Destined for Transformation

BY DAVE STEEL

In his book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg introduces us to a cranky old guy named Hank. Judgmental and joyless, complaining and contemptuous, he’s “the man who never changed.” “But even more troubling than his lack of change,” says Ortberg, “was the fact that nobody was surprised by it.”[1] After all, Hank had spent his whole life in the church.

Some of us have grown so accustomed to the “Hanks” in the church—and our own lack of genuine transformation—that we’ve all but given up on seeing—much less experiencing—a transformed life.

But that’s a bit like enrolling in nursing school without expecting to become a nurse or securing an electrician apprenticeship without any hope of ever being an electrician. Jesus said,

“The student [disciple] is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” (Luke 6:40; italics added)

Jesus’ goal in calling you to follow him is to train you to be like him. This has been God’s plan from the start. As the apostle Paul put it, “Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). Now if you’re anything like me, then becoming Christlike definitely qualifies as a transformation! And this is the point.

If you’re a disciple of Jesus, you’re destined for transformation.

It’s what we signed up for when we said yes to Jesus. But we have to want this transformation if we’re going to experience it in this life. Paul explains the choice before us: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). Our metamorphosis depends on our refusing the prevailing mindset of this world, while renewing our minds in the ways of Christ.

While the power for transformation clearly belongs to the Lord (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), we have a responsibility in seeing it come to fruition. There’s no auto-pilot when it comes to discipleship. If we’re going to navigate a deformed world to our destination of a transformed life, we’re going to have to roll up our sleeves. We have to want it enough to make a habit of saying no to the prevailing mindset of this world and yes to what God tells us through his Word and his Spirit.

The process of becoming Christlike may seem slow, but we can draw encouragement from the small victories along the way, like the one my wife pointed out recently. It was Saturday, the day before I was to deliver a sermon at a pastor friend’s church while he was away. I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to finish my message when our twelve-year-old son burst into the room noisily lamenting a computer malfunction that had just ruined his Minecraft video mid-recording, which he had intended to upload to YouTube. He was devastated and wanted me to do something about it. I had no idea how to help, and frankly I was irritated by the interruption. So, with some stern words, I told him he wasn’t handling the situation very well and sent him to his room. I let out a sigh and returned to preparing my sermon on how to live a transformed life. But within a couple minutes I heard myself say to my wife (who was sitting at the same table and heard the whole thing go down), “I guess I didn’t handle that very well either.” I got up and went to my son’s room. I apologized for being impatient with him, and we had a proper conversation about his computer issue.

I sensed something significant had just happened, but it was my wife who later suggested that I had just taken a small step in my own ongoing transformation.

She was right. I'm on my way.

[1] John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 29.

What Awaits Us at the End of Our Journey?

BY DAVE STEEL

Why do we spend so much energy pursuing earthly carrots like affluence, accolades, and pleasure when we know these things can’t satisfy our deepest longings? And why is it that these things disappoint us so consistently? 

King Solomon gave us a clue when he said that God has “set eternity in the human heart” (Eccl. 3:11). Nothing temporal will ever truly satisfy us--not money, not the praise of others, not any earthly pleasure, trophy, or commodity. We yearn for something eternal, something transcendent. C. S. Lewis reasoned that, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

We were made for heaven. Followers of Jesus rightly consider it their home. Jesus said, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3). The apostle Paul certainly took this promise seriously. He wrote, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20; cf. Heb. 13:14). 

Ultimately, the reward that awaits us at the end of our earthly journey is Jesus himself. He’s what makes heaven so desirable. 

But the biblical writers also spoke of an inheritance that awaits us there. The apostle Peter calls it “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade--kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4). The apostle Paul adds that the indwelling Holy Spirit serves as a deposit guaranteeing this inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14). What these biblical writers are saying is that our heavenly inheritance could not be more secure.

Still, the apostle Paul also spoke of this heavenly prize as something worth striving for. He said, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). As Christ followers, we strain toward the finish line not to earn the prize but to claim it. Christ has secured it for us. 

For disciples of Jesus, then, this life is a journey to our true home. What awaits us at the finish line is a joyous reunion with our Savior. There we’ll enter into our heavenly inheritance. Disappointment with the fleeting pleasures of this world will give way to what is eternal, transcendent. Our deepest longings will be satisfied. 

We’re going home! 

Is There Joy in Discipleship?

BY DAVE STEEL

As a father of three boys, I still remember watching my sons learn to walk.

The process was basically the same for each of them. They would crawl to the nearest piece of furniture (or leg of a grown-up), clamp on, and pull themselves into an upright position. After steadying their portly frame, they would release the safety clamps, and the toddling would begin. 

Our chubby little guys would thrust a bare foot out and slap it onto the linoleum, which would set off a ripple effect of a thousand corrective moves to restore balance. But once forward momentum was established, they would raise their shoulders almost to their ears and pull their fists in tightly to their chest, forming a kind of chicken wing on each side. (I can only assume this aided concentration). They would tilt their head back as if struggling against a strong headwind.

Then . . . slap went the second foot.

With each step, the cheers of engaged onlookers would grow louder. And the near-toothless grin of these beginners assured us that toddling is quite exhilarating.

We knew that someday our sons would likely be able to hike up mountains and that toddling would become, well, rather pedestrian. But during the toddling phase, we couldn’t help but celebrate these first steps—even if they were baby steps.

Learning to walk with Jesus is like that. We start out a little shaky, but there’s an undeniable joy that comes with taking those first steps—for both the spiritual toddlers and the grown-ups who get to watch.

This is how Christ meant it to be. During an intimate conversation with his disciples in an upper room, Jesus said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). What is this key to joy Jesus is referring to? The previous verse tells us. “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love” (v. 10). This invitation to a loving, obedient relationship with Jesus is shorthand for discipleship.

It shouldn’t surprise us, then, to find joy every time we take a next step in our walk with Christ or we help someone else do the same. It begins with that initial faith step into Christ’s kingdom. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matt. 13:44). That joy is renewed when we take next steps by learning to commune with Christ in prayer. “Ask and you will receive,” he says, “and your joy will be complete” (John 16:24). And, as those first disciples discovered, there’s joy in stepping up to the realization that he’s empowered us to be his witnesses to a lost world. When Jesus commissioned them and ascended into heaven, these disciples “worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:52).

Is there joy in discipleship? Only the best kind of joy. Jesus describes it as his joy, great joy, complete joy, sell-all-you-have-to-get-it joy.

When was the last time you experienced that joy?