Scripture reading: Ezekiel 36:25–27

Metamorphosis

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creation. (Galatians 6:15)

Years ago a country farmer visited a big city for the first time. Everything was new and strange. He found himself in the lobby of a tall building. Because he had never seen an elevator, he did not understand what happened when those shiny doors opened and closed. He sat and watched as a little old lady shuffling along with her cane stepped through the sliding doors. Minutes passed and then the doors opened again. Out stepped a tall, very attractive young woman. Grabbing his son by the straps of his overalls he said, “Boy, go get your mother!”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the promise of radical transformation. God intends to do much more than patch up our flaws and adjust our behavior. He envisions a metamorphosis, a transformation, a new creation! Redeeming grace makes all things new. The Gospel makes possible:

• a new birth (I Pet. 1:3) • a new life (Rom. 6:4)
• a new heart (Ezek. 36:26) • a new nature (II Pet. 1:3–4)
• a new mind (Rom. 12:2) • a new name (Isa. 62:2)
• a new self (Col. 3:10) • a new creation (II Cor. 5:17)
• a new spirit (Ezek. 11:19) • a new everything! (Rev. 21:5)

C. S. Lewis said it well:

Mere improvement is not redemption . . . God became man to turn creatures into sons; not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature. (Mere Christianity)

If what you want from Jesus Christ is a few Band-Aids for your hurts, some aspirin for your pain, and five steps to self improvement, well . . . perhaps you should try a good therapist or join a support group. The Gospel is not really about the modification of our behavior but rather about the transformation for hearts!

Our sin problem goes deeper than we ever imagined but so does God’s grace! The change God wants to work in our lives will not be instantaneous nor painless. There are no shiny doors we can enter that promise immediate change. The Gospel is not magic. But it is real!

Give Jesus Christ access to the deepest places of your heart. Let his re-creative grace have freedom to redeem and transform the very essence of who you are. This metamorphosis begins when you can say, “I believe that he can do it. I believe that he will do it. I believe that he has done it.”

God does not expect us to imitate Jesus Christ.
He expects us to allow the life of Jesus to be
manifested in our mortal flesh. God engineers
circumstances to make this possible.
—Oswald Chambers

point to ponder • The Gospel is not a call to behavior modification but the promise of a new creation.
prayer focus • Give God access in those areas where you need his “re-creative grace” to redeem and transform.