Individual Entry: The Christian Life as Transformation
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April 08, 2008

Faith : The Christian Life as Transformation

When I came to know The Lord long ago, my first understanding of the Christian Life was that you “got saved” and sometime later you died and went to heaven. In between the two you tried to “be good”. The problem was (initially at least) that I was no more successful at “being good” after I was saved than before (not that I was ever that bad; but those things I struggle with before I “got saved” were just as much of a problem afterwards). Yet it was also pretty clear to me from reading the Bible that more was expected of me now that I was a Christian.

Eventually I came to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian, and by allowing God's Spirit to work in my life I started to see changes and improvements. Thirty years on, I have come to understand that the Christian Life is all about a process of transformation into God’s image. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness”; or as Paul wrote to the Romans: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

This transformation is not something I do under my own strength of will. I fixed those things I was strong enough to fix on my own long ago, and eventually reached the point that every time I worked to improve myself in one way I started to fail in some other way in the process. When everything else seemed to go well, I realized that I succumb to pride.

No, the real transformation came about when I submitted myself to God’s hand and allowed Him to work in my life. I became a trainee and God was my master, teaching me to become like Him. These lessons came in the form of instruction, life circumstances, and examples in other people’s lives.

Michelangelo is quoted as saying that he created his sculptures by taking a block of stone and chipping away everything that was not the statue. As a Christian I feel like that bock of stone sometime, with God slowly chipping away all parts of me that are not Like Him. One day He might be working on my eyes, another day on my hands; but God always seems to be working on something.

This is important – in hindsight I realize the only times God was not working to transform me into His image was when I was in rebellion, refusing to allow him to work on me. Sometimes God’s work is evident in the moment, while other times it isn’t obvious until later; but while I am submitted, God always seems to be working on some part of me.

My role then is just to submit to the process and obey when he tells me what to do. Obedience here is not in the form of “stop doing that” – God knows I can’t transform myself on my own. No, what God asks me to do are things like “go help that person”, knowing that in the process of helping them some attitude in my heart will change. So God keeps putting me in circumstances and asking me to do things that have the side effect of making me more like Him. That’s what it means to live a Christian Life.

Posted by Steven at April 8, 2008 05:00 AM