Metamorph Ministries
Personal Transformation in a New Era
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It is hoped the time you spend on this site will contribute to your growth into the image of Jesus Christ. It is this growth that is “the reason for everything.” It is the “surpassing value” of Philippians 3, “all things to be loss . . . that I may know Him.” And it is the transformation that occurs as we are “studying His glory . . . being transformed (metamorphed) into the same image (2 Cor 3:18).”
Personal Growth/Transformation
The Reason for Everything
As a plan of salvation, so a plan of sanctification. God wants to continue to develop the relationship that began with the experience of salvation, the new birth. Paul expresses the priority of this growing relationship in Phil 3:8 [1], saying “I consider all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul valued a growing relationship with God, knowing Christ, to be more important than everything else. This is a reference to God’s plan of sanctification.
Sanctification is a big and seldom used word that simply means to become different. As Jesus was different than the world around Him, so we are to be different, also. Paul would say, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed” Rom 12:2. This transformation is God’s plan of sanctification. There are three ways sanctification is used in the New Testament, past, present and future. You were sanctified at salvation. You are being sanctified, daily, and you will be sanctified when you see Him (Hebrews 10:10, 14; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). These refer, respectively, to salvation, daily transformation and future change to be fully like Christ, on entrance into His presence. It is the daily ongoing process that we are concerned with here. This daily sanctification or transformation or growth is a normal part of life that affects everything. It is the reason for everything God is doing in our lives. It is the goal of all Biblical teaching and activity (Phil 3:12-14; 1 Tim 1:5; 1 Cor 9:23). It is the reason God is at work for good in all things to carry out His purpose of conforming us, not to this world, but to Christ (Rom 8:28-29). This transformation into Christ likeness answers all the questions we have about life and its sovereignly controlled events. It is God’s top priority for us. It is for what we are to live (Col 1:28-29).
The process of transformation consists of five simple dynamics. These five dynamics are the reason spiritual disciplines are so important. The disciplines arise from these five simple dynamics. God’s word, faith and the Holy Spirit work together (1 Pet 2:2; Heb 4:2-3a; 2 Cor 3:18) to generate new life in us, the very life qualities of Jesus Christ Himself (2 Pet 1:4, the divine nature). Then obedience and suffering keep the gears lubricated so the process continues (Phil 1:22, 3:8; Rom 1:5;2 Cor 1:8-9, 4:8-12). These five dynamics operate with the “death and life” cycle of 2 Cor 4:7-12, esp 10-11, to “form Christ in you,” Gal 4:19. This is God’s plan for growth, for sanctification. It is God’s top priority for us.
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18
[1] All references from NASB95, New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).
Something Gotta Change?
New Birth and Peace with God
How’s life? Going okay? Going great? So-so? However, it is going, it’s disappointing, isn’t it? “Not what I expected,” you say. Things just aren’t clicking, it’s not working out. No doubt you have tried hard, your hardest, but it is confusing and depressing. Even when there is some “success” it is empty and life is not what you expected. “Something’s gotta change,” you might say. Why is all this? What is at the root of this that needs to change for real “success” and a sense of fulfillment? Does it have anything to do with God and my resistance to Him? Is He really there and relevant?
The Bible says, “all things have been made through Him and for Him.” [1] If we were made “for Him,” and we are not connected to Him or we are resisting His will and presence in our lives, that would indicate something is wrong and may be a factor in the life disconnect we feel. How can life be experienced if we are separated from the One we were made to be connected to? “In Him was life and the life was the light of men.” [2] “Eternal life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life, he who does not have the Son of God, does not have the life.” [3] So why has the connection to God and life been severed and how can it be restored?
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” [4] Not only that but, “the wages of sin is death.”[5] We are dead or separated from God by our rebellion to Him. This is a common problem for all of us as humans and for all humanity. Almost everything we do or think about is affected by this problem and the guilt feelings and fear that result from sin. Sin is to have no restraints or to ignore them. It is to hurt others, either by committing or omitting in our relationship with them. It can be intentional or accidental. It can be in our relationships with other people or in our attitudes and actions toward God, who created the other people we hurt. He is ultimately the one who will avenge humanity’s sin against people and the sins of each of us as individuals against one another. “The Lord is the avenger in all these things.”[6] Jesus Christ, in the Bible says, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.”[7] He is our judge.
The really good news is that, “God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged.” [8]Jesus Christ is not only judge but also savior. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross . . . for by His wounds you were healed.”[9]You can be clean and fresh right now by believing in God’s Son and opening your heart to Him. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”[10] “That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”[11] Life because He rose from the dead, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men.”[12] “That Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.[13] You can have and experience this life, this eternal life, right now by believing and receiving the “free gift of God.”[14] No more guilt so no more guilt feelings. Don’t wait. Do it.
Here is the good news in a nutshell. The apostle Paul says,
“I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”[15]
[1]Col 1:16. NASB95 (All references in the New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).) [2] Jn 1:4 [3] 1 Jn 5:11-12 [4] Romans 3:23. [5] Romans 6:23. [6] 1 Th 4:6. [7] Jn 5:21-23. [8] Jn 3:17–18. [9] 1 Pe 2:24. [10] Jn 1:12. [11] Jn 20:31. [12] Jn 1:4. [13] Ro 6:9. [14] Rom 6:23. [15] 1 Co 15:3–4.