Extreme Makeover – God Edition
TCF Sermon
September 9, 2007
Change is big business on TV these days. TV’s love affair with reality shows has led to many TV programs that have to do with change. You have interior and exterior design programs on TV, that transform an ugly home, or an ugly room, into something that might be featured in Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
You have a poorly-dressed man or woman who is willing to put up with insults about how he or she looks so they can get some so-called experts to tell them how to dress better. You have a program called The Biggest Loser, where overweight men and women try to change their physical makeup and lose the most weight in a competition.
You have a program on one network called Extreme Makeover. I don’t know how much someone would have had to spend in the real world to change their appearance that dramatically, but let me tell you, plastic surgery and other external alterations, are definitely involved.
You have a spinoff of sorts, called Extreme Makeover – Home Edition. The twist on this one is that instead of making over a person, they make over a home.
Makeovers are big business. Just ask a plastic surgeon. So, we have Extreme Makeover. We have Extreme Makeover Home Edition. But we also have Extreme Makeover – God Edition.
That’s what the Christian life is all about. Each of the things we mentioned in our popular culture has to do almost exclusively with the outside – outer appearance – how something or someone looks. The extreme makeover God does, has little or nothing to do with externals, and everything to do with what makes us who we are – our hearts, our spirits, our character
Though God is a God who never changes in Himself – the Word tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever - God is very much into changing His people, in a big way.
God was into extreme makeovers before extreme makeovers were cool. Did you know that extreme makeovers are clearly spoken of in the Word? No, not like certain cars are mentioned in the Bible. For example: And they were all in one Accord. Or they spoke in many tongues – whostolemyHonda?
Here’s a passage that, if it isn’t speaking of change, of an extreme makeover, then I don’t know what is:
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
A transformation is definitely a makeover. An extreme makeover. A transformation is a metamorphosis. In fact, the Greek word here, used only four times in the entire New Testament, twice of the transfiguration of Jesus, is the word from which we get our English word metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis defined:
1. A transformation, as by magic or sorcery.
2. A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.
When we think of metamorphosis, we usually think of biology and insects. I remember first reading this word in the 4th grade. I did an oral report before the class on metamorphosis, which ended up being one of the most embarrassingly traumatic experiences of my life. I described what metamorphosis is, but I didn’t quite know how to pronounce it, so I took my best shot with my 4th grade mind and put the emphasis on the wrong syllable.
I said meTAMorFAsis. It was embarrassing not only because my fellow 4th graders laughed, at least at first. They certainly didn’t know how to pronounce this word any more than I did. The teacher, trying as hard as she could, could not stifle her laugh when I said this word wrongly. Then, of course, my fellow 4th graders thought it was pretty funny too. I probably turned about four shades of red.
Anyway, that traumatic experience aside, I have vivid memories of metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis refers to the way that insects develop, grow, and change form.
Metamorphosis actually means "change". There are two types of metamorphosis--incomplete and complete.
About 12% of all insects go through incomplete metamorphosis. Incomplete metamorphosis has 3 stages.
• Egg
• Nymph - The eggs hatch into nymphs. Nymphs looks like small adults, but usually don’t have wings. Insect nymphs eat the same food that the adult insect eats. Nymphs shed or molt their exoskeletons (outer casings made up of a hard substance called chitin) and replace them with larger ones several times as they grow. Most nymphs molt 4-8 times.
• Adult - The insects stop molting when they reach their adult size. By this time, they have also grown wings.
In other words, once hatched, these insects that go through incomplete metamorphosis always look basically the same, only bigger. The only real change is in size. Remember that as we move along here.
About 88% of all insects go through complete metamorphosis. Complete metamorphosis has 4 stages:
• Egg
• Larva - Larvae hatch from the eggs. They do not look like adult insects. They usually have a worm-like shape (makes me think of the verse from the hymn which says “such as worm as I”). Caterpillers, maggots, and grubs are all just the larval stages of insects. Larvae molt their skin several times and they grow slightly larger.
