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We all have things we’d like to change about ourselves. The vast quantities of books on self-improvement available today target our desire to be different or improve in some way.
And when we read verses in the New Testament concerning how believers should live and conduct themselves, we want to live that way. But when we compare our daily life to those passages, we can't help but notice our shortcomings. For example, our lack of love for people, our impatience, or our reaction in certain situations all highlight our need to have a change. But how can we?
God also wants us to change, but not the way we might think. In fact, the Bible speaks of something called transformation. In this post, we'll look at what transformation is according to the Word of God.
First, let’s look at how the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines transformation: “A complete or major change in someone or something’s appearance, form.”
People use the word transformation to talk about the remodeling of a house, or when someone gets a makeover. The house or person undergoes a major change and ends up looking different.
It’s understandable to think that transformation for Christians means we improve ourselves or our behavior so we appear more “Christ-like.”
But the biblical meaning of transformation has nothing to do with our outward behavior or self-improvement. Simply trying to conform to the words we read in the Bible is like a monkey imitating the actions of a human being. What you see is mere learned behavior, not a genuine expression of a human. That’s because the monkey doesn’t have the life of a human.
God knows that we can’t meet the standard in His Word on our own. Then how can we live a life that expresses God? God’s way is to give us His divine life, and for us to undergo an organic change by His life operating in us. Let’s see what that means and how it happens.
Let’s read 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
This verse doesn’t say we “are being transformed by improving our behavior.” Here, being transformed is connected to our beholding the glory of the Lord. When we behold the Lord in our fellowship with Him, something wonderful happens. Note 7 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version explains:
“When we with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. Thus we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence; that is, we are being transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. Being transformed indicates that we are in the process of transformation.”
This note says that when we behold the Lord, He infuses us with all He is and has done. To infuse means to fill, pervade, and soak. So how do we behold the Lord?
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” When we were saved, the Lord as the Spirit came to live in our spirit. So we can behold Him in our spirit by fellowshipping with Him in prayer and in the Word. As we behold the Lord, He soaks us with all He is.
This soaking results in us being transformed metabolically. This is God’s way of changing us: by an inward, spiritual metabolic process of His life operating in us.
Physical metabolism is the process that maintains the life of an organism. Through metabolism, an organism lives, grows, and develops. Lifeless things like rocks don’t undergo metabolism.
We, God’s children, aren’t lifeless. We received the divine life of God in our spirit when we were born again. Now God wants His life to spread from our spirit into every part of our being, especially our soul. This is how we’re inwardly transformed, and God is actually expressed in our living outwardly.
Metabolism is a good picture of this transforming work in us. Physical metabolism consists of two actions: the breaking down and discharging of old elements and the building up of new ones. As we behold the Lord, more of Christ is infused into us and spreads in our soul, replacing our old, natural element. Spontaneously, we begin to live a different way than we did before.
[[Free Study Bible]]
A good illustration of being metabolically transformed is the change a caterpillar undergoes. At birth, a caterpillar has the life that will transform it into a butterfly. It doesn’t put on a butterfly costume or try to act like a butterfly.
The caterpillar simply eats. As it eats the needed nutrients, it grows. And then it makes a cocoon where it remains as little by little, changes take place in its body. Eventually, the caterpillar emerges as a butterfly. The dramatic change of a crawling, wormlike creature into a graceful, beautiful butterfly is the result of an organic process.
At our spiritual birth, we received the life of God, which can transform us. Now like the caterpillar, our need is to eat. We need to eat spiritual food so we can grow and develop in the Lord’s life. As we grow, we’re gradually changed inside.
The Lord wants us to take Him in as our real food and drink. In John 6:35, Jesus said:
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.”
In the Gospel of John, we see that the Lord is living bread for us to eat and living water for us to drink. He’s the spiritual nourishment we need to take in every day so we can grow in His life and be transformed.
So what are we transformed into? Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us we’re “being transformed into the same image.”
Note 8 on this verse says:
“To be transformed into the same image is to be conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, to be made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29).”
