What is Transformation?
That beginning is a life under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, whom each believer receives as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice. What might this mean for the apostle Paul? He was a Jew before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road, and he was a Jew after. Everything he did, he did for God both before and after he met Jesus. If we are going to define conversion as the moment when each believer turns from self to God, then we must realize that Paul did not experience conversion on the Damascus Road. He experienced the ongoing transformation that should define the life of every believer.
While reading through the work of A. W. Tozer, I saw one way that it might be described:
“That a saving work must first be done in the heart is taken for granted here. The spiritual faculties of the unregenerate man lie asleep in his nature, unused, and for every purpose dead. That is the stroke which has fallen upon us by sin. They may be quickened to active life again by the operation of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. That is one of the immeasurable benefits which comes to us through Christ’s atoning work on the cross.”6
We can refer to this initial spiritual awakening as conversion, and then we can see the active use of these spiritual faculties in our own transformation by God. Whether we are shifting our focus to God for the very first time or returning to a God who loves us, we then begin, or resume, the lifelong process of growing in our relationship with God. True conversion, or shifting the foundation of one’s own thought to God, is only possible through Christ’s atoning work on the cross. We can know that growing in our relationship with God is only possible after that conversion. In fact, we could say that conversion naturally brings about a process of lifelong transformation that we should experience in our own perspective relationships with God. If there is no transformation, it is much too likely that we have either never known God or are in need of another spiritual awakening.
Considering this, it should be understood that one of the marks of a true Christian, or person in relationship with Christ, is unending transformation in both the heart and mind. After all, we must always remember Paul’s words in his letter to the believers in Philippi as he describes his own spiritual pursuit, “Not that I have already attained this (the resurrection from the dead) or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.”7
Though Paul experienced one of the closest relationships with God in human history, he recognized that he had not yet arrived and, because he had not yet arrived, he pressed on to make the resurrection from the dead his own. In the same way, no human person living at this present time has arrived, so to speak. We are undergoing constant transformation. We are being shaped for God’s glory.
In essence, our spiritual faculties, as Tozer puts it, “grow sharper and more sure…”8 If transformation were not pertinent to the Christian life, there would be no need for the spiritually mature to record their wisdom for the following generations. Those who write and preach do so to glorify God through both the spreading of the Gospel and the spiritual maturing of the entire Church. We are good stewards of that wisdom when we read and listen. In fact, God has provided teachers for us so that we can be transformed through the wisdom that He has given to them. We are good stewards when we utilize those resources in our personal spiritual maturity under Christ, and by refusing those resources we also refuse an opportunity to be transformed by the power of God.
While it is a different subject entirely, I do feel a need to specify that there is an obvious need for discernment as we search through these resources. We must always compare what we read to God’s Word, which is the written standard for truth: not because it simply claims to be truth but because every aspect of it has proven to be true for the last 3500 years.
This idea of transformation can also be seen throughout the life of St. Augustine, at least in the hotly debated topic of his conversion.
“Some scholars have suggested, accordingly, that it was to philosophy that he was really converted; the narrative of the Confessions is coloured by a fuller acquaintance with Scripture and with Church life that was only acquired over the next few years.”9
It only makes sense that Augustine’s apparent fuller acquaintance with Scripture and Church came as he progressed in maturity. It would be naïve to think that conversion is the goal. Conversion is not the goal. Conversion simply enables us to be transformed by God, so that we may gain a full, unhindered relationship with our Lord. That is the goal.
We should take a look at the apostle Paul’s transformation:
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
- Acts 9:1-9 ESV
Paul, even in persecuting the Christian movement, did everything that he did for God, whom he followed to the fullest extent. At one moment in his life, Paul must have decided to pursue God and hold nothing back. Why else would he be so adamant in his dealings with the Christian people? Paul was taught that the way to please God was to keep the full extent of the Hebrew law, and as far as we know he kept that law more strictly than anyone else at the time, and with pure motive. The moment at which Paul chose to pursue God was his moment of conversion, even though he was later wrong in how he dealt with the Christian people.
Since Paul was seeking God unreservedly even before he became a Christian, he was available to be transformed by God. I am convinced that every Jew who genuinely sought God was affected by the same type of transformation. God revealed Himself to Paul and will reveal Himself to those who genuinely seek Him. This presents an interesting challenge to the life of the believer. Though God’s constant revelation is comforting, it also constantly challenges us to become more mature in our relationship with God. In a sense, God pushes us every time He reveals Himself to us.
Paul could have decided not to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. He could have decided to continue his violent persecution of the developing Christian Church in God’s name, and in doing so kept his allegiance to the Pharisees and his position of respect among ritualistic Jews. Paul could have chosen not to accept the transformation that God was offering, and in doing so fall back into the anthropocentric mindset that all people accrue before conversion; but he did not.
Instead he took the chance to be transformed and gained a greater place in God’s ever-evolving work on this earth. When we choose to take advantage of the transformation that God offers, instead of thinking we are always right or that we are above growth, we too gain a greater position in God’s ever-evolving work on the earth that we inhabit. Transformation allows us to be more mature, to grow closer to our God, and to have a greater impact on society around us in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Dallas Willard writes of spiritual transformation in this way:
“Without the gentle though rigorous process of inner transformation, initiated and sustained by the graceful presence of God in our world and in our soul, the change of personality and life clearly announced and spelled out in the Bible, and explained and illustrated throughout Christian history, is impossible.”10
One word stands out to me: impossible. Without the presence of God, spiritual transformation is impossible. Transformation is initiated and sustained by God. In the Christian life, transformation begins at conversion and continues at the least until these earthly bodies we are trapped within return to the dust of the earth. Every interaction we have with our God is an opportunity we have to be transformed. It is an opportunity God gives us to leave His footprint in our lives, and in this world forever. Why do we continue to pass those opportunities by so that we can dabble with the false progress this world presents us with? God is in the business of transformation. We should be also.