• Pupa - Larvae make cocoons around themselves. Larvae don’t eat while they’re inside their cocoons. Their bodies develop into an adult shape with wings, legs, internal organs, etc. This change takes anywhere from 4 days to many months.
• Adult - Inside the cocoon, the larvae change into adults. After a period of time, the adult breaks out of the cocoon.
The young insects that go through complete metamorphosis do not look at all like the adults, they often live in different habitats, and feed on different things.
I think there are truths about metamorphosis in the insect world that also apply to the kind of complete transformation that God brings followers of Christ through in the course of their lives as believers. For example, this last statement:
The young insects that go through complete metamorphosis do not look at all like the adults. They often live in different habitats and feed on different things.
If you’ve followed Christ for many years, chances are you don’t “look like” you did when you first committed your life to Jesus, when you were “young” in the Lord? Again, I’m not talking about externals here. I’m not talking about an extreme makeover of the TV variety.
I’m talking about your attitudes. I’m talking about your heart, your character. That doesn’t mean these changes won’t be visible at all to others – they probably will be, because your attitudes, your heart, your character, are in fact visible at least in part by your behavior. But, it has little or nothing to do with the way you look physically. What does your life look like? Has your life really changed? Has it changed the places you frequent? The statement about insect metamorphosis said “they feed on different things.” Has it changed what you consume or feed on, not necessarily physically, but spiritually?
A metamorphosis is a complete change. A full transformation. I believe that’s what this verse in 2 Corinthians 3 is speaking of. It’s the change that should be an ongoing part of the life of every follower of Christ.
It’s not a one-time thing and then it’s done. It is true of our justification before God. When we commit our lives to Jesus and receive His forgiveness, we are in that instant declared righteous before Him. That’s justification.
But this verse is about the remainder of our lives, as followers of Christ. This verse is about the lifetime process of changing us into the image and likeness of our Savior. This verse is about the change that takes place that makes us look more and more like Jesus, again not physically, but in our character, our attitudes, reflected in our behavior. This is what we call sanctification.
Holman Bible Dictionary defines sanctification like this:
The process of being made holy, resulting in a changed life-style for the believer. The English word sanctification comes from a Latin word, meaning the act or process of making holy, consecrated. The word group from which this (idea) comes stresses the personal dimension of holiness. Sanctification is vitally linked to the salvation experience and is concerned with the moral/spiritual obligations assumed in that experience. We were set apart to God in conversion, and we are living out that dedication to God in holiness.
Easton’s Dictionary says that sanctification:
Involves more than a mere moral reformation of character, brought about by the power of the truth: it is the work of the Holy Spirit bringing the whole nature more and more under the influences of the new gracious principles implanted in the soul in regeneration. In other words, sanctification is the carrying on to perfection the work begun in regeneration, and it extends to the whole man
So, sanctification is about change. God is about change. God is about not leaving us how He found us when He saved us. God is about making us ready to be in His presence in eternity.
Now, change is a difficult thing for most of us. It’s always challenging in some way. Sometimes change is so challenging, we’d rather stay put. We’d rather stay where we are, or stay the way we are. Change is hard, not easy, though we wish it was easy.
A man from the back mountains of Tennessee found himself one day in a large city, for the first time standing outside an elevator – he’d never seen one before. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman stepped off the elevator. The father hollered to his youngest son, "Billy, go get mother."
Don’t we all wish any kind of change was that easy? But in reality, it isn’t. We learn from this passage of scripture that change is a process. It’s most often gradual and progressive. The result is worth waiting for, worth working toward.
The result is being conformed into the image of His Son, as it says in Romans 8:29.
The result is being transformed by the renewing of your mind, as it says in Romans 12:2.
The result is becoming a new creature, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Christians are brand-new people on the inside. The Holy Spirit gives them new life, and they are not the same anymore. We are not reformed, rehabilitated, or reeducated—we are re-created (new creations). At conversion we are not merely turning over a new leaf; we are beginning a new life under a new Master. Life Application Notes
So, that all sounds good. It’s the getting to that point that’s hard. There’s a saying that goes:
Some people will change when they see the light. Others change only when they feel the heat. I think for Christians, it’s both. We’re changed when we see the light of gospel. But the ongoing change of our lives requires the “heat” of real life, and God uses that to re-shape us into His image.
Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion says this: Everything continues in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it.
Sometimes we’re unwilling to change.
You," said the doctor to the patient, "are in terrible shape. You’ve got to do something about it. First, tell your wife to cook more nutritious meals. Stop working like a dog. Also, inform your wife you’re going to make a budget, and she has to stick to it. And have her keep the kids off your back so you can relax. Unless there are some changes like that in your life, you’ll probably be dead in a month."
"Doc," the patient said, "this would sound more official coming from you. Could you please call my wife and give her those instructions?"
When the guy got home, his wife rushed to him. "I talked to your doctor," she wailed. "Poor man, you’ve only got thirty days to live."
Sometimes we’re enjoying a sin too much to change.
We might be inclined to pray what Augustine once said:
God, make me good, but not yet.
Sometimes the change is harder to see until we really look closely.
The story is told of a young girl who accepted Christ as her Savior and applied for membership in a local church. "Were you a sinner before you received the Lord Jesus into your Life?" inquired an old deacon. "Yes, sir," she replied. "Well, are you still a sinner?" "To tell you the truth, I feel I’m a greater sinner than ever." "Then what real change have you experienced?" "I don’t quite know how to explain it," she said, "except I used to be a sinner running after sin, but now that I am saved, I’m a sinner running from sin!" She was received into the fellowship of the church, and she proved by her consistent life that she was truly converted. Our Daily Bread.
Here’s where many of us struggle. We go through something that seems to change us, and then as we grow closer to Jesus, we feel as if God’s dealing with the same sins, the same issues in our life, all over again.
But often what’s happening is not that God’s having to teach us the same thing all over again, but that He’s going deeper. He’s dealing with things that He couldn’t quite get to before, because those things were under layers of hardness and sin. So God will deal with things systematically sometimes, one at a time, and dig deeper and deeper. But the real change in us is like this girl described:
We’re not running after those sins anymore.
We’re still sinners, but we’re aware of it now, and our heart has changed. Because of that, we don’t want to sin. We want to please God. God can work changes in a heart like that. The change is truly internal – He’s given us a heart of flesh for the heart of stone we had before we decided to follow Jesus.
Back our primary text for this morning:
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The unveiled faces refers to the story of Moses, who, after encountering God face to face to receive the Ten Commandments, veiled his face from the people of Israel, so they couldn’t see the fading glory on his face. The glory on his face was a reflection of the glory of God. It was the result of Moses’ one on one encounter with the Maker of the Universe.
Paul outlines this idea in the verses preceding the one we’re looking at. But we, that is, followers of Jesus, don’t veil our faces. The glory of the gospel of Jesus never fades.
One commentator makes this point:
As Moses’ face reflected God’s glory at Sinai, the face of every believer radiates the glory of Christ. That which was reserved for only the highest under the old covenant is made available to all in the new. KJV Bible Commentary
Under the new covenant in Jesus, it’s not just one person like Moses who has access to God and can reflect His glory. All of us, as followers of Christ, can reflect God’s glory.
One way we reflect God’s glory is in the transformation that takes place in our lives. God’s glory is not reflected in us so much in an outward way, as it was in Moses. It’s reflected inwardly, in the deep life changes God makes in us, in our hearts, in our character. Instead of fading, as it did on Moses face, the glory of God increases throughout our lives as followers of Jesus.
2 Cor 3:18 calls it “ever-increasing glory” or “from glory to glory.” The New Living translation says it this way:
2 Cor 3:18 NLT: 18 And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.
Another thing that’s clear from this passage is that we can only cooperate with this process. We cannot initiate it, and we can’t sustain it alone. The Holy Spirit at work within us accomplishes these changes, not something we do on our own. Yet, we must cooperate. Romans 12:2 says “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Here, the same word for metamorphosis is used, and translated transformed. There’s the clear implication that this is something God does - “be transformed,” it says, which seems to be something that’s done to you.
But it also just as clearly implies our cooperation, because it’s written as a command. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to do anything to get in the way of the changes God wants to make in me.
