It was about 30 years ago that I became an Ohio State football fan. Hailing from Michigan and a Wolverines devotee, this was hitherto unthinkable and completely unforeseen. But as our son Matthew grew up here in Columbus, his home team loyalties grew fast and deep. So I took him to a few OSU football practices, where some players signed autographs and engaged him in conversation; he even returned balls for the kickers on an occasion or two. Eventually, I found myself thinking, “How do I root against these guys? They’re treating my son like their kid brother.” My transformation was incremental: Initially, I’d root for Ohio State except when playing Michigan, but even this sole exception eventually changed. Over time, my Michigan regalia dwindled while my OSU garb grew.
Our spiritual transformation, likewise, moves us steadily from what we were to who we are. Paul reminds the Corinthian church of their own before-and-after: “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”1 Their sin had once defined these believers, but their inner change—from what they had been to who they were now—had begun through cleansing, purification, and a right standing before God in Christ. Note the passive voice: God was the changer; the believers were the changed. This grace would continue to them as it now does to us.
All mankind has this one purpose in life: to bring God glory.2 Yet on our own, every single one of us fails, in that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”3 And if our sin nature glorifies God at all, it is only in that it magnifies his holiness by contrast. We know God does not turn a blind eye to sin, so is it His heart to distance us for our falling short of His majesty? No, the Lord’s gracious response is to make us “more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”4 This is selfless love, a forgiving love, a love we must open ourselves to understand and humble ourselves to receive. For we must be changed, and by God’s grace we are.
Father, you have included in Christ all who believe in Him. Thank you for making us more and more like Him. Fill us to overflowing, that people would see Jesus in us and seek Him for themselves. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV, emphasis added
2 Isaiah 43:6-7
3 Romans 3:23 ESV
4 2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT
Author: Paul Nordman
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Liking What We See in the Mirror
I’d never seen a man look so tortured as did this inmate on a Kairos Prison Ministry Weekend. Joseph1 was in his early 40s at the time, yet his back bent over and his shoulders hung low as though ladened with an impossible load only he could see. His contorted facial features betrayed relentless angst with no relief. I later learned he’d been so burdened by his crime that the only reason he did not take his own life was his insistence that he suffer. But when Joseph walked into the prison chapel the Sunday morning of that Kairos Weekend, his face glowed. I speak not of a visible light source as measured in lumens, rather the beacon of joy beaming as one forgiven in Christ Jesus and liberated by the Spirit of God. He said, “When I looked in the mirror this morning, for the first time in 19 years I liked what I saw.” I saw Joseph many times over the next several years, and his smile never waned.
In 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, Paul contrasts the glory of God’s old covenant of the Law given to us through Moses and the glory of God’s new covenant—His Spirit living in us through faith in Christ. The old came engraved on tablets of stone; the new is engraved in human hearts. The old brought condemnation, but the new gives us right standing before God. The covenant of law brought certain death, for we could not keep it, but the Spirit in us is life. And though the old covenant brought glory—for Moses had to veil his glowing face before the people—it was yet fading; the surpassing glory of the new covenant, however, shines forever. The apostle then asserts: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”2 From glory to glory: we are released from lockup under the Law3 and raised to freedom in the new covenant in Christ. This is true of all who believe in Him.
Yet “glory to glory” holds another promise for us in the sense that our transformation into the image of Christ yields in us ever-increasing glory, a refined splendor radiating from the inside out. As our old self perishes, our new self flourishes. Peer into your mirror. Has the Spirit of God been working in you what is pleasing to Him”?4 Isn’t He faithful in this way; can you now see it? If not, ask Him to show you. Then praise Him for His transforming work in your life. Enjoy what you see.
Father, you are at work in us, both to will and to work for your good pleasure.5 This is love and for this we thank you through lives submitted to you. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1, This name is changed for privacy purposes.
2 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NASB
3 See Romans 7:6
4 Hebrews 13:21
5 Philippians 2:13
My friend Doug McBride is an outstanding woodcarver. How one can take a small block of timber and transform it into a unique image and with such great expression, I cannot relate; I can only admire and appreciate. It takes vision, I’m sure, and time. Add to that, patience and perseverance and, from these come great pleasure and astounding workmanship. Then with each piece Doug finishes, his collection of characters grows, each with its own personality, just as he intends.
Did you know God likewise sees something in us “blocks of wood,” and that He also has a vision for what we can and will be? He does! In 1 Corinthians 15:42-53, Paul teaches believers about the new Christlike bodies that await us. Our natural bodies—broken, weak, and perishable—they will die. But all who live in Christ Jesus by faith in Him will be raised in glorious, strong, and spiritual bodies that will never die.1 “Just as we have borne the image of the earthly man [Adam],” writes the apostle, “so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man [Jesus].”2 Paul’s eager anticipation shouts immutably through his pen: “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”3 This will happen “in the twinkling of an eye.”4
Yet not all transformation happens instantaneously, nor is change limited to our bodies, for God works even now in our inmost being. Paul again: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”5 The passive voice, “we are being renewed,” tells us someone else is artfully working renewal within us, namely God. What will His masterpiece look like, what does He envision for us? He has chosen us “to become like his Son.”6 Each of us different, yet all of us like Jesus.
The prolific apostle marvels, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”7 Only God can envision our best, only He can plan it, and only He can produce His marvelous works from us blocks of wood. Both now and over time, both inside and out. Today and every today, may we entrust ourselves entirely to Him, our God, and His work in us, His people.
Father, your heart is good toward us, and your plans for us are perfect. Send your Spirit, that we will entrust ourselves completely to your vision for us and rest in what you are forming us to be. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 1 Corinthians 15:42-44
2 1 Corinthians 15:49 NIV
3 1 Corinthians 15:52 NIV, emphasis added
4 1 Corinthians 15:52 NIV
5 2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV
6 Romans 8:29 NLT
7 1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT
Paul Nordman—Author 