Tag Archives: Transform

Nonconformists

Paul prefaces his message of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” by first exhorting believers to “not be conformed to this world.” So resisting the devil and fleeing from temptation is a critical first step forward, no matter how many times we might fail in it.(James 4:7)

Admittedly this isn’t an easy thing to do, but one clear-cut benefit of failure is that disgust over it helps prod us toward the goal. And although we’ll probably never be perfect in resisting sin, we can’t let that keep us from trying. God is here to help, and things will get better each time we make the right choice.(1 Corinthians 10:13)

We must never allow sin to become an excuse for retreating from our pursuit of God. Let your sin drive you to God rather than away from Him. Believe me, He knows and understands you. And He’s more than willing to work with a repentant heart.(Psalm 103:12-14)

The devil does his best to deceive us into believing that we can’t come back to God until we’ve cleaned up our act. But we need to remember that the cross has stripped Satan of any actual power over our life.(Colossians 2:15) Ultimately, the devil only has the influence we allow him to have. He has no power to keep us from God, and we must never allow him to fool us into thinking that our sin somehow puts up a barrier between Him and us.

God’s Game Plan

Are we able to bear fruit without being meaningfully transformed? Yes, in scant quantity and meager quality we can. But without a true metamorphosis we’ll never be successful in bearing the kind Jesus wants—“much fruit.” For this reason transformation is absolutely essential to fruitfulness in God’s kingdom.

There’s no question that God wants to see us radically changed. And since we know we can’t transform ourselves, He must have a method to accomplish it. But the big question is just what that plan consists of; how do we get from here to there? Well, God has His part in the process, and we’ve got ours.

If transformation is ever to become a reality in us, we must cooperate with God as He goes about working in our life. The beauty is that freedom from the power of sin makes choosing to walk out our faith in this way possible—in spite of the weakness of our flesh. Because God has done what He has through Christ, it’s now all about choice! But submitting ourselves to God for what is likely to be a very arduous journey is never an easy choice to make. Nevertheless, we can do it! Aided by His power, we can become the kind of Christians we intuitively want to be as a result of our redemption. God Himself has put that desire there.

Yet truth be told, we often have to come to the end of ourselves—finally fed up with failure—before we can actually bring ourselves to make that commitment. You may be at that point in your life right now! If so, unconditionally give yourself over to God, and then take action by submitting to His will. Sometimes we think that giving over our will to God is a one-time event. Not so. Rather, it’s a choice we make day by day. And making daily progress toward transformation entails following well-defined steps: God’s Game Plan. We’ll be talking about what that involves.

Gone to Flying!

In the New Testament, the term used for transformed is a Greek word from which our English word metamorphosis comes. It means radical change from one form to another. Probably the most common example of such change in the natural world is the striking metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly—a transformation so radical that it is entirely inexplicable. The caterpillar takes on an amazing new form as the result of metamorphosis. Not only is the butterfly a much more beautiful creature, but it also behaves differently. No longer is it confined to merely crawling around; now it can fly!

Well, it’s not too hard to see how such a dramatic transformation might apply to our initiation as that “new creature” in Christ.(2 Corinthians 5:17) But it’s a little more difficult to understand how the concept of metamorphosis might apply to a change in our character. Just how are we “transformed by the renewing of our mind?” And more puzzling yet, how is it that our old self can co-exist right alongside our dynamic new self? Yet this is nothing more than the core question we’ve been grappling with right along, isn’t it?

Our old self doesn’t simply evaporate once we’re saved. It hangs on, not only as an ever-present reminder of our humanity but as an impediment to our spiritual growth as well. So this can’t help but raise a legitimate question: if we can never altogether get rid of the old self, how can we ever claim to be genuinely transformed?

Interestingly, the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly sheds some light here. You see, though radically changed, the genetic make-up of the butterfly hasn’t changed at all; it still retains the DNA of the caterpillar. In like manner, our life now rooted in the new self maintains the stamp of our humanity. But we’ve gone to flying instead of merely being limited to crawling around!

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

Character Formation

A common byproduct of redemption is the supernatural healing of oppression or addiction. In one form or another, many of us have experienced such deliverance (as we often call it) from the ways of our old life. And deliverance is not limited to our new-birth experience alone; it can happen even long after we’re saved. So we shouldn’t ever stop seeking such miraculous intervention by God.

