all the messages we've done have had that same theme in it, of a reward that's in the coming kingdom - a reward that goes on for eternity; and of the need to respond, and prepare for this. In the other ones, we focussed on the Parable of the Virgins - on intimacy, the need for intimacy with Jesus. We looked at the Parable of the Servants, about faithful service; and now we're looking at the need for transformation. Sonship involves all those things: intimacy; service; and transformation. This one is focussed on the transformation, that's why I'm making it a whole study.