Transformation Pt. 4

By The Spirit

Recap

Transformation - renewing our mind - what we give our attention to slowly shapes who we become.

It is important to stress that Transformation is not a behavioral improvement program. There is temptation to go about life-change the wrong way. The way of behavior modification from self-effort.

Romans 7:1–6 NLT “Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? 2 For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. 3 So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. 4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. 5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

Martin Luther

As so many have discovered through history, it is a miserable life.

Martin Luther, 16th century reformer. His lifestyle has been thoroughly documented as one who had incredible zeal for God, fully committed to Him, yet lived habitually overcome by guilt.

Martin Luther’s as an Augustinian monk, before the Reformation had a very sensitive and often tormented conscience. He was deeply afraid that some unconfessed sin might leave him under God’s judgment, so he would confess repeatedly, sometimes reportedly for hours at a time.

His superior and spiritual mentor, Johann von Staupitz, eventually became frustrated because many of the things Luther was confessing were incredibly minor or, not really sins at all.

Luther had reached the point where confession itself was becoming a form of torment: Did I confess everything? Was I sufficiently sorry? Did I forget something? Was that thought sinful? Was my repentance sincere enough?

He would whip himself until he bled and even lie down on the snowy ground all night long in the dead of winter until others would carry him inside.

“How can I ever know that I have done enough to stand before a holy God?”

As Luther discovered in Romans 1:16–17 “16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.””

So when talk about transformation, and our renewing our mind - giving our attention to the glories of Christ. It's by grace, though faith, by holy spirit only.

Caterpillar

In other words...

Caterpillar - Butterfly: the caterpillar doesn’t try real hard to transform itself by trying to act like a butterfly.

The caterpillar doesn’t look at the butterfly and say, oh, that is how I need to act. It cannot produce butterfly life by trying hard and giving self-effort. It doesn’t have wings for one.

Furthermore, the process of transformation for the caterpillar is not superficial. In other words, it doesn’t gather wings and stick it on itself. It is a full biological change from the inside out.

It is the nature of the caterpillar to change into something else.

And we, because of our new nature, are being changed into something else.

And for us, God isn’t just attaching some christian behaviors like act nice to people as if attaching wings to a caterpillar. But, by the work of His Spirit, He is already at work, right now, in you - transforming you from the inside out! This flows from the work of his spirit and our new nature. It’s really about letting Christ express himself through you - who you really are.

That is why, the Good news, is actually good news. God doesn’t just yell at us from heaven to try harder to obey.

He gave us Himself.

His Spirit indwells us. And now our Christian life is not about a caterpillar trying to behave like a butterfly but it’s about the Spirit of God transforming us from the inside out so that we increasingly become the kind of people from whom the life of Jesus and character of Jesus naturally flows.

Holy Spirit is Fundamental to the Early Church’s Experience

For the Apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit’s presence, activity, and indwelling was a fundamental facet of the early church’s experience.

Galatians 3:13-14 CSB “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree., The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

We could even say that the sending / giving of the spirit is a climactic point in God’s relationship and dealings with humanity (He Himself is one with me- Jesus talked about this all the time in his own relationship with the Father). The fulfillment that all nations would be blessed.

It is also God’s means of working, producing in us the righteousness that the Torah/Law could not give...

My first point in this study is between Paul’s contrast of the Law and the Spirit/Grace

The Law Can Reveal But It Cannot Transform

Romans 7:7–12 NLT “7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”

The Law is perfect, holy and good and yet it makes no one perfect. (It cannot transform me into a righteous person)

The parasite of sin is in me, but i do not know that until I look at the x-ray machine that shows me. It tells me to “do this” I try with self-effort to do and I fail.

Romans 5:20a NLT “God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were...

What the Law Could Not Do For Us, God Did

No where does the Apostle Paul say that we are to do the Law but only that the Law and its righteousness is fulfilled.

Romans 8:1–4 “1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Paul is reminding his readers that Christ is what the law was all along pointing toward: he is, as it were, the finish line of the race Israel had been running. Now that the finish line has been reached, the race is over, and the law is no longer the “guardian” of God’s people. Thus Paul asserts that the coming of Christ, like the finish line in a race, marks the intended outcome or culmination of the law, the race that Israel had been running.

This is the Gospel: what the law was powerless to do… God did!

God promised in Ezekiel 36:26–27 “26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

The Spirit is the gift, and His indwelling presence and power is what makes this news good news. He is the prophetic fulfillment.

An essential part of the Good News is that whatever God desires and requires is also something That God Himself nurtures and empowers in us. What the Spirit directs, the Spirit will empower.

Galatians 5:16 “16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

We can say that He sent His Spirit in us not merely to struggle against our self-centered sinful tendencies but to give us victory over them.

So We Don’t Begin By the Spirit and Finish by the Flesh

Galatians 3:1–5 “Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?”

This is exactly what we still do today.

We trust Jesus for salvation and then trust ourselves for transformation. Paul explicitly calls us fools and says no!

The same grace that saves you and the same Spirit that converts you and seals you; is the same grace and Spirit that transforms you.

Thus, Philippians 3:3b “We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort.”

How Does the Spirt Transform Us?

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

We give our attention (behold) to Him, the Spirit transforms.

His work does not remove our human agency, our participation in his work.

Our participation is real but the point of this message is that your participation does not change you - He does.

For Paul the work of the Spirit is not some mystical process. Rather, the Spirit works in the context of our ever-deeper engagement with Christ through Scripture, prayer, worship, obedience, community (small groups), suffering, service, and the ordinary rhythms of life (4 kids)

Thus these are places we need to behold Him, Look through him. The Spirit within us gives us a whole new mental model, a new story by which we can view the world. It’s these moment with him that I make myself available to him.

What We Are Transformed Into

As a caterpillar is transformed into a definite being - butterfly, we too. Romans 8:29 “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

What does that look like?

Immediately following Romans 12:1–2, he shows us what a renewed mind / transformed life looks like.

Sincere Love: Honor one another, serve one another, bless those who persecute you, live in harmony, associate with the lowly, overcome evil with good.

So what does the Spirit transformed life look like? Jesus. Jesus looks like love. God is love.

We behold (give our attention to Him) Christ

The Spirit transforms us

We become like Christ

And our transformed lives become a witness to Christ.