“He loves us too much to leave us as we are”
The phrase speaks of God’s heart poised our direction and of his mission to shape us over time to look more and more and more like his Son, Jesus. Why would an apprentice aim for anything less?
If we do, in fact, believe him – if we have entrusted to Jesus our eternal future, claiming him as master of all – what is our place in this relationship?
As we look to him, setting our attention his direction, we literally choose him over our selves. We see this as the only intelligent way to move forward in this life. To trust and respond to his invitation, embracing his instructions in living the good kind of life. The quality and manner of life he himself knew on earth as a human.
His life. That is what he offers, what he calls us to.
Astonishing yet soundly true.
An important truth enters here. As with my friend R.S. and the snail tale, we display through our actions the things that we are coming to believe.
Being forgiven our sins is wondrous and will remain so to every person choosing to follow Christ. Yet this tender provision (being forgiven of all our wrongs) is just the beginning of salvation’s walk.
Forgiveness is a doorway through which we pass to grow, to become like someone we have not fully yet become. Fully resembling Jesus is no small dream. Still, this is our aim. We know it in the deep place of our being. The New Testament brings the thing into very sharp focus.
“My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you*”
Look again at the wording, “in the pains of childbirth”.
Intense, right.
Nothing feels more challenging nor appealing to the apprentice than having his character transformed to well resemble that of the savior. Nothing.
My dinnertime visit to the college campus left my tastebuds stirred. May we now sense God’s open invitation, “Come. Taste. See.”
The richest of flavors await – joy, peace, righteousness, love (and more) – “until Christ is formed in you.”*
Next we may ask, “what is the process then? How does it happen, this ‘becoming like Jesus’? How does the walk unfold?”
The answer is simpler than we likely imagine. One step at a time.
Training is key.
©2022 Jerry Lout *Galatians 4:19
Beautiful post of the simplicity of how transformation begins.
Thank you. Rebecca.