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Change from the Inside

Where do you picture God in proximity to yourself? When you pray, for instance, do you visualize Him as being “up there, somewhere”? After all, Paul says, “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”1 Do you envision Jesus side by side with you, as He himself said, “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”?2 Does God have your back or go before you? David marveled at both: “You hem me in behind and before.”3 Does God uphold you from beneath? After all, “his everlasting arms are under you,”4 assured Moses in his farewell address. These comforting promises attest to what we instinctively know: God is all around us and everywhere we go.

Yet amid this potpourri of prepositions stands one incomprehensible to us: Christ is in us. He lives in us through His Spirit in us. On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus instructed His disciples, “the Spirit of truth . . . will be in you,”5 then prayed to His Father that it be so—that “the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”6 Then it is through this indwelling of the Spirit that God transforms us into the likeness of Christ. Writes Paul, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”7 And it is God who is “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.”8 It is “from the Lord, who is the Spirit” that we “are being transformed into his image.”9 Who steadily changes us to be more like Jesus? Christ in us through His Spirit in us.

Some believers contend that changing into Jesus’ likeness is “up to us,” as though having been saved by grace through faith in Christ and born of the Spirit, we are left to grow up into His likeness by our own wisdom and power—orphans attempting the impossible. Others may not articulate it as such, yet they subject themselves to new “rules” and then berate themselves for failing to follow them. Indeed, we do have a role in the transformation process, and we will talk about this in a future post. Yet the truth remains, we can no more transform ourselves than we could save ourselves. Salvation and transformation—both are the work of the Holy Spirit in us; both are the manifestation of God’s love for us.

This week, take time to contemplate the richness of God’s transforming grace. Consider the changes He has already made in you, and rest in the certainty that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”10

Father, thank you for the richness of your grace; it is beyond our understanding. Open our hearts to receive and rejoice in your precious gift of transformation. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Colossians 3:1 NIV
2 Matthew 28:20 NIV
3 Psalm 139:5 NIV
4 Deuteronomy 33:27 NLT
5 John 14:17 ESV, emphasis added  
6 John 17:26 ESV, emphasis added
7 Philippians 2:13 ESV
8 Hebrews 13:21 ESV
9 2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
10 Philippians 1:6 ESV

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Let’s Talk about Works

“For in Christ Jesus . . . The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” — Galatians 5:6 NIV

Amid our zealous defense of salvation by grace through faith alone—and specifically not by our good deeds1— we sometimes give short shrift to the divine call and command to Kingdom works. For when we are born of the Spirit through faith in Christ, we step into our purpose to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”2 Our earthly lives have heavenly purpose! Note our call is not to pursue our good ideas for God, but submit to His plan working through us. It is a matter of submission to Him, or what the apostle Paul calls, “the obedience that comes from faith;”3 and “the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ.”4 Faith and works are inseparable. As James rhetorically writes, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”5

But here’s the problem: Our flesh—our sin nature—is self-centered and disinclined to love selflessly. Paul writes to believers in Rome, “the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed it cannot.6 To the Galatians, he pens, “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”7 Something inside wants to do good, but our desire to be served trumps our desire to serve. And sometimes our desire to serve is born out of selfish motives, e.g., to earn God’s approval by our goodness instead of receiving His approval by His grace. How can we do the selfless work of love when our flesh is anything but selfless? Paul points out the way: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”8

Then how do we live by the Spirit and not our inwardly focused inclinations? We must be transformed from the inside out. Personally, I think transformation starts here: “We love because he first loved us.”9 Don’t read this in an obligatory “quid pro quo” sense, rather when we come to accept and humbly receive the eternal truth of God’s intense love for us—all of us together and each of us individually—our hearts change. We see things as they truly are and we orient ourselves accordingly. We “set our minds on the things of the Spirit.”10 And the renewal of our minds is in itself transformational, aligning our will with God’s.11 This is His work in us; He will do it.

Father, thank you for your intense love for us. It is beyond comprehension, though true. May your Spirit indwell us, conforming our desires to your own. Your will be done. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Ephesians 2:8-9
2 Ephesians 2:10 NIV
3 Romans 1:5 NIV
4 2 Corinthians 9:13 NIV
5 James 2:18 NIV
6 Romans 8:7 ESV, emphasis added
7 Galatians 5:17 ESV, emphasis added
8 Galatians 5:16 ESV
9 1 John 4:19 ESV
10 Romans 8:5 ESV
11 Romans 12:2

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We Must Be Changed and by God’s Grace We Are

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