Sipping coffee one morning in a bakery café, I could not help but overhear the Bible study leader at a nearby table. “We’re saved by grace, but the rest is up to us,” he declared to his listeners. There it was—I had heard this before and found it, again, to be frustrating. . . Oh, what burdens we needlessly accept for ourselves and carelessly place on each other. 1 This story from my second book, Working in Us What Is Pleasing to Him, served as the impetus behind its writing. For as I observed two pages later, “We can no more transform ourselves than we could save ourselves. Just as we step solely into Christ for salvation, so we also entrust ourselves entirely to His Spirit to transform us. It is He who changes us steadily to become like Jesus.”2
Now, having said this, it is only fair note two points the Bible study leader got right that morning. First, we are indeed saved by grace—our salvation from eternal separation from God rests entirely on believing in who Jesus is and entrusting our life to His sacrificial forgiveness of our sins. Paul makes this crystal clear, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”3
Then here is the other point the discussion leader understood: there is a “the rest”—something more—to our spiritual journey, which is to say the Christian life does not stagnate at salvation. Transformation awaits; maturity beckons. But know this: being changed into Jesus’ image through the work of the Holy Spirit is also an act of grace in us. Salvation and transformation—Paul conjoins them under grace: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”4 Our role is to persevere freely and confidently in submission to the Spirit’s ongoing work—His act of grace—in us. Then as we do, we can know that, in the words of the old “Men’s Warehouse” suits ad slogan, “You’re going to like the way you look, I guarantee it.”
“Now may the God of peace . . . equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”5
1 Paul Nordman, Working in Us What is Pleasing to Him, (Maitland, Florida: Xulon Press), xi.
2 Paul Nordman, Working in Us What is Pleasing to Him, (Maitland, Florida: Xulon Press), xiii.
3 Romans 10:9 NIV
4 Titus 2:11-12 ESV, emphasis added
5 Hebrews 13:20-21 NIV
Here we wrap up our 16-week series on transformation, which we covered in four sections. Below for your reference are links to each post.
God has a vision for us.
God’s Vision: Works of Art from Blocks of Wood
God’s Timeless Pursuit of Our Transformation
We must be transformed into God’s vision—Jesus’ image—for us.
The Missing Piece to Our Image Puzzle
From God to Us: A New Heart
Good! A Diagnosis We Can Work With
We Must Be Changed, and by God’s Grace We Are
Let’s Talk about Works
Transformation: God’s active role; our passive role.
Liking What We See in the Mirror
Change from the Inside
God’s Workmanship in You
Transformation: The Spirit Leads, We Follow
We have an active role, as well: our “Yes” to God’s work in us.
Yes, Lord.
Three Focal Points to Thinking Differently
How Do You Wish To Live Today?
Engaging the World with Renewed Minds
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