Revelation to Transformation

The life that we are offered in Jesus is a transformed life. Sometimes this transformation looks like moving from darkness to light, at other times it looks like moving from glory to glory, but continual growth, progress, and increase is the constant dynamic of the Christian life. It is a process that corresponds to the longing for the infinite that God Himself placed in our hearts, and the spiritual food that the Lord offers us has this curious quality of both satisfying and increasing our hunger at one and the same time.

The desire for “more” is a holy longing, and the dissatisfaction that we feel with our current state can be a holy discontentment. But it can also be preyed upon, ambushed in so many ways. Marketers know this, and so we get bombarded with messages that invite us to self-analyze, to look for flaws, for the cracks in our lives and in ourselves. It's not always a bad thing to take a critical look at ourselves; it's necessary at times. But I find that when I go down this road, it is all too easy for me to land in an unhealthy and unproductive spiral of self-scrutiny. Analyzing my brokenness can only get me so far.

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” -1 John 3:2

In this verse, John speaks of the dynamic of transformation in the life of a Christian. We have been made God's children, and there is much more that we shall yet become – we will even become like God! And John also gives us a clue as to how this transformation ultimately takes place: it is completed through seeing God “as He is” when we enter that ultimate heavenly reality.

I am convinced that even now, on this side of eternity, the greatest transformation in our lives doesn't come about through an analysis of our shortcomings, but through a vision of the nature and character of God. This vision is not merely knowing a set of facts about God, but is the kind of seeing Paul is talking about when he prays for the Ephesians, that God “may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him” (Eph 1:17). It is like a traveler who, upon reaching his destination, says, “I heard many stories, but now I have seen it for myself!”

And it is this kind of seeing that John says brings about transformation. The more we come to know Him and catch glimpses of His goodness, the more we feel this gravitational pull towards becoming like Him. And usually that becoming looks less like a struggling, striving effort, and more like a process of being changed as if from the outside.

In 2001, Pope John Paul II proposed "contemplating the face of Christ" as one of the most critical tasks for the Church as it entered the new millennium. I'll admit that his meaning eluded me for some time as I attempted to form a picture of Jesus' face in my mind during prayer (literalist that I am). But here is the point that I think he was wanting to communicate: revelation is the seed and promise of transformation. Any time we catch a glimpse of the true nature of God, that revelation immediately begins to work in us to shape us into a reflection of Him. And there is nowhere that God is seen more clearly than in Jesus, the human face of God.

So as we seek the transformation that God invites us into, we have two options. We can analyze our history, look for patterns, and make course corrections for the future. This is valid and sometimes necessary. But there is another option as well. That option looks like pursuing a greater personal revelation of God. Not only does this sometimes override a need for the path of self-scrutiny, but it is also able to take us into areas of transformation that self-scrutiny will never be able to reach.

“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might.” -Ephesians 1:18-19