When we read the four Gospels, we can see the glorious image of the Lord. What a life Jesus lived as a man on earth! It was a life without any defect, failure, or imperfection of any kind. His behavior, attitude, and care for people are all too wonderful for words. He’s the only man who ever lived a life that fully expressed God.
And today, Jesus is living in us as the Spirit. As we contact Him and behold Him in our spirit, He soaks us with who He is and all He’s done, conforming us to His image to make us the same as He is!
This transformation far exceeds any goal we might have to improve ourselves or to live the way we think we should. As we undergo this process, we’re not merely becoming a better person. The way we think and view things, our attitude and feelings about people, and the decisions we make gradually change to match the Lord. This is because bit by bit, we’re being conformed to His image and being made the same as He is.
Transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a lifelong process, so we shouldn’t be discouraged or impatient. God is very happy to let this genuine change transpire in us by the gradual spreading of His life. The main thing is that we need to spend time to behold the Lord and continually eat and drink Him.
One way we can eat spiritual food is by praying with the words of the Bible to receive the nourishing supply of life from God’s Word. A person who is physically undernourished can’t grow. Similarly, in order to grow spiritually, we need to consistently take in the nourishment found in God’s Word. It's good to start the day with a healthy “spiritual breakfast.” Then throughout the day, we can take a break to “rechew” a verse or phrase we prayed with in the morning, or “eat” another verse in the Bible.
Calling on the name of the Lord is a great way to drink of the Lord. At any time, we can say, "Oh, Lord Jesus," or "Lord Jesus, I love You." We can call on Him to begin our day, even before we get out of bed. Whenever we feel spiritually thirsty, we can simply call upon the name of the Lord Jesus to take another drink of Him.
Transformation is a part of God’s complete salvation for us. We’ve only discussed this marvelous process briefly in this post. If you live in the United States, we recommend that you order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here so you can read the verses from this post with all their notes to learn more.
We also highly recommend reading chapter 12, “What is the Growth of Life?” in The Knowledge of Life, which can be downloaded for free from anywhere in the world.
This time last year, no one could have imagined what we would go through in 2020. The global pandemic and its extensive fallout have touched all of us. Everyone has suffered in some way, whether it be the loss of loved ones, health, income, relationships, social interaction, and more. People's sense of security has been wiped out, replaced by anxiety, depression, and discouragement.
And being a Christian hasn't exempted us from these difficult experiences. They may have caused us to wonder why God allows suffering in the lives of believers.
In this post, we’ll look at verses and notes from Romans 5 and 8 in the New Testament Recovery Version to see a little of how God’s particular purpose for us is worked out through difficulties and hardships.
Romans 5:2 says that we have peace toward God and stand in grace, and that we also “boast because of the hope of the glory of God.”
Today we boast in the hope that we’ll be brought into the glory of God, meaning we’ll eventually express God in every way. This is God’s purpose for us, and it’s why He created us.
To boast because of the hope of the glory of God in verse 2 makes sense to us. But then in verse 3 Paul said, “We also boast in our tribulations.”
How is this even possible? No one likes tribulations; if it were up to us, we’d avoid suffering of any kind. But Paul clearly said that we boast both in the hope of the glory of God and in tribulations. The hope and tribulations must be connected, but how?
Note 1 on tribulations in the Recovery Version provides invaluable insight:
“Tribulations are part of the ‘all things’ in [Romans] 8:28 that God causes to work together for good that we might be sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of His Son, who has entered into glory. Because of this, we can receive tribulations as the sweet visitation and incarnation of grace and thereby boast in them**.** Through tribulations the killing effect of the cross of Christ on our natural being is applied in us by the Holy Spirit, making the way for the God of resurrection to add Himself to us (see 2 Cor. 4:16-18).”
[[Free Study Bible]]
The note above points us to Romans 8:28, which says:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
All things refers to all the matters and people in our lives, which have been arranged by God and which He causes to work together for good. But what does good here mean? Does it refer to material good, such as a good house, car, job, spouse, etc.? The context of this verse shows us good doesn’t refer to those kinds of things. Verses 29 and 30 say:
“Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
God is causing all things to work together so that we would be brought into glory by being fully conformed to the image of Christ; then we’ll express God fully. This is God’s goal for us. What good this is!
