TRANSFORMATION

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV)

 

One of the assignments of grace in the life of those who believe in Jesus is to bring about a positive transformation of their lives, aligning it with the very image of Jesus Christ.

 

The image of Jesus Christ is not a Christian cliché; it is defined as the life realities of Jesus Christ. It is God’s desire for us to possess the life realities of Jesus. Scripture says, “As he is so are we in this world.” Hallelujah! This is the blueprint of God’s intention for us.

 

When we possess the life realities of Jesus, our limitations will cease to exist; our weaknesses will cease to exist; our challenges will cease to exist. We can in a practical way experience the life of Jesus. This is the idea about redemption. God chose one man called Jesus to represent humanity in all the experiences that befell him.

 

When Jesus died on the cross it was humanity dying on the cross, when he rose from the dead it was humanity rising from the dead, when he was glorified possessing dominion, glory, honour and wealth, it was humanity coming into that estate.

 

Our opening scripture lets us know how we can possess the life realities of Jesus. The glass talked about is the word of God, the open face that is required is an openness of mind. As we look into God’s word, we will see the glory of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in us takes it upon himself to transform our lives into what we’ve seen of Jesus.

JUSTIFIED BY GRACE

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

ROMANS 3:24 (KJV)

The prophets prophesied in the Old Testament that God was going to make all things new. This they spoke of with respect to how God relates with humans and the experiences of humans on earth. With the turn of the dispensation of Grace, God no longer relates with humans in the way he related with them during the fall; also no longer do men experience the limitations and oppressions they experienced during the fall. All these experiences can only be gotten through faith in Jesus Christ.

Our opening scripture lets us see that our justification from death which came as a result of sin was given to us freely by his grace through the substitutionary work of Jesus on the cross. We do not have to atone for our sins to be forgiven anymore: we were already forgiven in Jesus. Scripture reveals that we being justified by faith we have peace with God – no longer is God angry with you.

Our sins were forgiven in advance when Jesus atoned for us on the cross through the sacrifice of his life as there cannot be forgiveness of sin without a sacrifice for atonement – Jesus was that sacrifice. When a sinner comes to God, he doesn’t come to have his sins forgiven because they’ve been forgiven in Christ, he comes to receive the righteousness that Jesus got for him when he rose from the death. This is the very reason why righteousness gets imputed unto the sinner once he BELIEVES in Jesus.

The implication is this: our right standing with God is not on the basis of our “good or bad works”, it is on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness. This righteousness of Jesus is consistent unlike the righteousness of man that is inconsistent and so God has chosen to behold Jesus’ righteousness and qualify mankind based on Jesus’ righteousness once they believe in him. Paul said, “We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Lord.”

For the one who is a Christian, his consistent right standing with God is on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness and not on the basis of his good deeds. Should he fall, all he needs do is to acknowledge and confess Jesus as his righteousness as that was what he did in the first instance to become born again. We were justified freely by faith and we will stay justified freely by faith. It is all about Jesus!

PERFECT LOVE

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.”

1 JOHN 4:18 (KJV)

The first time we heard of the word “fear” was in the Garden of Eden, shortly after Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When God inquired of Adam’s whereabout he said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

The fear that man came to feel came with their knowledge of good and evil which is a type of the law. Whenever we live by the knowledge of good and evil we are most likely to fear as a result of the evil that we have become conscious of.

We sometimes look into our future or different areas of our lives and feel the grip of fear over a bad occurrence we do not want to experience. This ought not to be so. Our opening scripture says that perfect love casts out fear. Which love can be perfect?

The perfect love that was spoken about in our opening scripture cannot be our love for God, nor our love for humanity as human love, in its best expression is inconsistent. It has to be the love of God that was spoken about in our opening scripture.

When we concentrate on God’s perfect love for us the fears about our future and challenging areas of our lives will vanish. God loved us so much as to have given us his son Jesus and because of this act of his we can be assured that all we require for life has been given to us and that no more will he be angry at us for our imperfections.

CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

“And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:”

PHILIPIANS 3:9 (KJV)

Righteousness is a state of being right, or what we can also call “good”. Under the dispensation of Law, man was required to have his righteousness in place as a qualification for God’s approval and blessings, but under the dispensation of Grace, man is no longer required to possess a personal righteousness; rather he is required to possess a substitutionary righteousness by identifying with the righteousness of Jesus Christ through believing in him.

