A good man out of the good treasure of his HEART bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his HEART bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

Luke 6:45

True Transformation

True transformation is of the heart, and you cannot fake it – something the Pharisees tried desperately to do but failed woefully at. In Matthew 23:27, Jesus called the Pharisees “hypocrites!……like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones”. Jesus went on to issue a stark warning to his audience that “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). In order words, we need more than the Pharisees style of outward adornment to experience the transformation that God has promised his people.

While confronting the Pharisees in Matthew 12:34, Jesus bluntly put it to them; “how can ye, BEING evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the HEART the mouth speaketh”. The Pharisees did not seem to understand that no outward performance can impress God until the heart is changed. For anyone desiring true transformation, the only option is to “make the tree good, and his fruit good……. for the tree is known by his fruit.” – Matthew 12:33. There is no shortcut or workaround. “A good man out of the good treasure of his HEART bringeth forth that which is good“- Luke 6:45. The big question then is what kind of treasure is stored in our hearts?

When God changes us into New Creatures, He does not give us a new haircut, a new house, a new car, a new career, new clothes etc. Instead, he gives us a “New Heart” fully encoded (Hebrews 10:16) for transformation.” Speaking to this, God said in Ezekiel 36:26-27, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put WITHIN you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them“. Notice that only after the change within can we begin to see true obedience to God  – walk in his statue, keep his judgments and do them. In sharp contrast to the Pharisees’ outward pomp and flamboyant fanfare, the transformation powered by God’s grace is formed away from public view. It is formed in “the HIDDEN man of the HEART, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the SIGHT of GOD of GREAT price (1 Peter 3:4). That is why we are instructed in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your HEART, for everything you do flows from it“. It is possible to maintain an outward appearance that does not reflect what is inside our heart, but not for too long. It is possible to “give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship…..but do not have love” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Eventually, when pressure is applied, the real contents of the heart will come out (Luke 2:35). That is not to say what we do on the outside do not matter. What is more important however, is that what we do on the outside must flow from what is the inside otherwise we are just acting (hipocricy).

Transformed by God’s Grace

Christlikeness in the inner being is not a human attainment, it is finally, a gift of Grace

– Dallas Willard

According to 2 Peter 1:3, God’s divine power empowers us for godly living. That divine power is what we call grace. And God is able to make ALL GRACE abound toward you; that ye, ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may abound to EVERY good work:” – 2Corinthians 9:8. God transforms us by applying His GRACE to our INNER MAN to produce outward fruits. The bible says in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh IN you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”. Paul prayed for the church of Ephesus with that understanding –“That he would grant” them, “according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the INNER man; (Ephesians 3:16).

Grace (as a subject) has gotten a lot of flak lately because of imbalanced teachings on the subject, some bordering on licence. However, that should not detract us from the “true knowledge” of God’s grace. On the contrary, the fruit of the New Creation is manifested in us as we humbly give attention (through focused listening) to the true revelation knowledge of “the grace of God”.

 Colossians 1:4-6 (BBE) ⁴ After hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have for all the saints, ⁵ Through the hope which is in store for you in heaven; knowledge of which was given to you before in the true word of the good news, ⁶ Which has come to you; and which in all the world is giving fruit and increase, as it has done in you from the day when it came to YOUR EARS and you had TRUE KNOWLEDGE of the GRACE of God;

Our mandate – to glorify and praise God (Isaiah 43:7, 21, 1Peter 2:9) – demands so much more from us than we could ever muster from our human strength. Only by God’s grace (with Christ fully formed in us) can we live that kind of transformed life. All those despairing of the seemingly impossible challenge of changing their lives this year will find solace in God’s grace. For “the GRACE of God has appeared…to all people” and “TEACHES us to say No to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12). Without this Grace of God powering us from the inside out, we can do nothing good of significance (John 15:5). We must – through focus and yielding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit – seek to grow in that grace (2 Peter 3:18) and not frustrate it (Galatians 2:21).

Prayer

My prayer for you as you traverse this year is that you will grow in the grace of God and that “the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working IN you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.” Amen.