A Living Sacrifice

Transformed speaks to us of a former state and then a new state…

The word ‘transformed’ in the original is ‘metamorphoo’ [or]metamorphose.

We are all familiar with that idea.

The caterpillar goes through a complete change and when he is transformed, you cannot find in him what he use to be. He is a new creature. He has gone from crawling in the dirt eating leaves to a completely new state that flies far above where he once crawled. He goes from a leaf eater to a sweet nectar drinker.

I think God created him as a sermon of what happens to a man made new is Christ….

2 Cor 5:17

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The new man no longer crawls around in the muck and mire of this world, but now sits in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The new man doesn’t feast on the the slop of the world anymore, but drinks in the new wine and tastes of the good things of God… Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Once a the transformation takes place, you don’t find the butterfly trying to go back to its former lifestyle. He doesn’t try to incorporate leaf eating into his meal plan. He has been made now for better things.

This transformation takes place by the renewing of our minds…

Phil 2:5

5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

If we are going to be transformed, then we are to go from what we were to something else… What?

Col 3:10

10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge AFTER THE IMAGE OF HIM THAT CREATED HIM:

Eph 4:23-24

23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

24 And that ye put on the new man, which AFTER GOD is created in righteousness and true holiness.

1 Pet 1:14-16

14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

So we are transformed to be fashioned in the image of God.

When God created man, he made him in his image and in his likeness. But man lost much of that state because of sin.

God was still holy, but man was not.

God was still righteous, but man was not.

God was still so loved, but man did not.

The nature of God in man was lost. He had lost that divine nature.

But Jesus came to reconcile man to God. That is, to restore him to the former relation that he had to God. To bring us back to son-ship.

2 Pet 1:2-4

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

So, we are to be transformed. And how shall this be accomplished?

BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MINDS…

Eph 4:23

23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;