“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Rom. 12:2.NLT 

Footsteps # 374. Transformed is an interesting word. It comes from two Greek words, the first meaning “across” and the second “form”. Thus to be transformed means to change across from one form to another. We use the word in English as “metamorphosis”. 

 Metamorphosis is the process by which a slug-like caterpillar becomes a butterfly. (Or as I tell my grandchildren a paterkiller becomes a flutterby). To me, that is one of the most graphic illustrations of what happens to a person when he or she meets Jesus. God finds us in our self-centred, proud, and self-serving ways, and then takes us and transforms us. Now, that’s a miracle! Perhaps it’s the greatest of all miracles. God wants to take a slug-like me and teach me to fly. The Lord seeks to take drab crawlers and paint them in beautiful hues and give them wings. The good thing is that He can do it. Praise God. He wants to transform me into something I am not. He longs to make me into a new creature after the image of Jesus. 

Paul isn’t the only one to speak of this idea of transformation. Jesus described it as being born again (John 3, 5). Then again, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that Christians are new creatures. They refuse to be “conformed to this world”. In my younger days, I discovered and loved JB Phillips translation of this passage, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God remake you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed. Thus you will prove in practice that the will of God…is good”. Becoming a Christian is a great disturbance. It certainly was for me. It changed every aspect of my life. The Christian value system opposes that of the world. Thus it is impossible for the Christian to conform to the values and lifestyle of the present age. God has transformed a Christian’s mind, and he or she lets that new mind guide each in every activity. It is to the various realms of Christian activity that Paul turns to in Romans 12:3-15:13 as he applies the gospel of transformation to everyday living.