In the movie, “Big” a boy wishes he was older. And through magic, he transforms into an adult, played by Tom Hanks. Except that Tom Hanks is a boy trapped in an adult body. That’s a great premise for a movie because we see an adult bring the joy of childhood back to adult life. But what you also see is the boy learning to be an adult. He is becoming what he already is.

That is a good illustration for what growth in Christ is like. We come into what we already are. When we believed in Christ and submitted to His lordship, we were crucified with Christ and given Jesus Christ as our life. Our whole identity changed: someone who was “in Adam” to someone who is “in Christ.” This is not just some sort of thing that God says we are, it is an actual reality. Magic.

So we are, as C.S. Lewis put it, a “little Christ.” But the process of sanctification is to become what we already are. We are a child in an adult body; we grow into what we are. But what does it mean to be like Christ, to be “conformed to His image?”

It doesn’t mean to be conformed to his omnipresence, omnipotence, or omniscience. We will be conformed to what older theologians called His “moral excellence.” His moral excellence is his love, joy, mercy, longsuffering, etc. These qualities of God, which demonstrate His beauty, are ours in Jesus Christ. As we pursue Him by faith, these qualities will spring from us as surely as fruit from a healthy tree. We will be “holy as he is holy,” “perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We will love like God loves, hate what He hates, have mercy like He has mercy. We will do good even to the unrighteous. Just like Jesus.