But at present, we have to admit we haven’t been conformed to the image of Christ in every area of our lives. The way we think, the things we say, what we want, how we treat others, and so on, are very different from Christ’s person. We don’t have that much Christ in our soul, and so we don’t express God that much. Then how can our hope of being glorified be fulfilled?
To arrive at God’s goal for us, we need to undergo a life-long process of God’s transforming work in us, which began when we were born again in our spirit. This is how Christ spreads into and fills our soul.
If it were left up to us, God’s work in us might come to a standstill. We might even be indifferent about it. But God wants us to reach the goal, so in His loving concern for us, He arranges “all things” in our environment, including the tribulations mentioned in Romans 5:3. God causes these things to work together for good so we can be transformed and conformed to the image of His Son. Tribulations help us. This is how our hope of glory and difficulties are connected. If we see this, we’ll understand why God allows suffering in our Christian life.
If we consider our own experience, we’ll notice when things are calm and life is relatively smooth, we tend to forget about God’s desire to make us His expression by conforming us to His Son. Our love for the Lord may grow cold, and we can very easily be occupied with things other than Him.
But when we’re suffering, we tend to turn to Him more earnestly. We realize how much we need Him, so we depend on Him more, pray more, read His Word more, and seek Him more. Our hearts are open to Him, and we allow Him to work in us.
Now let’s look again at the second sentence in the note to see how we could possibly boast in tribulations:
“Because of this, we can receive tribulations as the sweet visitation and incarnation of grace and thereby boast in them.”
If we understand God is causing all things, including tribulations, to work together for our good, we won’t be at a loss as to what’s happening. Instead, we’ll recognize tribulations as the visits of grace. And grace is just the Lord Himself as the Spirit who now lives in our spirit to be everything we need in all situations.
If by His grace, in the midst of our sufferings we turn to the Lord and come to Him in prayer, God has a way to do something in us. The tribulations He allows in our life shake us out of our sense of complacency. It's when we're suffering that we're the most genuine with the Lord.
We can tell Him honestly what we’re going through and pray, “Lord, add Yourself to me!” or “Lord, transform me to Your image.” When we do this, something will transpire in us: we’ll be fully opened up to the Lord, and He'll have a way to add Himself into us. Little by little, Christ will be built up in our heart, our mind, our emotion, and our will. This is how we’ll gradually be transformed into the image of the Son of God.
A good picture of this transforming work is metabolism, a process our body undergoes every day. Metabolism in living organisms actually consists of two actions: the breaking down of elements, and the building up of new ones.
Note 1 on Romans 5:3 concludes:
“Through tribulations the killing effect of the cross of Christ on our natural being is applied in us by the Holy Spirit, making the way for the God of resurrection to add Himself to us (see 2 Cor. 4:16-18).”
So it's through sufferings that our natural, fallen being is broken down, allowing Christ the way to add Himself to us and be built up in us.
While we’re going through this process, we can be assured and comforted by Paul’s words in Romans 5:5:
“And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Note 1 on this verse speaks of the power of that love:
“The love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16). God has poured out this love in our hearts with the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, as the motivating power within us, that we may more than conquer in all our tribulations (see note 371 in ch. 8). Therefore, when we endure any kind of tribulation, we are not put to shame.”
So even as we’re suffering, we can be assured that God loves us immensely. We should never doubt His heart of love for us. We can immerse ourselves in the poured-out love of God and thus be empowered to pass through all our tribulations with God’s goal in view. We can pray, “Lord, even in the middle of my suffering, I know You love Me so much. Thank You for pouring Your love into my heart.”
By turning our hearts to Him, praying to fellowship with Him, coming to Him in the Word, and calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus, we can continually experience God’s comfort and encouragement on our journey of transformation.
