SpaceX, the aerospace pioneer, went public last week, raising tens of billions of dollars through its initial public offering (IPO). Its progenitor, Elon Musk, redefines innovation, having founded Tesla, the electric car company, while, “Oh, by the way,” pioneering reusable rockets in his spare time. He envisions orbiting AI data centers, a city on Mars, and who knows what else this ideator-extraordinaire may have dreamed up while shaving this morning. Yet everything man explores, God has made, for “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of [man] is to search things out.”1 We dispatch our exploratory rovers to “the red planet”; yet it is “[God] who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night.”2
Then as man looks to the heavens to search out what God has established, God in His heavens pursues His vision for us, His beloved on Earth: to make us ever more like His Son, through whom “all things were made.”3 God’s pursuit of our transformation into Jesus’ image is firmly established from beginning to end. His plan is purposed from the past: “For those whom [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”4 He pursues His vision in the present: “We . . . are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”5 And this He promises for the future: “When [Christ] appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”6 God’s vision is clear, His sights are set, and our transformation is certain.
Then what must we do? First, trust and know this: “God . . . works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”7 It is a lifelong process. Even if we don’t see transformation right away or at the pace we’d prefer, the fact remains, God is at work in us. Then in the confidence of His faithfulness, we rest and rejoice—rest in the fact that God is doing in us what we cannot do ourselves, and rejoice in our transformation, God’s ongoing expression of love for us. This is His vision; this is our life. So good.
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. . . The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 ESV
Father, thank you for your eternal wisdom and purpose. Thank you for raising us to ever-increasing glory, the image of your Son. Inspire us to trust, rest, rejoice and thrive in such amazing grace. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Proverbs 25:2 ESV
2 Amos 5:8 ESV
3 John 1:3 NIV
4 Romans 8:29 ESV
5 2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
6 1 John 3:2 ESV
7 Philippians 2:13 ESV
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
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
Paul Nordman—Author 