Tag: Grace Series

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The New Live-stream

Driving my son to his friend’s house—he was in high school at the time—I took the opportunity to share an observation with him: “Music can influence you to accept thoughts and worldviews that you would never entertain had they not been put to lyrics with a pleasing melody. You have to be careful about what you take in through music.” After silent pause Matthew replied, “You’re right.” (A rare and welcome confession from a teenager.) Whether from audio files or radio frequencies, music reaches our ears, each song purposefully planting its own message into our soul and ultimately influencing how we think, speak, and act.

In our March 22 post (The Artist at Work in Us), we observed that God is the actor in our transformation—in kindness and love He steadily changes us to the image of His Son. Yet we also have an active role in this divine work: we participate in the renewing of our minds. Paul urged believers in Rome, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind;”1 likewise to the Ephesians he wrote, “be made new in the attitude of your minds.”2 For our minds have a default “frequency”—the alluring “music” of our flesh. Paul warns us, “the mind set on the flesh is death . . . because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.”3 But “the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace”4—this is the new “live-stream” accessible to all who are born of the Spirit5 and made new through faith in Christ Jesus.6 What we choose matters.

So Paul exhorts us: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”7 Our life is in Christ and our citizenship is in heaven,8 so we align our minds accordingly, setting them on the Spirit through the truth of the Word and the power of prayer. As we draw near to God relationally, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”9 God renews our minds as we set them on Him.

Gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13 RSV

Father, send Your Spirit to dispel lies with truth, that we would reset our minds from our flesh to Your Spirit. Renew our minds as we set them on You. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Romans 12:2
2 Ephesians 4:23
3 Romans 8:6-7 NASB
4 Romans 8:6 NASB
5 John 3:6
6 2 Corinthians 5:17
7 Colossians 3:1-3
8 Philippians 3:20
9 Philippians 4:7

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This Not-So-Little Light of Mine

Amy1 was an atheist when Peggy and I first met her. Our young friend had been raised with a scientific worldview, leaving no room for spiritual matters. Yet at Peggy’s invitation she decided to join us for a weekly Bible study. Absorbing the Word over time, Amy began to believe in God, and several years later she entrusted her life to Christ, accepting for herself the forgiveness of sins and newness of life that are found in Him. As she finished praying to receive Jesus into her heart, Amy looked up and remarked, “Everything looks lighter!” A little surprised (and a lot curious!), Peggy asked, “Do you mean inside yourself, or physically around you?” “Both!” Amy replied. It seemed to me a divine gift, an assuring flicker of new life.

In last week’s post, we saw that our transformation into the image of Christ is God’s work of grace in us; it is His doing. Note He accomplishes this not by improving our sin nature (“flesh”)—that self-willed desire to live life on our terms and not God’s—for as Paul teaches us, “the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other. . .”2 “The flesh is hostile to God,” he wrote to Roman believers, “it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”3 God doesn’t change us into Jesus’ image by making us better versions of our “old self”4 or by demanding the same from us, as if we could become like Him by trying a little harder in our own limited power. For no matter how many “second chances” we might be given, we would certainly fall short of His glory every single time.

In grace, rather, God makes us new, His Spirit breathing life where there was none and shining light where darkness once reigned. Paul urges us to “to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”5 We offer ourselves to His Spirit, who is new life in us; He will always lead us in God’s ways, as Jesus himself proclaimed, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”6 Then this verse is practical, guiding light for us: “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.”7 This is worth memorizing, for God’s Spirit leads us in His light—day by day, moment by moment. We offer ourselves to Him.

Father, Your Spirit lives in me and draws me, that I would offer myself entirely to You. Grace me to say “yes” to You and “no” to any temptation to do otherwise. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Name has been changed.
2 Galatians 5:17
3 Romans 8:7
4 Ephesians 4:22
5 Ephesians 4:24
6 John 8:12
7 Romans 6:13

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The Artist at Work in Us

We were not disappointed. At the recommendation of many, Peggy and I visited Bryce Canyon, a natural gallery showcasing spires of vivid reds, oranges, and yellows among more muted earthtones. Like statuary, these magnificent rock formations were relentlessly carved from stone with erosive tools of water and frost, each strata ultimately relenting according to its own hardness or softness, and each displaying the hues of its own iron oxides. No words nor any number of them could capture such beauty or express our awe; we could only marvel at the sculptor: “Where there is art, there must be an Artist.”

This is He who is at work in us, as well, changing us and molding us into something unknowably great. “We all . . . are being transformed into [Jesus’] image with ever-increasing glory,”1 wrote Paul to Corinthian believers, and to the church in Rome, he repeated, “For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”2 Pause and absorb this, for if Christ lives in your heart through faith, His Spirit is at work in you even now. Then notice our passive role in the molding and shaping process: we are being conformed; we are being transformed. As Paul reminded the Philippians, “it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”3 Our transformation into the image of Christ is both the vision of God—“when Christ appears, we shall be like him”4—and the work of God. As He has saved us, so also is He shaping us over time. Like the rock formations of the canyon, our emerging beauty is the work of the Artist.

Does this mean we have no role in our transformation? No, not at all. We will talk about our role in a future post, but it is vitally important that we first understand and accept the marvelous truth that God is at work in us. We need not fear, for He is able. We need not fret, for He is faithful. We can rest in that God always does what He says He will do, and what He does is always more glorious than we can imagine. This is grace. This is God’s ongoing work in you, an expression of His love for you. Trust Him, rest in Him, and rejoice.

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”—Philippians 1:6

Father, we confess Your love knows no bounds. Today, we choose to trust You and Your heart to transform us into the image of Your Son. May He be glorified in us, Your people. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 2 Corinthians 3:18
2 Romans 8:29
3 Philippians 2:13
4 1 John 3:2