Title: TRANSFORMATION

Focus: Transformation in the image of Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit in us and through us.

Function: To encourage people to submit to and be involved with Christ’s work of spiritually forming us in his image.

Text: Colossians 3:1-17

INTRODUCTION

            Last week Sunday, in a conversation with pastor Mujahid el-Masih, I learned that Christians in Pakistan who want to become pastors of the church must be willing to die for Jesus. Pastor el-Masih told us that candidates for the Christian ministry must have certain qualifications and gifts. But they must also be willing to die for Christ. So, part of their ordination vow is: “Are you willing to die for Jesus?”

            Pastor el-Masih’s story has given many of us food for thought. A number of you have talked with me about the sacrifices made by Pakistani Christians and others who are persecuted for their faith. The willingness to die for Jesus, the strength and vitality of faith shown by people under severe persecution—all these things force us to face ourselves and ask hard questions about our commitment to Christ and the Christian faith.

“Are you willing to die for Jesus?”

            For me, I believe that the answer to that question will become clear for me when I am confronted with the threat of persecution and death. I also believe that God will give us the grace needed to die for Jesus when so required. Christians in the early church, for example, did not always know the answer to that question for themselves until they were put in situations of persecution and physical death.

            For now, however, political circumstances in America are such that you and I are not yet forced to answer the question. The time may come, but it has not yet arrived here.

            What has arrived, however, for all Christians today is the time to die to sin and self. That is, all Christians are the workmanship of God. The Spirit of God calls us to be transformed in the image of Christ. And such transformation is the work of Christ’s Spirit in us and through us. Spiritual formation and transformation is not an option for us. It’s part and parcel of being a Christian.

TRANSFORMATION

            All human beings are created in the image of God. That image within us is fallen, broken, stained, spoiled, tarnished because of sin. All people who come to faith in the Lord Jesus become God’s project. We must be renewed in the image of God. And since God images himself perfectly in his Son, the Lord Jesus, we must be conformed to the image of Christ. That’s why Paul says in Romans 12: 2 “Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Our transformation in the image of Christ will be completed when Christ comes again, and when we shall appear with him in glory. Christ gave us a glimpse of that glorious transformation before his death. Peter, James, and John saw Christ being metamorphosed, transformed, before their very eyes, on that mountain of transfiguration. For us today, transformation in the image of Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit in us and through us.

That work of the Holy Spirit is the work of formation. The Holy Spirit is like a blacksmith, who hammers and shapes a piece of red-hot iron into a horseshoe. We are the iron being shaped into the image of Christ.

In Colossians 3:1-17 the apostle Paul helps us to see how the Holy Spirit, as the blacksmith of our lives, transforms us and shapes us from one degree of glory to another. From the text, we learn that spiritual formation

• Involves knowing your secure position: Listen: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

            When we become Christians our position—the orientation of our lives—is secured in Christ. We no longer belong to ourselves, or our families, communities, or country. We belong to God in Jesus Christ. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Knowing who we are (and whose we are), is fundamental to spiritual formation. A Christian finds her life in Christ; and by his Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ shapes and forms us. We are in Christ.

Now from the text we learn that spiritual formation

• Aims at renewal: Listen to Paul: “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” The Spirit of Christ is constantly at work within us to de-construct, demolish our worldly notions and actions and points of view. And in the process, the Spirit re-constructs us in the image of the Creator who is reflected in Christ Jesus, our Redeemer.

            Periodically, we may be tempted to say in response to someone calling us to repent or change our behavior: “Well, that’s the way I am. That’s the way I see things. You can’t teach new tricks to old dogs.” The Bible tells us that Christians are constantly under construction. The Spirit shapes us to become renewed in the image of God. Renewal is at the core of the Christian life.

