Transformed—Not Just Forgiven
The Following is the Script for this Video:
Centuries ago, Jeremiah asked, “Can . . . a leopard change its spots?” Hard as it might try, no leopard can switch to tiger stripes.
What about people? Can we change our basic nature? In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Javert, the police officer, insists that Valjean, the released prisoner, cannot be transformed. As Javert tells him, “Men like you can never change.”
And who can forget the song Fagin sings in the movie, Oliver? "I’m reviewing the situation, I'm a bad 'un and a bad 'un I shall stay! You'll be seeing no transformation . . . ."
Javert and Fagin had apparently concluded that whatever we are, we were born and will stay that way. That’s our lot in life. We are stuck with ourselves. But should Christians buy that idea?
Is it true, as so many T-shirts declare, that “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”? That word JUST suggests that the only change our faith in Jesus brings about is forgiveness. Guilt gone.
It’s true, of course, that faith in Jesus does bring forgiveness of our sins. And that is indeed good news. But it’s far from the whole story. It's also true that Christians are not yet perfect. But that does not mean forgiveness is the only change Jesus brings about.
How many Christians believe faith in Jesus equals sins forgiven . . . period? If all they hear is that Jesus’ death has canceled our guilt, that’s a short-changed gospel.
In the full-sized gospel, forgiveness is the starting point. As Paul explains in II Cor. 5:17, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life has gone. A new life has begun.”
In Eph. 4:24, Paul calls that transformation a “new self”—“put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” So Javert got it all wrong about Valjean. Change is indeed possible for people like him. In Christ, the old Valjean could become a new Valjean. His former life could be replaced by a radically different new one.
It's true, of course, that sin left us spiritually dead. We need to be raised, not just reformed. Changing from a dead self to a living one is not a do-it-yourself project. Only God can transform death into life.
So “just forgiven” is not enough. We need transformation, a complete metamorphosis. We need to be changed from one state into another. Our physical eyes cannot see the process of spiritual transformation. Like other Kingdom-of-God truths, it is invisible.
Jesus spoke often of visible pointers to invisible Kingdom-of-God realities. Seeds, weeds, birds, bread, flowers, sheep, and so on. God has packed his physical creation with pictures of truths we cannot see. Even pictures of transformation truth.
For example, take the H2O molecule, made of one oxygen atom bonded to two hydrogen atoms. This molecule can exist in three forms. It illustrates God’s power to transform, to move what he created from one form to another.
The first form of the H2O molecule is ice. At 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the frozen water molecule locks arms with others. The red dots suggest these linkages. In ice, the water molecules are, well . . . frozen. Rigid. They cannot move around.
Like ice, we begin as sin-hardened people. Our hearts are ice-like. Because of sin, this is the form God finds us in. Spiritually rigid, we are unable on our own to move toward him.
When heat raises the temperature above freezing, the H2O molecule takes on its second form—water. Now, many of the linkages disappear. Although the water molecules keep some connections, they are no longer rigid. In liquid form, they can move freely.
Just as heat can transform the H2O molecule, the gospel can transform us. John puts it clearly: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” From our newly born lives pour “rivers of living water” (Jn. 7:38). Now, with God’s own life in us, we remain connected with our earthly bodies, even as the H2O molecule in its water form, remains attached to its adjacent molecules.
Now comes the final transformation. In its third form, the water molecule exists as a vapor. For example, when water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, it produces steam—which soon turns into visible vapor in the air. Now, the H20 molecules are not linked to each other. They are free to move around in air currents.
After the death of our bodies, the word of God will sound again—this time bringing us to life in resurrection bodies that will live forever. As Paul says in I Cor. 15:53, “Our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.”
Yes, we can be changed. No, we are not just forgiven. The complete gospel says not only that Jesus died for our sins, it also says that we died with him. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)
Only if the old life dies can the new life spring up. In faith, we take God at his word that we have already died with Jesus. And in faith, we receive his new, resurrection life now—even before we die physically.
Just as the H20 molecule remains itself, whether as ice, water, or vapor, we will always keep our core identity. But in our resurrection bodies, we will be more truly ourselves than in any of our previous forms.
As C. S. Lewis said, “Giving ourselves wholly to Christ is the only way to discover who we are, the only way to become who Christ means us to be, the only way to experience his riches in this life, and the only way to fulfill the purpose for which he made us.”
Transformed for Work
“We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10)
