10/07/2019
Once we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, and know God as our Lord, then we begin a transformation into a different person, but as we change we realize that who we once were is never who we were intended to be. As we lose our old self, we strip away the facade, and reveal who God knew us to be all along. The new self we are becoming is God’s perfect creation.
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
In my younger days I used to be very thin, but as I aged I put on weight, and before I realized it I was too heavy. This struck me one day when I was looking at some pictures that a friend sent me of a picnic I was at. There was a man in the picture that was obviously overweight, and I suddenly realized that it was me! Seeing myself from the outside shocked me because from the inside I couldn’t see who I had slowly become... it was an epiphany... an awakening! My mind had been seeing who I thought I was, but the rest of the world saw me as something quite different. It is the same way with aging when, after a while, you see a new photograph of yourself, and suddenly realize that the old person in it is actually You. God sees the spiritually thin, and young, person when He looks at us; not the person who the world, overeating, or time, has made us into, but who He knows as His intended creation. He sees beyond the sinner on the outside to the person perfected by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
Colossians 3:9-10 ESV
Inside each of us is a man or woman that God has known since before creation. He sees us beyond our sin, and looks at us much as I saw the thin person that I once was, or the young person that the elderly identify with. When we are transformed by our faith it is into the person that God has seen in us all along, and loved so much that He sent His only begotten son to save... not the facade that sin, and the world, has erected around us, but the glowing perfection that Jesus restores to its intended glory. This is what we want to be returned to, and for all to see.
“Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”
Psalms 51:9-12 ESV
So I went on diets, and I would lose pounds, and gain pounds as I tried hard to control my weight, but unlike those attempts to lose weight, when Jesus transforms us it is truly successful because God enters the battle at our side.
“When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."”
Matthew 19:25-26 ESV
And, when people age they try many things to recover their youth; we have cosmetic surgery, watch what we eat, exercise, dress like young people, and try to behave as the young, but nothing can reverse the years. However, the transformation that Jesus brings renews even the wrinkles by transforming our aging bodies as well as our worldliness, and sin.
“But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?"
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”
1 Corinthians 15:35, 42-44 ESV
In this way it is “who” we are that is transformed in Jesus while we are yet on this earth, but “what” we are, our physical bodies, is transformed after we have passed through death. So when we accept Jesus as our savior the mist is cleared from our eyes, and we begin the process of transformation into the perfect person God desired us to be. By the blood of Jesus we are washed clean, and perfected...
“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48 ESV
Are you ready to ask Jesus to be your savior, and begin that journey, or if you are already saved, are you ready to continue along the path to who you really are? Are you ready to be the person God has known you to be all along?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for never losing sight of the person within me, and holding firm to the man beneath the sin. Thank you for loving me so much that you would send your Son to the cross for me, and use His sacrificial blood to remove the stain of sin from me... transforming me. Teach me Holy Father to be more like Jesus with each passing day, and to accept your transformative grace with each breath I take. Help me Merciful Father to exhale the breath of the world, and to breathe in anew your fresh breath of life. Renew me through Jesus, and give me an understanding of you by your Holy Spirit. Let me abide in Christ, He in me, you in Him, and He in you... in this way make us as one, and my perfection complete as you have always seen it. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who never abandons me, And loves me enough to redeem me from sin and death. Great are you as you lift me from my iniquities, and perfects me in Jesus. Awesome are you whose Holy Spirit instructs me, and gives me understanding of your will for my life. In the victory of your grace bestowed on me through Jesus, all glory is yours Father. Help me as I am transformed, and perfect me in preparation for that day I stand before you singing Holy, Holy, Holy!
“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"
"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."”
Revelation 4:8, 11 ESV
Rich Forbes