Tag: Transformation

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The Resolution of a Resolute God

We’re not going to talk about it. Nope. We’re not going to use this space to bemoan the fact we’re not good at keeping New Year’s resolutions. Though we lose our resolve within months, days, or perhaps hours, we won’t bring it up here, not even a mention. Huh-uh. No siree! After all, we’re after self-improvement, right? It’s “new year, new you” time! (Again.) Surely, we’ll be better versions of ourselves when the calendar page turns.

All kidding aside, the truth is, we can do better. It is a matter of knowing and embracing what is already true about God and His work in us. So, let’s start by dropping “new year, new you” and embracing “in Christ, forever new,” for Paul teaches us, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”1 This newness in Christ never fades; it is as fresh as the dawning of each newly created day, for we live safely and securely in Him who always was and will always be. Contemplate this reality. Receive this gift. Celebrate this truth.

Yet if God is changing us, why still our shortfalls? Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes? Once again, it comes down to knowing what is true, for newness in Christ is only the beginning of an entire lifetime of transformation. It is a process of love. The Spirit of God is constantly at work in us, not merely that we would clear the low bar of altered outward behavior, but that we will soar to the heights of Christlikeness in our inner being. Paul again, “We all . . . are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”2 This is not our limited and fickle version of self-improvement; it is God’s steady and purposeful improvement of self. It is His relentless craftsmanship in us, for we live in the certainty that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”3

Our best resolution for change, then, is to trust God’s resolute purpose to change us. “The one who calls you is faithful,” writes Paul, “and he will do it.”4 So in this comfort and joy, draw near to Him in prayer and His Word, for He works through these to bring about in us the change He promises, the change we seek, change that lasts.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.5

1 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV, emphasis added
2 2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
3 Philippians 1:6-7 ESV
4 1 Thessalonians 5:24 NIV
5 Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV

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What Happens in Us as We Look to Him

Imagine. With Peter, James and John, you’re on the mountain at the invitation of Jesus. Suddenly the appearance of His face is altered,1 and it shines like the sun.2 His clothes become “radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.”3 Moses and Elijah, long since dead, appear and speak with Jesus, and a bright cloud4 comes and overshadows all of you.5 Then from this cloud comes a voice, the Heavenly Father affirming His Son.6 Like the disciples, you are terrified and fall on your face.7 If ever a noun needed an adjective, the Transfiguration, as this historic event is called, might be it. “Breathtaking,” “mind-boggling,” or “magnificent,” perhaps?

It was a triumphant moment for Jesus—and therefore all mankind—for His human form was glorified and His Father’s love for Him proclaimed. Of that moment, Peter would later write, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such a declaration as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased’—and we ourselves heard this declaration made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”8 Yet Jesus came down from the mountain where there awaited Him more challenges from His distractors to thwart, more truth for His followers to grasp, and great suffering to incur on our behalf.

The Bible teaches us “if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation,”9 and “together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.”10 Then as we are new, so also are we changed, for as Paul writes, the gospel of Jesus Christ “is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.”11 Yet often amid our trials and sufferings in this world, we don’t feel new, we don’t see change, and inheritance in God’s glory seems unfathomable. In times like these, we must understand that, despite life’s challenges, our transformation indeed is true and its process continues as we look to the glory of Christ. For “we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”12 Then regardless of our circumstances, may we look to Him through prayer and the Word, steadily becoming more like Him with a glory that becomes more glorious. Breathtaking. Mind-boggling. Magnificent. And true.

We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” —1 John 3:2.

Father, Your ways are the best ways. Grace us to see the face of Christ through the eyes of faith, that contemplating His glory, we would become ever more like Him. In His name we pray. Amen.

1 Luke 9:29 ESV
2 Matthew 17:2 ESV
3 Mk 9:3 ESV
4 Matthew 17:5 ESV
5 Luke 9:34 ESV
6 Matthew 17:5 ESV
7 Luke 9:34 ESV
8 2 Peter 1:16-18 NASB
9 2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB
10 Romans 8:17 NLT
11 Colossians 1:6 NLT
12 2 Corinthians 3:18

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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