Unlimited: Let Christ’s Love Transform You
Dec 30, 2021 894
We, who with unveiled faces all contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV).
Trying to improve our characters, apart from Christ’s way, is as though the crew of a sailing ship tried to get the becalmed vessel moving by pushing against the masts. Or like a drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his own head.
Paul taught us the better way. We cannot change ourselves any more than we can birth ourselves. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed” (Romans 12:2). We do not transform ourselves. We are transformed as we contemplate the Lord’s glory.
When the heart is filled with Christ’s love, the alternatives offered by temptation appear in all their tawdry shabbiness.
We can be more than conquerors! (Rom 8:37). Yes, you and me. Not by gritting our teeth, not by more resolutions, but by regularly exposing our hearts and minds to the Chiefest Among Ten Thousand, the One Altogether lovely.
Christ has already crushed the head of the serpent. Christ has judged and cast out the prince of this world, and his victory is for us. It is Christ who puts enmity between us and evil. When the heart is filled with the most precious thing in the universe – Christ’s love – then the alternatives offered by temptation appear in all their tawdry shabbiness. In the face of even colossal enticements, we victoriously cry, “I don’t want them! I’d rather have Jesus.” – Des Ford (adapted)
Reflection: It is sometimes difficult for us to see how we have been changed by the love of God, because the closer we come to Jesus, the more sinful we see ourselves. Ask a trusted Christian friend who has known you for some time what changes he or she has seen in you? Talk about it.
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