“Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]”. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP, 2015)
The world of nature has much to teach us if we take the time to observe, meditate and learn. Take the monarch butterfly as an example. In scientific language, the life cycle of this butterfly is “complete metamorphosis,” a complete change from one form of being to another. Four stages comprise its metamorphosis: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (cocoon) and adult (butterfly). In each, the insect is being transformed from one distinct shape and form to another. One would not look at a monarch egg and see a butterfly. Yet, in every stage of a butterfly’s metamorphosis, the same elements are found genetically from first to last.
Some of you remember all of this from elementary school science. Some of you may have taught this information to a group of young people in character building class at the corps or camp. Some of you may have already used this illustration in preaching or teaching.
So, why add one more document to the discussion? Bluntly, because the information dwelling in our head has all too often not taken root in the deepest parts of our being (our heart/soul/spirit/will), and therefore does not result in a deep change in our life. We do not actually believe the full message of the truth of scripture, and consequently live lives that are far less; stunted and growth impaired. The tragedy is that God has paved the way for and provided a way to a rich, full, free and totally transformed way of living. We are only trapped by our own inability and at times unwillingness to believe that what God has said is actually true!
Over the next three months, we will be thinking about our spiritual metamorphosis. Three simple, yet profound truths will form the foundation of these blogs. Mentally, you will find them to be plain and simple. Spiritually, you just may find them to be the most critical and life-giving if you will take the time and effort required to work them from your head through your heart and into your hands (your lifestyle). Here’s this month’s truth:
You are NOT (NO LONGER) who you once were!
When you came under conviction for your sin, you repented, honestly confessed it to God and asked for forgiveness. At that moment in time, there were a number of things that happened all at once in your life in God’s sight. You experienced a spiritual metamorphosis! Here are the theological truths we believe are expressed when we are born again:
· we are justified, God removes our guilt;
· we experience regeneration, God changes our heart;
· we are initially sanctified, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our life;
· we are reconciled with God, as our relationship with God is changed from war to peace;
· and we are adopted, God receives us into His family.
Our relationship and standing with God is fully changed and transformed through the power of God. Paul states this very simply in our text; “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation….” You are not (no longer) who you once were!
Here’s where we get tripped up in our spiritual infancy and often become stunted and plagued for the rest of our spiritual life. We do not drink in the deep truth of our transformation. We may believe God is no longer angry with us for our sins. We believe He has provided for us a home in Heaven at our death. And then, we stop there. When we do, we stop far short of God’s glorious ideal. We stop short of believing and becoming all He intends, because we adopt a false narrative of who we are in God’s sight. You will be instantly familiar with this false narrative, expressed often by Christians; “I am just a sinner.” Unfortunately, the constant focus and discussion of our sinfulness keeps producing in our lives a false narrative of our true standing before God!
David Needham asks a profound question, which, if answered, will have remarkable consequences in our lives. “What could be more frustrating than being a Christian who thinks himself to be primarily a self-centered sinner, yet whose purpose in life is to produce God-centered holiness” (quoted in James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God, p. 152)?
Picture this concept again from nature. Consider the now fully transformed monarch. It has left the confinement of being tethered to the ground because it now has wings. It has the freedom of the skies. It is no longer the same. Its metamorphosis is complete.
James Bryan Smith declares, “When I hear a Christian say, I’m just a sinner saved by grace,” I want to say, “That makes as much sense as a butterfly saying, ‘I’m just a worm with wings’” (Good and Beautiful God, p. 156).
Here’s the first truth—You are not (no longer) who you once were. You are not a worm with wings!
SELAH: Pause for a while and thing about these things.
Suggested Spiritual Discipline to Develop Spiritual Intimacy with God:
___________________________________________________________________
Welcome to this time of solitude Feel free to take off your masks.
–Sign in a retreat house
___________________________________________________________________
Spiritual Formation Guide–Exploring My Life “IN CHRIST”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes; “We are so afraid of silence that we chase ourselves from one event to the next in order not to have to spend a moment alone with ourselves, in order not to have to look at ourselves in the mirror.” As a means of developing your relationship with Christ, choose to devote time for solitude. Solitude is a “container of time and space” in order to be with God and listen to His voice, either with or without other spiritual formation practices. You may be yearning to have time to quiet yourself before the Lord.
As you step away from busyness and enter solitude, remember:
· There is no one to impress.
· No one’s opinion of us shapes this time and space.
· There is no image to live up to or to live down to.
Dallas Willard offers helpful counsel;
When we go into solitude and silence, we stop making demands on God. It is enough that God is God and we are his. We learn to have a soul, that God is here, and this world is “my Father’s house.” This knowledge of God progressively replaces the rabid busyness and self-importance that drives most human beings, including religious ones. (Foreword to Invitation to Solitude and Silence, Ruth Haley Barton, 2004, pp. 10 – 11.)
The following is offered as an aid for your thought and prayer while you are with God in solitude.
As believers, we are in Christ. This reality forms the basis for both our salvation and holiness. Neither is possible through our own effort or strength. Both are the gracious, ongoing work of Christ living and abiding in us. Slowly meditate and pray through the following statements and verses of Scripture that depict your identity in Christ. What truths are whispered into your soul as you allow yourself to slowly think through these Scriptural truths of your life in Christ? (All Scripture verses are quoted from the NRSV.)
· I am God’s child: “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” (John 1:12)
· I have been justified, and have peace with God: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)
· I am free from condemnation: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
· I am alive together with Jesus: “And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses.” (Colossians 2:13)
· I cannot be separated from God’s love: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 38 – 39)
· I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm: “God. . . raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4, 6)
· I am in the Spirit, not the flesh: “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit.” (Romans 8:9)
· Jesus is my life: “When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)
· I am being transformed into the very image of Christ: “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as through reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:1)
_________________________________________________________________________________
“Christ in me” means something quite different from the weight of an impossible ideal. . . . “Christ in me” means Christ bearing me along from within, Christ the motive power that carries me on, Christ giving my whole life a wonderful poise and lift, and turning every burden into wings. . . not as something you have to bear but as something by which you are borne. (James S. Stewart, A Man in Christ, p. 169)
_________________________________________________________________________________
Major Cherri Hobbins
March, 2025
