The Transfiguration of the Christian

Everyone loves the fact that upon confessing faith in Christ we are instantly justified in the eyes of God. One of the theological terms used is imputation, meaning that the righteousness of Christ is given to us in terms of our position with God. The blood of Christ covers our sin and we are immediately restored to relationship with God, the Father. We can now enter into His presence through prayer offered in the name of Jesus and should we die we can go directly to heaven. This is good news. This is the Gospel.

But the Gospel does not stop there. The good news of the Gospel also means we are being changed. In terms of theology this is called sanctification. It is the process of us literally becoming like Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus walked this earth without sin. Since sanctification is a process, we know that it takes time. It takes a lifetime and the work will not be complete until we are taken up to be with Christ. But for the true follower of Christ, it is a guarantee as found in Philippians 1:6 in which Paul says that he is “sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Unfortunately, we too often hear preached that the Gospel is that Jesus loves you, He died for you so that you can go to heaven. All true statements but if we stop there we miss the complete truth of the Gospel. Jesus offers many warnings in the Bible about false conversions and that ought to lead us to be sure we are preaching the complete Gospel, for we must not allow someone to live in the hope of heaven only to hear the fearful words of Jesus Himself. Listen to Jesus from Matthew 7:21-23 as He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

The truth is that our salvation experience, if true, will result in a change. Yes, that change is a lifelong process and we will struggle with sin our whole lives. But the Bible teaches us that we won’t just be the same old person we were. We will be radically different, so different that the world will see Christ in us.

While there are many readings in scripture that teach us about the Gospel experience, there is one I call attention to today that I had never really noticed before. In the Gospels we read the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. This was the point when Peter, James, and John were led up a mountain by Jesus and were given the vision to see Jesus in His full glory. The story is found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

God speaks out of the clouds and confirms that Jesus is His Son and instructs us to listen to Jesus. In the Gospels Jesus tells us to obey Him. Listen to what Jesus says in John 14:15
 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Proof of our love for Jesus comes through obedience to what He says. Then in John 14:21 He says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." And again, in John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Obedience to the commands of Christ is not an option. The mark of repentance is the change in us in which we turn from our worldly attitudes and behaviors to become in agreement with God’s moral law. This is not how we are saved, that is by faith alone, but obedience is the evidence we have been changed.

When the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of scripture to speak of the transfiguration in the Gospels, He chose the Greek word, metamorphoō, of which we derive the word metamorphose. Most of us know that word means to be changes into something g completely different. The scientific definition of the word we know says that Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's form or structure through cell growth and differentiation. It also says that is usually involves a change of habitat and behavior. That, my friends, is a pretty accurate description of what being ‘born again” as a new Christian is.

If we look up the word metamorphoō in our study materials, we find that it is used three times in our Bibles. The first in the Gospels which describe the transfiguration of Jesus. The other tow times it is used it speaks of the changes in the person who have experienced the act of salvation. Remember, though we sometimes see different words used in the Bible, we should be looking at the original Greek to get a better understanding of the meaning, so even though the word appears different, the actual word used was metamorphoō.

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Corinthians 3:18
 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The verses above ought to be enough to convince us that our salvation experience is more than just a free ticket to heaven in the next life, that it also involves a radical change in our current life. Adding the fact that the Holy Spirit uses the same word to describe how Jesus suddenly was changed to reflect the Glory of God in the story of the Transfiguration, so our salvation experience must convince us that our life after conversion also should reflect the Glory of God. Like the caterpillar, which is metamorphized into the beautiful butterfly, so ought the Christian fly into the world reflecting the great Glory of God.

Paul gave this command in 2 Corinthians 13:5,
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Our eternal destination rides upon this test. Let us not go another day without crying out to Jesus that we, indeed, will reflect His glory. He has sent the Holy spirit to empower us to be light and salt. May it be real in each of us.