No matter what difficulties lie before us in the upcoming new year, we pray that we all will enjoy God's grace and love as He operates in us to conform us to the image of Christ.
We’ve all heard someone say, “I’ve been blessed by God,” usually in relation to success, health, family, wealth, or a job. We’ve even heard athletes say this after winning a big game. We all want to be under God’s blessing.
The common understanding of what it means to be blessed by God is that He gives us good things. In this respect, we can say that God’s blessing is on everyone, believers and unbelievers alike. Matthew 5:45 says that the Father who is in the heavens causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust.
But does God’s blessing pertain only to material things? Though these are included, thinking of God’s blessing as mainly material things severely limits our understanding of what is in God’s heart for us as believers. So what is the fuller meaning of being blessed by God?
Let’s begin with the blessing of Abraham by God in Genesis 12:3: “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” We might think being blessed here means something outward, like having a good life. But in Galatians 3:13 and 14, the apostle Paul specifically explained what blessed in Genesis 12:3 means:
“Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf; because it is written, ‘Cursed is every one hanging on a tree’; in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
These verses explain both how we can be blessed and what the blessing of God is.
As fallen sinners, we deserve nothing but judgment and curse, certainly not blessing. And our good works or behavior can never make us “blessable.” But Jesus became a curse on our behalf. On the cross, He bore the curse that was upon all humanity and died in our place. Because of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross for us, we cursed sinners can now receive the blessing of God through faith in Christ.
Galatians 3:14 makes clear that the blessing in Christ Jesus that God wants us to receive isn’t material things, but something far greater—the promise of the Spirit.
Note 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version helps us understand what this blessing is:
“In the gospel we have received not only the blessing of forgiveness, washing, and cleansing; even more, we have received the greatest blessing, which is the Triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—as the processed, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit dwelling in us in a most subjective way for our enjoyment. Oh, what a blessing that we can enjoy such an all-inclusive One as our daily portion!”
But in this verse what, or who, is “the Spirit” that we receive? The next note on verse 14 says this:
“This verse indicates that the Spirit is the blessing that God promised to Abraham for all the nations and that has been received by the believers through faith in Christ. The Spirit is the compound Spirit, as mentioned in note 52, and actually is God Himself processed in His Trinity through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension that we may receive Him as our life and our everything. This is the focus of the gospel of God.
The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ (see Col. 1:12 and note 2). Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the land promised to Abraham. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy.”
[[Free Study Bible]]
Christ dwells in us as the all-inclusive Spirit, so we can experience Him in a personal, subjective way by contacting Him with our spirit. We can pray, call on His name, and read His Word. By simply turning to Christ in our spirit, talking to Him throughout the day, we can enjoy Him as our rich portion.
Suppose you pray for a better job and get a higher paying position. Happily, you thank the Lord for it. But what happens when the new work environment presents some difficulties? If you realize that God didn’t just bless you with a new job but with much more, with the all-inclusive Christ who lives in you, you’ll contact the Lord as the life-giving Spirit dwelling in your spirit. So instead of asking the Lord to take away the problems or bless you with another job, you’ll open your heart to Him and asked Him to be your wisdom, strength, whatever you need, to face the troubles at work. You’ll begin to experience Christ as the bountiful supply in that difficult situation. You’ll enjoy Him—the top blessing.
If we think God’s blessing is mainly of things in the material realm, we’ll pursue these things, spend our prayer time asking God for them, and when we don’t get them, wonder whether we’re blessed by God. Meanwhile, we’ll miss enjoying the broader, fuller, and more real blessing of God—Christ for our experience and enjoyment. By focusing on and pursuing Christ, we can enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit as the top blessing of God!
Surely we should be thankful for the material things the Lord gives us. But we’re truly blessed when we experience Christ as our love, our peace, our patience, our satisfaction, our joy, and so many other aspects of Himself.
We have this wonderful Person now within us, the greatest blessing in the universe!
We encourage you reading all the notes on Galatians 3:14 with their verse references in the New Testament Recovery Version to get a deeper understanding of God's blessing. If you live in the US, you can order a free copy here.
