Transformation is not outward correction or adjustment but the metabolic function of the life of God in us, by the addition of the element of the divine life of Christ into our being, so that we may express the image of Christ outwardly (2 Cor. 3:18). (Quote from, Witness Lee)
After being regenerated by God with His divine life, all the believers in Christ are in the daily process of transformation until they are being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29).
This process of transformation is not something outward, like an outward correction or adjustment, but an something inward; it is the metabolic function of the life of God within us to add the divine element and eliminate the natural element in our being.
God’s life in us is not static or stagnant; rather, God’s life in us operates continually to spread from our spirit (the beachhead) to every part of our soul (our mind, emotion and will) and eventually to saturate our mortal body and transfigure it to the body of Christ’s glory.
Today we are in the lifelong process of transformation; as we spend time with the Lord, pray, pray-read His word, and call on His name, we are being inwardly supplied with the divine life and the old element is being discharged as the new element of God’s life is being added to us.
Just as the food we eat is being digested and assimilated into our being to become the new cells of our body as it is being distributed by the blood to all the members of our body, so the riches of Christ enjoyed by us are being digested and assimilated into our spiritual being to transform us and conform us into the image of Christ.
Just as a cocoon is transformed into a butterfly and an ugly worm becomes a beautiful butterfly, so we are being transformed by this inward metabolic process of transformation to be conformed to the glorious image of Christ, the Firstborn Son of God.
How can we make sure we are in this process of transformation today? How can we speed up our transformation and cooperate with the Lord to be transformed? There’s not much we can do in an outward way, but what we can do is to go along with the Lord’s transforming work as He operates in us.
Being an overcomer or a defeated one depends upon what our attitude is toward the Lord’s transforming work. If we exercise our spirit and go along with the Lord’s transforming work in our being, we will be His overcomers by being transformed from one degree of glory to a higher degree of glory!
We are in the Organic and Metabolic Process of Transformation
Rom. 5:10 For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.
When we were enemies with God, Christ reconciled us with God through His death; much more now, having been reconciled, we are being saved in His life (Rom. 5:10). When we were regenerated by receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we entered into a lifelong process of transformation.
God foreknew us and predestinated us to be conformed to the image of Christ, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). Today we are in this process of transformation, which is both organic (related to life) and metabolic (it involves a process in which our old elements are discharged and God’s new elements are added to us).
Transformation is God’s way of conforming us to the image of Christ, and it has nothing to do with outward correction or adjustment. Transformation is the metabolic function of God’s life in us by which the element of the divine life is added to us and our old element is discharged, so that we may be reconstituted with God inwardly and express the image of Christ outwardly (2 Cor. 3:18).
Through this process of being transformed, on the inside we are being constituted with the divine element, and on the outside – as a result of this inward constitution – we have a change in form and appearance: we express Christ.
Through this inward process of spiritual metabolism, God’s new element is added to us, our old element is being discharged, and there’s a replacement of the old element with the new to strengthen and enrich our God-constituted inward being.
To be transformed we need to receive the Lord’s element through the Lord Spirit, and for this we need the breaking and the dealing. Therefore, transformation is a lifelong process: we cannot be “transformed overnight”, in a week, or even in a year.
As we fellowship with the Lord, look to Him, pray, read the Word, and call on the name of the Lord, we actually eat, drink, and breathe in the rich supply of Christ. This supply will produce in us a metabolic change: our old element will be discharged and replaced with the new, positive, enriching, and uplifting divine element.
In this organic process we are being transformed from one degree of glory to a higher degree of glory, until eventually our body will be transfigured into glory!
As we are in this process of transformation we slowly but surely express Christ’s image, and eventually we will be saturated in our whole being with God’s divine life and shaped in God’s image outwardly!
The highest purpose of God in His economy is accomplished through our transformation; the glorification of the many sons of God to be conformed to the image of Christ and express God in His glory is carried out through the process of transformation.
Lord Jesus, we look to You with an unveiled face to be transformed into Your image from glory to glory! Keep us open to You, praying and fellowshipping with You, so that we may be infused and reconstituted with You. Oh Lord Jesus, keep us in the metabolic process of transformation. Transform us from one degree of glory to another higher degree of glory to be conformed to Your image for God’s glory.
We Need to Go Along with the Lord’s Work of Transformation
Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.
God’s purpose is so high and amazing, and our destiny as believers in Christ is so glorious. But what should we do in order to be transformed and cooperate with the Lord in this process?
God’s purpose is to have a mass reproduction of Christ in man, that is, to have many God-men who are the same as Christ in expressing God and representing Him on earth. He Himself became a man and went through many processes in order to become the Firstborn Son of God, and now we are passing through the process of transformation so that we may become His reproduction.
How can we cooperate with the Lord in the process of transformation? It all depends on our attitude toward the Lord’s transforming work: if we go along with the Lord’s transforming work in us, we become His overcomers, and transformation takes place, but if we don’t, we are defeated Christians.
If we oppose the Lord’s transforming work in us and hinder Him as He operates within us through His word and outside of us through the environment, we will be defeated Christians and God’s purpose will not be fulfilled in us.
We all should aspire to be overcomers – not “superior”, “powerful”, or “perfect” Christians, but those who allow the Lord to transform them, those allowing God to carry out His transforming work in their soul.
We need to exercise our spirit so that our inner man would be strong and we would cooperate with the Lord to transform our soul. The problem is not with our spirit but with our soul: our spirit is regenerated, it has no problem, but our soul needs to be transformed. If we let the Triune God as the life-giving Spirit transform us day-by-day, we will be His overcomers (Rom. 12:2; 8:28-29, 37).
On the one hand, the Lord as the Spirit works in our environment to deal with us and break our outer man; on the other hand, the transforming Spirit operates in our being to add God’s divine element to our being and transform us inwardly.
Many times it is in our weakest state and at our lowest point that we allow the Lord’s work of transformation to take place in us, and at that time we are genuinely overcomers, those who may not be powerful outwardly but inwardly they are being reconstituted with God.
May we be those who go along with the Lord’s transforming work so that we may be the overcomers of today, those who are being daily transformed into Christ’s image.
This process of transformation will consummate when our soul is fully saturated with God’s life, and in an instant, our whole body will be saturated with God’s glory and we will be transfigured in glory (Phil. 3:21).
Lord Jesus, we aspire to be Your overcomers, those who may not be powerful or perfect outwardly but they go along with Your transforming work inwardly. Lord, transform us in Your image. We give You the permission and we just want to let You carry out Your transforming work in us. Lord, gain our full cooperation that we may be transformed. May we obey You by letting You transform us. Go on in us, transform us, and conform us to Your image so that You may gain Your many sons, those conformed to Your image for God’s glory!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Romans (msgs. 25, 41, 65), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 3 / msg 3, Transformation for God’s Building.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Transformation is my need, / To be broken more indeed, / That the clay may change in form, / To the treasure to conform. (Hymns #548)
# As we eat Jesus, praise the Lord, / The transformation’s done, / Until at last, the work’s complete— / Christ and His Bride are one! (Hymns #1241)
# Christ to me is so subjective, / All my being He transforms; / By the mind and will renewing / To His image He conforms. (Hymns #537)
# By that final transformation, / We’ll be fully sanctified; / God will bring us into glory, / With His Son identified. / All creation is expecting / Sons of God revealed to be, / That they might be freed from bondage / Into glorious liberty. (Hymns #741)