A major reason God had to do away with the dispensation of law was because the goodness of man as demanded by the law was inconsistent and couldn’t make him be in consistent peace with God. This moment a man is living right, the next moment he is in the wrong again: and with each offense, he attracted the punishment of the law except he atones for his sin. God figured out that if he continued relating with man this way, they might one day be consumed by the fury of his anger.

No one could have the image and nature of God under the dispensation of Law as majority of the people who were faithful to the law were hypocrites. This I meant by the fact that they did what was right externally, but they weren’t right internally.

When God considered these two reasons, he had to help man attain a righteousness that is independent of his works. The righteousness of Jesus Christ as obtained through his obedience to the death on the cross provided mankind with a consistent righteousness (right standing) with God that was independent of their good deeds or bad deeds once they believed and declared Jesus as their righteousness.

This revelation holds a lot for us as no longer can the devil win in condemning us for the bad things we do as our righteousness no longer counts save Jesus’ righteousness. Also, we can now become like the image of Jesus as God deals patiently with our shortcomings in a bid to give us the encouragement and opportunity to practice the life of righteousness that is in us. When we fall short of the nature of righteousness in us God does not get angry with us least we will not be encouraged to come boldly to his throne to receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.

OUR EDGE

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.”

ROMANS 6:14 (KJV)

In our previous post we considered what the sting of death is – sin; and we also considered what the strength of sin is – law. It implies that when sin takes root in the life of a person it produces death which is a separation from the life of God. It also implies that sin will not be able to produce death in a person except it is strengthened by the law.

It therefore appears that if we are going to deal with sin we need eliminate its strength and not be bothered about its effect since there won’t be an effect without sin being strengthened.

Our opening scripture lets us know that sin shall have no dominion over us because we are not under the law, but under grace. The dispensation of law, which is a dispensation of good and bad, causes man to focus on his weaknesses; while, the dispensation of grace, which is a dispensation of God’s strength, causes man to focus on God.

Whenever we focus on our faults, we keep ourselves from the life of God; whenever we focus on God, our faults notwithstanding, we bring ourselves in union with his life.

The dominion of sin is sickness, death, poverty, depression, oppression, affliction etc. As long as we keep our eyes away from our shortcomings and focus on God’s grace the effect of sin will not be an experience of our lives.

When Adam and Eve became conscious of their nakedness they kept themselves away from God’s grace and thereby incurred the dominion of sin over their lives. Our shortcomings are not the big deal here as man will always have areas of shortcomings, the big deal is the effect of our shortcomings and grace presents us with a way out.

THE STRENGTH OF SIN

“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”

                                                                                                1 Corinthians 15:56 (KJV)

Our opening scripture lets us know what the effect of sin produces – death; and it also lets us know what strengthens sin – law. Death, as caused by sin, is the reality of separation from the life of God. But this cannot be possible without sin possessing strength. Therefore if we are going to address death we need to alienate the strength of sin. Once sin losses its strength, it will not be able to separate us from the rich life that is in God. Death occurs when we feel condemned.

The life of God is the sustenance of mankind. It contains all the provisions that man needs for his well-being on earth. It is in this life we find wisdom, peace, joy, visions, righteousness, health etc. Just as plant cannot survive without sunlight; likewise, man cannot survive with God’s life.

The strength of sin happens to be no other thing but law. I need explain what the law is. Law is the consciousness of good and evil. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the tree of law. It made them aware of what was good and evil.

When we live by the law (knowledge of good and evil) we empower sin to produce death in us. This was exactly what happened to Adam and Eve. Once they partook of it, they stayed away from fellowship with God.

Notice that the first knowledge they conceived after eating of the tree was the knowledge of evil – nakedness. And this was what made them stay away from fellowship with God. When we live our lives on the basis of the knowledge of good and bad we will most likely see the fault lines in our lives. God does not want us to focus on our weaknesses; rather, he wants us to focus on his grace.

Paul, on focusing on his weakness, asked God to take it away, but God told him to focus on his grace. Begin at once to focus on God’s grace trusting that it will be sufficient for you and you will experience glory in that area of your life where you were once ashamed of.