But what’s frustrating is the fact that we can’t pick and choose which of our weaknesses will be healed in this manner. That’s because God has a plan—a plan revolving around His purpose for us. It’s a plan that is not only a whole lot different but also far less comfortable than what we might choose if we had the chance.

What I’m referring to here is actually an entirely different kind of change in us; it’s what Paul is referring to when he says, “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”(Romans 12:2) To better understand what he means by this, we need to remember that the mind (and thus the renewal of our mind) doesn’t merely mean the physical mind, but rather the inner man—the immaterial part of our nature as it interacts with the physical mind.

What he’s describing here is a type of change that God employs far more commonly than the instantaneous kind. It’s a transformational change in our character, change which invariably is a more prolonged, arduous and painful solution to the problem of our weaknesses. Yet as annoying as this approach might seem, it is ultimately far more productive when the entire scope of God’s purpose is taken into account.

To Know God

My child, to know Me, and the power of My resurrection, you must enter in to the fellowship of my sufferings and be conformed to My death. Then you will attain to the resurrection from the dead. Die to yourself and all your desires. For you have a heavenly calling. Your citizenship is in heaven from which also you eagerly wait for Me, your Savior. I will transform your body. I will draw you to Myself. This is not your home. You are just passing through. True fulfillment is in Me alone.

Philippians 3: 10 & 11, 20 & 21

Renewing of the Mind

Although an attempt to produce genuine change in man’s behavior through discipline of the body may have some minor value, it ultimately never produces the desired effect.(Colossians 2:22-23) This is because it merely treats the symptoms rather than the disease, and only leads to heaping on a load of guilt when it fails to work. By its very nature, this strategy is doomed to failure because it simply bucks God’s design—His life flows not from the works of the flesh, but from the Spirit of God surging through the panel of our spirit.(John 15:5)

And here’s another prevalent misconception: the belief that we can transform ourselves by acquiring knowledge about the things of God. Can’t we? I hear a chorus of voices shouting, “Of course we can; how else can we grow in the knowledge of God and thus renew our minds?” The fact is that this too bucks God’s design. When Paul admonishes us not to “be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” he doesn’t mean merely the intellect. Rather, he means the transformation of our mind defined as the inner man—our immaterial nature integrated with the physical mind.(Romans12:2)

But doesn’t gaining more knowledge about God mean that our heart will change in the process? Well, in a sense it does, because knowledge of the things of God and His kingdom are certainly vital to our growth. But such knowledge must be pursued from the right motives if it is to be effective. Why? Because true change in the heart does not come from the direction of the intellect. Rather, the genuine source of change in our heart is the result of the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God bringing our spirit alive to Him. Jesus said, “But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.”(John 16:3) He does this by disclosing to us—Spirit to spirit—revelatory truth within, as well as spiritually quickening what we learn through our intellect.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

 

 

 

 

 

The Good News: Part 7

I know that God causes all things to work together for good for me, because I love Him and am called according to His purpose. For God knew me before the beginning of time, and as a result has predestined me to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29). Through Him I now rejoice in my tribulations, for I know that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to me (Romans 5:3 & 8:18). I take solace in the fact that my suffering is merely a means of reinforcing my perseverance, refining my character, and providing me hope (Romans 5:3-5).

            My salvation is secure, because nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35). So He has promised! Even though I know that I will one day stand before the judgment seat of God, I have no fear, for in that day I shall be found sheltered in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:10, Colossians 3:3). My perishable body will be raised in glory (1 Corinthians 15:42-43). Just as my nature has borne the image of the earthly, I shall also bear the image of the heavenly, since He will transform the body of my humble state into conformity with the body of His glory (1 Corinthians 15:49, Philippians 3:21).

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

The Good News: Part 4

He has blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose me in Him before the foundation of the world, that I would be holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:3-4). In Christ I am a new creature, the old things have passed away; new things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

So now I can lay aside the old self and put on my new self, which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Ephesians 4:22-24). I am now in the process of being brought into a true knowledge of God, being radically transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2). This is God’s mystery, hidden from past generations but now manifested to His saints—Christ in me, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:26-27).

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself