Transformation

Introduction

Does everyone know C.S. Lewis?

He was a man who was born about a 100 years ago, and he is one of the greatest writers and Christians in history.

You might recognise some of his famous works.

Chronicles of Narnia

Mere Christianity - one of the great works of CS Lewis defending Christianity

Screwtape Letters - a fictional book which is a fun story about two devils talking to each other about how they can tempt and mislead humans

Now, what’s surprising is that C.S. Lewis wasn’t a Christian his whole life. He had quite a dramatic conversion. He was born into a Christian family and had a wonderful childhood, but at age 9, his mum suddenly died and his world was turned upside down. And when faced with the suffering and cruelty of life, he spent many years being an atheist. But later on he became a Christian through the influence of some good Christian friends, one of whom is the famous J.R.R Tolkien who wrote the Lord of the Rings series. And C.S. Lewis became one of the greatest defenders of the Christian faith in history.

This is one quote I love by C.S. Lewis:

‘A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either he was and is the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.’

The existence of Jesus hardly anyone disagrees with. Nearly all non-Christians believe that Jesus existed. But most of them just think of him as a great teacher. But what C.S. Lewis is saying is that if you read the Bible carefully and study history properly, you cannot just treat Jesus as a good human teacher. He is either a completely crazy lunatic, or he was truly the Son of God. You need to make a choice. There is no in between. It’s a really powerful and true argument. C.S. Lewis was a brilliant mind and was passionate about God.

Now the reason I bring up C.S. Lewis is because in today’s passage, we see that Paul also had a great and dramatic conversion - actually much more dramatic than C.S. Lewis. And through the story we see once again what the gospel is and what the grace of God is.

So let’s read through the passage and see the transformation that occurred in Paul’s life.

Read Galatians 1:11–16.

Paul’s Transformation Is Not Human!

So the first thing we see about Paul’s transformation is that it is not human! Read Galatians 1:11–12 “11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Paul is stressing here that his life was completely transformed by the gospel. And he is saying that this gospel did not come from any man. It wasn’t a teacher, it wasn’t his parents, it wasn’t a religious leader. Paul really really stresses the fact that ‘it is not man’s gospel’; he says again in verse 12 ‘I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it.’

Then where did this gospel that transformed him come from? In verse 12 it says ‘through the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ Through a ‘revelation’ - only a divine revelation, only a divine intervention of God was the thing that completely transformed him. Paul’s transformation came from God himself. And we can see this in the book of Acts which records how Paul was so suddenly and completely changed. Remember, Paul was on his way to kill Christians in another city and he was travelling on the road to Damascus, and suddenly a light came from heaven and he was blinded, and Jesus who had been crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven, revealed himself to him.

So the gospel which not only transforms Paul’s life, but also our lives, is actually something that is heavenly and divine in nature. Yes, it just seems ordinary when we talk about it in church, and in Bible studies, and it seems mundane like all the other ordinary things in our lives. But when we talk about the gospel, we must remember we are talking about something heavenly, something supernatural. It’s not just words, it’s not just something earthly we are talking about. The gospel is not just an idea in our minds, it’s not an academic study, it’s not words in a page. It is something that has come down from heaven directly. That’s why it has the power to completely change someone’s life like Paul.

And because it is heavenly and divine, and not from man, sometimes the gospel clashes with human thinking and ideas. Sometimes, what is normally considered wise and smart can actually clash with what the gospel tells us.

Normal worldly thinking might tell you its good to get a job that is financially secure and brings you a lot of respect. The gospel might tell you that that job is not for you.

Normal worldly thinking might tell you that the most important thing in high school is studying hard, getting a good ATAR, and making good friends. The gospel might tell you, actually the most important thing is getting to know Christ.

Normal worldly thinkin might tell you that it’s best to just fit in with your friends, and just follow what everyone else does, don’t stand out by being different. But the gospel tells you - be different, be set apart, don’t follow what everyone else does.

The gospel is fundamentally different from the world because it is not from the world. It can clash with human ideas because it is not from humans. So don’t be surprised when non-Christians question you, or even ridicule you or even think Christianity is stupid. Because the gospel is not from humans, we should not be surprised when people reject it as foolishness. But it is precisely through the preaching of the gospel that true wisdom - God’s wisdom - is revealed and the so-called human wisdom is exposed as foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18–31).

Paul’s Transformation Is Dramatic

And Paul’s transformation is not only not human, but it is dramatic! Read Galatians 1:13–14 “13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.”

Paul was someone who lived a very different life - Paul was someone who was completely opposed to Christianity previously. He was really religious, but just really really religious for a different religion. He followed the religion of Judaism like a complete madman, and because he thought Christanity was a threat to Judaism, he was someone who killed many many Christians.

But this person who seemed like someone who was completely opposed to Christianity and the least likely person to become a Christian, actually met Christ and became a Christian.

So even if there is someone in your life who you think would be the last person to believe in Jesus Christ, don’t count them out quite yet. Look at Paul - he was the last person on planet earth who would become a Christian, but he became one of the most important Christians in history, writing a huge portion of the New Testament. This is the power of the gospel - it has the power to completely transform those who are the least likely and those who are the furthest away from God. No one is left out. Including us - even if you think you would be the last person that would ever become a Christian, think again. The power of the gospel can cause the most dramatic changes, just like we see in Paul.

(And this power to dramatically change someones life also teaches us that we no longer need to be prisoners of our past. No matter what you may have done in your past, no matter how bad, Christians don’t have to be defined by what we have done in the past. Even if you were a murderer like Paul, the past doesn’t have to control or define who you are today. There is nothing that you can ever do that is too bad or too big for God to overcome. Yes, we should reflect on what we have done in the past, and repent of the things we did wrong and the mistakes we have made, but those things don’t need to be chains that hold us down in our new lives that Christ gives us. One encounter with Jesus is enough to change the entire direction of a person’s life.) - skip.

Paul’s Transformation Is By Grace

And lastly, Paul’s dramatic transformation by the gospel which comes from God, is by grace. Let’s read Galatians 1:15–16 “15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles...”

We see that even before Paul was born, even before he became a Christian, even before he did all the bad things in his life, God had determined that Paul would be set apart and be called to become a Christian. Why did God choose Paul to become this great Christian, to become this great writer of the NT that we still read about today, even though Paul was a great sinner and evil, murdering many Christians and persecuting the church? Was it because Paul in some way deserved it? Did he do something to earn God’s grace and salvation and transformation?

No, the verse says Paul was ‘called by...grace’. And Paul was chosen by God because it simply ‘pleased’ God. God chose Paul, saved him, revealed himself to him on the Damascus road and turned him into a Christian not because Paul was worthy or deserving of it, but simply because it pleased God to do so. God simply took delight and pleasure in saving and transforming Paul. God loved Paul not because Paul was loveable, but simply because it pleased God to love him. And likewise, God does not love us because we are loveable, but simply because it pleases Him to love us.

This is the wonderful news of the gospel. This is grace. This is the only kind of love that we can ever be secure in, because it is the only kind of love that we cannot lose. The only kind of love that you can depend on is a love that doesn’t depend on you.

Conclusion

So the transformation that occurs in Paul’s life, and in our lives, is ultimately an act of love by God. It is not because we have done something to deserve it, but God loves us and changes us because it simply pleases Him, simply because He wants to. And the transformation he gives us in our lives is often dramatic, profound, and wonderful. And when we are transformed, we are often left in wonder and awe, because we know it is a change that is not possible by any human wisdom or power, but something that can only come from heaven, from God himself. How amazing is it and how crazy is it that something from heaven can come into our lives? How crazy is it that through the word, God reveals his very self to us? Let’s not take this for granted and become numb to it. Let’s all remember that whenever we read the Bible and talk about the gospel, it is something heavenly we are dealing with that is given to us by God himself, in the middle of our everyday ordinary lives, which has the power to dramatically change us. A change which occurs not because we deserved it, but because it simply pleases God.

Opening song: Christ is enough

Closing song: All I Have Is Christ

Discussion questions:

In what ways is the gospel different to how the world tells you to live?

What changes have you noticed in your life because of the gospel?

Is there anything in my heart that tries to win the approval of God?