We don’t always understand the purpose of change. Yet, change is the very essence of the gospel of the New Testament. Jesus changed the perspective of a culture and its world. He changed the very foundation of the Jewish culture—its law and system of instruction. He fulfilled all the Torah—or instruction and law of the Hebrew people. He introduced a new meaning of the word salvation. He became salvation.
The apostle Paul said, however, you have to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). By working out, he was relating a profound concept: you have to be fashioned or processed by God to realize the full potential of your new position in God as a joint-heir with Christ. The process of formation is transformation.
RELEVANCE
Being transformed is something God does by the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t happen automatically however. We have to be willing to submit to the process and learn through it. That’s why Paul exhorted disciples to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
The process, we know however, can be painful. Any formation process is. Thank God He does work through the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit!
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).
REFLECT AND RELATE
How do you accept change?
How is God changing your perception and perspective of life?
REFERENCES
James 4:7-10