            Spiritual formation, then,

• Calls for a putting off: It calls for a disrobing, an undressing; more than that, spiritual formation calls for acts of killing or mortification. Listen to Paul: “Put to death, therefore, (here is the act of ‘killing’ which is also called ‘mortification’) whatever belongs to your earthly nature.” Here Paul reminds us that the “old man” “the old Adam nature within us,” must die. We must bridle and put to death that sinful nature, because we have died with Christ. That is, we have died to sin. Away with it.

            We must disrobe, put off the old rags of sin, such as (says Paul) “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed…rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other….”

            I think that for us American Christians the hardest question to answer is NOT so much, “will you die for Jesus? But rather, “are you dying to sin and self for the sake of Jesus?” Are you putting off, mortifying, killing the vices that belong to your old nature, so that you become transformed in the image of Christ. Do I commit myself to spiritual formation that calls for a putting off of the old rags of sin?

            Spiritual formation, however, calls not only for a putting off, but it also

• Calls for a putting on: We must put on the robes of Christian virtues—virtues that are produced within us and through us by the workings of the Holy Spirit. Listen:  “…as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” The early Christian church developed a practice of baptism, where new converts were led into the baptismal font with an old ragged robe. They would enter the waters of baptism, disrobe themselves, sink into the waters, (signifying dying to sin and self) and rise from the waters, receiving a white robe (signifying the fruits of the Holy Spirit), which must now be produced in us and through us by way of spiritual formation.

            Your and my baptism issues a daily call to put off the old rags of sin, and put on the new robe of Christian virtues.  So let me say it one more time: spiritual formation

1. Involves knowing your secure position in Christ;
2. Aims at renewal in the image of Christ;
3. Calls for a putting off (a dying to the old way of sin)
4. And it call for a putting on (a rising to the new way of living in love and obedience of Christ)

TRANSFORMATION’S WAY

            This leads us to the way of transformation. Paul shows us the way of spiritual formation by appealing to all Christians to do these four things:

1. Embrace a commitment to peace and unity in the body of Christ: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” Spiritual formation does not take place in a vacuum. It should take place within the context of the church. And as members of the church, we must commit ourselves to live in unity and peace, so that Jesus may have his way in us, individually as well as collectively, as the body of Christ called “Calvary Church.”

2. Express and develop an attitude of gratitude. Listen: (vs. 15b, 17) “Be thankful…sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

            Could it be that dying for Jesus in the heat of persecution or terrorism is perhaps easier to do than expressing and developing an attitude of thankful living? Yet, it’s a pathway to Christ-like transformation.

3. Maintain a commitment to the Word of Christ. Paul says (vs. 16) “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly….” The word of Christ includes the entire Bible; central to that Word is the story of Jesus revealing himself to the world as the eternal Son of God in the flesh, having come to save us from sin and death, and to restore all of creation so that we may live with God on the renewed earth with God in our midst for ever and ever. That’s the story of God in Christ Jesus. That’s the word that needs to dwell, abide, nestle, tabernacle, live in us. That’s the word that will shape us and transform us in the image of Christ.

4. Seek the fellowship of God’s people. Paul tells us that the word of Christ needs to dwell in us richly “…as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom….” I was reminded of this pathway of spiritual formation, as I attended a small group this past week. Praying together, reading the scriptures together, reflecting upon that Word of God together, and then challenging each other to live and shape our lives in light of God’s Word.

I was grateful for the fellowship experienced in my small group. And I am grateful for the fellowship, the encouragement, the admonition, the discipline we all may receive when we come together for public worship. How much Christians need each other! Seek the fellowship of the church, then. Seek the fellowship of other Christians. And thus be shaped and formed.

Clearly, the Scripture shows us the way. Walk the pathway of transformation by

-embracing a commitment to peace and unity in the church.

-expressing and developing an attitude of gratitude.

-maintaining a commitment to the Word of God in Christ.

-seeking the fellowship of God’s people.

Are you willing to die for Christ? The more pressing question for us today is this: “am I willing to be transformed and renewed in Christ” If we say “Yes” to this question, and learn to submit to the shaping of God’s Spirit, then the answer to that other question will also become clear in due time.

            In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.