Be Transformed by the Love of God

Submitted by Jennifer Power

As we talk as a church body about being transformed, I am giving much thought and study to what it means to be transformed by God. What follows are my own (current) conclusions on what it means to be transformed by God.

Who are you?

Jesus died for your sins, so you are now the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21) and a co-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17). Because you place your reliance and confidence in Him, you have abundant life (John 10:10) – not just in heaven after you die, but here and now. Jesus said in John 6:35 that He is the bread of life, that whoever comes to Him will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Him will never be thirsty. In the original Greek, the word “believe” did not simply mean a head acknowledgement of a particular fact but rather indicated a complete reliance upon and trust/confidence in that which is being believed. To believe in Jesus, therefore, is to have complete reliance upon and confidence in Him and His work He has completed on your behalf. He is now at the right hand of God interceding for you (Romans 8:34). When you place your full confidence in Him, you receive a life which satisfies.

You no longer stand before God condemned, but stand righteous before Him as His child with whom He is pleased. This pleasure He takes in you does not come from your attempts to please Him for your acts of righteousness are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Rather, the pleasure He takes in you is a result of the righteousness Christ has obtained for you through His death which paid for all your ungodliness.

What does this all mean for us?

Our status before God has nothing to do with our efforts to please Him. Our status before God relies solely on the fully sufficient sacrifice of Christ which purchased our adoption as beloved children of God (Galatians 4:1-7). It means we do not have to worry about letting Him down. All He asks of us is that we place our full reliance and confidence in Him, follow Him, and be transformed by His love – in that order. He initiated our love relationship with Him by doing whatever it took to redeem us, and now He asks us to place our full trust in Him.

Our transformation into Christlikeness is not a result of our own efforts and disciplines, for even self-discipline is a part of the fruit of the Spirit and not our own labors (Galatians 5:22-23). 2 Corinthians 3:18 says “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.” It is as we behold the glory of the Lord that we are being transformed. It is in beholding the glory of the Lord which dared to become intimate with His fully flawed creation and who scandalously offered His very Son unto death just to be close to us, it is in this beholding we become transformed.

When we behold this glory – the glory that came down for us – we become able to rely on Him, follow Him, and be transformed by His love.

As we grow in our awareness of the depth of His love for us and in what it means for our lives today, our ability to trust God in every single moment increases. As we trust in Him more and more, He shows His faithfulness to us more and more. The more we experience His faithfulness, the more we know following Him is the absolute best path for our lives – any other path becomes empty, meaningless, and full of despair. The more we follow Him in our actual moment-by-moment lives, the more we are transformed. This transformation is rooted in His love for us. We do not transform ourselves through effort or discipline, but rather we become disciplined and motivated to put forth effort when our love for God and our awareness of His love for us grows.

It all starts with Him.

It all starts with His love.

If we do not love God and if we do not have an understanding of His love for us, we will not be transformed. We can change our habits, we can put forth more effort, we can acquire more knowledge about God, but unless we encounter His love and are swept up in love for Him, we will never change. Never.

The Israelites tried to follow God, but time and time again they turned away from Him (Deuteronomy 29:26, 2 Kings 17:7). Jesus’ disciples tried to follow Him. Peter claimed He would die before denying Him (Matthew 26:35), but by the time of His death, he (and many others) had fallen away (Matthew 26:69-75, Mark 14:27). After Jesus died His disciples locked themselves in a room out of fear for the Jewish leaders (John 20:19). Their efforts, like ours, apart from the love and power of God, fail time and time again.

We must receive His power from the Holy Spirit, lovingly made available to us through the atoning sacrifice of Christ (John 16:5-15, Romans 8:1-11, Acts 2:38, 1 John 2:2). We must be overcome by His love.

If you want to be transformed – if we, as God’s people, want to be transformed into the people God created us to be, we need His love. We need to be swept away by His love. We need to respond to Him in love. We need to be motivated by His love. We need to be assured of His love.

Father God, Your love for us is far greater than any of us have ever imagined. You have let us try to come to You through our own efforts, knowing that would never work, and knowing You had a plan to win us back. You let us try to give our everything, but it just has never been enough. We needed You to give Your everything – it was the only way, and so You did. You gave Your everything. Your love for us is so great, that no price was too high to pay. It is too much to comprehend. Might we fall before You on our faces, aware of how unworthy we are to receive Your love. Might You lift us up again and assure us we are Yours. Might we respond by placing our full reliance once again in You and in determining to follow You wherever You may lead us, trusting that Your will for our life is life itself. Show us, dear Lord, once again, just how much You love us, so we will never desire to leave.

Ephesians 3:17-19

“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”