We Will Be Changed

By Jim Howe

Are you longing for more? I am not thinking in terms of the junk we accumulate as Americans. I am thinking in terms of the deepest longings of the Christian heart: the longing to put on the eternal to be clothed with the new person we were created to be in Christ.

 As reports come in of more friends facing Covid19, American’s are thinking of their mortality. American Christians have become too comfortable in what we accepted as normal. The normal is gone. Now is the time to focus on being changed to be what you were created to be. We were created to be image bearers of Christ.

Johnathan Edwards America’s greatest theologian spoke to the youth in Northampton in the 1730’s about the fading glory of adolescence.  The youth of his time were pursuing the pleasures of this life and ignoring what is most beautiful and eternal.  We were made for God. But we ignore the eternal for what is immediate when we are in our youth. All of life lays before us when we are young.  The death of a friend in our high school can bring a sense of urgency. There was a teenager in my high school named Anne.  She was beautiful, popular and a cheerleader.  We felt invincible until news swept through our school that she had a terminal form of cancer.  Something came out during those weeks before she died.  She was a Christian and she shared her faith with all who visited her. God used her witness to touch hundreds of students. Her pursuit of God and assurance that she would be raised stirred something in many of my classmates.  We thought about what is eternal.  As in the Great Awakening the Spirit of God took the message of the glory set before us because of Christ’s saving work, and with the prayers of the saints the Spirit, called many to Christ.

The apostle Paul wrote of the “change.”  Ask the Spirit to make these words come to life so that they become the very Word of God speaking life to you:

1 Corinthians 15:50–58 (ESV)

Mystery and Victory

⁵⁰ I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

        “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵     “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Too often I have been satisfied with the “more” of American affluence.  Too seldom have I longed to set aside what can be grabbed now for the new life and hope we have in Jesus Christ.  I long for more of Jesus Christ, and more of the assurance that I will be changed.  When you think about it I am sure you do too.  You will be changed, also, if your faith is in Christ dead, risen and ascended to the right hand of the throne of God. The filth of sin pollutes, but the righteousness of Christ is complete.  Christ’s intercession for us is ongoing.  He is praying for you now: “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25, ESV) The work he completed at the cross and as he rose from the dead is finished.  But he is at work now in our lives to finish the work he began.  Dane Ortlund, in his new book “Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Suffers,” suggests that we contemplate the work of Christ being done on your behalf right now.  He is interceding for you.  What difference would it make if you could hear him praying through the wall in the room next to you right now?  Jesus is not a distant and uninterested Savior. He is the Son of the Father who gave his all so that you could be changed.

Paul describes the epic moment in history when the trump will sound the dead will be raised and those alive will be changed.  The transformation will not be just an emotional change of heart it will be thorough.  The self-justifying, self-centered and self-abusive ways we struggle with now will be swallowed up.  The attempts at self-improvement that constantly disappoint will end. As Christians we experience the victory of the resurrection, in part, now.  When we trust Christ moment by moment and live by prayer the Spirit makes us other-centered, so we live God-ward lives. Because of the assurance we have of this new life, the Spirit breathes over us from the future so that we do not loose heart. 

We are encouraged to be steadfast, unmovable in doing works in Christ and by his strength.  Our efforts when focused upon Jesus will not be in vain.  Now, we can appreciate the real longing for more.  We long to have our dying mortal being shed so that we can put on the immortal.  How are you longing for “more?” Christian faith in the resurrection has practical implications for the way we live for his glory. 

 We are a people shaped by the Biblical truths of the hymns we sing.  They express our longing for the “more” to the praise and glory of God:

https://youtu.be/6by5eux1rMs All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name, Tommy Walker

Father, turn our attention to Jesus. Forgive us for focusing on ourselves when Christ has died so that we might live for your glory.  Change our hearts so that we long for more of your holiness.  How we long to be changed.  Motivate us to pursue more of Christ in us now, so that we bear the fruit of good works that honor you.  Lord Jesus, change us to be beacons of light so people are drawn to you. Holy Spirit, work in us ongoing repentance so that we turn to you at every turn.  In Christ’s name, Amen.