ARE YOU MERELY REFORMED, OR TRULY TRANSFORMED? ( μεταμορφωσις )
It is interesting to note that the word translated “be transformed” ( μεταμορφωσις ) is the very word from which we get the English word ‘metamorphosis’! You know Metamorphosis happens when a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly. The caterpillar is not merely changed, or reformed. Rather, it is born again, totally transformed, and becomes a new creature.
In Matthew 12, Jesus speaks about some people that want to make some changes and try to reform their lives. They look at the mess they have made and feel disgusted. They want to be clean. They want order and direction. In that moment, lots of times, these people momentarily turn their eyes toward God and find “RELIGION”. Sometimes, they join a so called reformed church, or they even walk the aisle of the local church and ask to be baptized. For a moment, they look and feel like they have got their spiritual house in order.
But here is the reality – a person who goes to Christ for REFORMATION will soon be back to his old habits, and the mess will quickly become as bad (or worse) than ever. In Jesus’ parable, the man swept his house clean of the one demon who lived there, but soon found that seven more had moved in! What a familiar story for many people – folks who come to Christ hoping to “tidy up a bit”. These people often give up on Christ after they discover that “religion” didn’t work like they hoped.
In the New Testament, Paul teaches that God is much less interested in personal “reformation” than in TRANSFORMATION. “If anyone is in Christ,” he wrote, “the new creation has come: the old has gone and the new is here” (1 Corinthians 5:17).
Paul’s point is just this – a relationship with Jesus Christ is about more than what you clean and straighten and REMOVE from your life. A relationship with Christ is all about what (or WHO) goes INTO your life.
A person who repents of his sin and identifies with Christ (through believers baptism) receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, who takes up residence inside Him. That means that God is living (and guiding) inside of His people. . . and they are both immediately (and continually) transformed).
That doesn’t mean, of course, that we will stop making messes. It does mean that we strive to follow God’s leading and become more like Him. It also means that we are sensitive to our failures and eager to go to Him for cleansing. In other words, God makes us aware of the mess, and He shows us how to clean it AND avoid it in the future.
So what about you? Have you come to Christ looking to “make some changes” in your life, or have you come to Him bowing before your Savior and Lord, asking Him to have mercy on you and make you a new creation? Have you been trying to reform some areas of your life . . . or are you willing to be transformed by Christ.
The answer to that question is the difference between
a temporary “fix” REFORMATION
and a brand new life. TRANSFORMATION
Matthew12:43-45
2 Peter 2: 20-22
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