Let’s take a moment to look at how this might work.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NASB77) 18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
So, what is it? Do we reflect, like a mirror reflects, God’s glory? Or do we behold, or contemplate, or gaze upon, as in a mirror, God’s glory? I think we can make a case for both. First of all, the term “beholding” can have the sense of reflecting. The believer himself “reflects” the glory of the Lord, just as the face of Moses reflected the glory of the Lord.
If we are, in fact, transformed into the image of Christ, we will, in fact, reflect His glory. If we do, in fact, behold, contemplate, gaze upon, turn our eyes upon Jesus, and look full in His wonderful face, as the song says, I believe we’ll also reflect His glory.
Commentator William McDonald writes:
As we are occupied with the glory of the risen, ascended, exalted Lord Jesus Christ, we are being transformed into the same image. Here, in a word, is the secret of Christian holiness—occupation with Christ. Not by occupation with self; that brings only defeat. Not by occupation with others; that brings disappointment. But by occupation with the glory of the Lord, we become more and more like Him. This marvelous, transforming process takes place from glory to glory, that is, from one degree of glory to another. It is not a matter of instant change. There is no experience in the Christian life that will reproduce His image in a moment. It is a process, not a crisis. It is not like the fading glory of the law, but an ever-increasing glory.
So, Paul is showing us in this context how much greater the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus is, than the Old Covenant. In the old, only one man, Moses, had the glory on his face. In the new, every child of God can have this privilege.
What’s more, instead of just reflecting God’s glory in our faces, we’re actually being transformed, metamorphosed, into that same image of God through Christ.
Where Moses’ face reflected glory, our faces radiate glory from the changes that have taken place, and are taking place on the inside. Again – the glory is displayed not outwardly on the face, but inwardly in the character.
Now that’s an extreme makeover – God edition. What’s more, far from fading, as Moses’ glory did, the glory under the new covenant progressively increases, until that day we, as followers of Jesus, get a whole new body, like the risen Lord Jesus.
Philippians 3:21 (NIV) 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Now, when we first become believers in Christ, we often undergo some very radical life changes. We have many testimonies in this room how God changed lives, altering the course of these lives forever.
Through the initial stages of our Christian life, God usually helps us grow spiritually as we overcome large, obvious sins in our lives. But, as this verse we’ve looked at this morning indicates, change in the Christian life is an ongoing process.
So we’re not supposed to stop there, and be satisfied with just those big things God purges from our lives when we first decide to follow Jesus.
In other words, just because the big things are gone, God isn’t finished with us.
Gordon MacDonald, in his book Ordering Your Private World, told of an experience in his own life that illustrates this truth.
"Some years ago, when Gail and I bought the old abandoned New Hampshire farm we now call Peace Lodge, we found the site where we wished to build our country home strewn with rocks and boulders. It was going to take a lot of hard work to clear it all out....The first phase of the clearing process was easy. The big boulders went fast. And when they were gone, we began to see that there were a lot of smaller rocks that had to go too. But when we had cleared the site of the boulders and the rocks, we noticed all of the stones and pebbles we had not seen before. This was much harder, more tedious work. But we stuck to it, and there came the day when the soil was ready for planting grass." Our Daily Bread.
I know there may be some here today who are just now getting rid of those huge things, those life-altering sins. But I think for most of us, we’ve already cleared the boulders, and God’s taking us deeper into the ongoing changes He wants to bring about in our lives. The big rocks are gone, but the stones and pebbles remain.
John Newton, former slave ship captain and writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, said this:
I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be. But I thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, "By the grace of God I am what I am.
The end result of this process of transformation is truly exciting.
1 John 3:2-3 (NIV) 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
Our lives as followers of Jesus are a process. It’s a process of becoming more and more like Him. That process won’t be complete until we see Him face to face in eternity. But knowing our ultimate destiny should be a motivator. It should motivate us to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. It should motivate us to keep morally pure, and free from the deceitfulness of sin. It should motivate us to cooperate with the Extreme Makeover God wants to accomplish in our lives.
