The Transformed Life

The Transformed Life.

Text: Rom.12:2

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Today we will try to make this teaching more academically than Spiritual but at the end we are still going to discover the spiritual in the light of the physical.

There are not many chapters of the Bible where the word transformation appears yet there are many transformed lives in the Bible.

There are three important words here that require our attention:

The ( an article)

Transformed.

And life

What is the meaning of transformation or what it means to be transformed?

a. Change in shape of something or somebody.

b. Change in appearance of something or somebody. The agent of change in appearance may be colour, decoration with ornaments or the removal of it.

c. Change in the condition of a thing or something. This could be by impoverishment or enrichment, stability or destabilisation, enthronement or dethronement.

What is life?

Life is a property of plants and animal beginning at a definite time and ending at a definite time, death. Ecll. 3:1-2

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

Anything that has a beginning and ending has life. All living thing must have an expiry time and date.

The only reason why God who has life and yet cannot die is because we do not know his beginning. It is the day we know his beginning that God would stop existing for life.

Life is the property that enables plant and animal to use food; grow; reproduce and then die.

What is the article the referring to?

That article is referring to somebody here listening or reading this sermon.

What does it mean to say that someone has been transformed?

It means that the person has a changed shape. When we talk about a change in shape it could be like the one a sculpture does to force a piece of wood into his desired shape or what a potter does to a clay.

Implication of this!

There is a person like an agent of change who desires to make an object according to his own desire. This agent in this case is God. However unlike the inanimate objects that are forced to change against their wish, the human being has the will to change and be changed or the refusal to do so. And according to the book of ecclesiastics there is time for everything when transformation of some sort missed the appropriate time it becomes impossible. Hence every one of us must be willing to make God transform us into his desired shape and image.

If actually you have been transformed as a Christian your appearance should have shown it to all of us that you have. If we cannot find in you certain changes of appearance then you have not been transformed. From the pottery pictures above we can see how the potters keep changing forms and patterns. Initially it was something like a pitcher and then to a flower vase or censer and finally a drinking cup.

When a shape of a thing changes ultimately it's usefulness also changes. From the transformation recorded in the above pottery work the usefulness of the pitcher is to be taken to the stream to fetch water; the usefulness of the censer is to contain burning incense while the usefulness of the cup is to serve the master as drinking vessel always kissing the mouth of the master.

The paper note I have here contains the sermon I am preaching and it stays on the altar, the holiest place of the church but if it is recycled into tissue paper its usefulness and place will be the dirtiest place, the toilet. We can therefore boldly say that transformed person usefulness will change.

Gal.2:20

20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

What Paul is saying here is that I have been transformed in Christ Jesus and I have lost my original shape and form. What was his original form?

Paul an instrument of oppression

Paul the arresters and persecutor of the brethren

Paul the enemy of Christ and his followers and

Paul the enemy of change.

A transformed person will suddenly discover that he has lost the capacity to do certain things. When you are transformed from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of Christ you will lost the capacity to tell lies, the capacity to defraud, the capacity to fight for yourself and prove your alibi, the capacity to be rebellious and disobedient. There will be something in you telling you that you have changed you are not supposed to do this or that anymore.