Life Change II
The God Kind of Change
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,[a] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”[b]
The kind of change that is healthy is that which takes one from “faith to faith” (Rom. 1:6), “grace to grace” (John 1:16), and “glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). This kind of change is what the Bible calls “transformation.”
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed [changed] into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18)
Changed is healthy when at least three things occur:
1. When it is initiated by God, not a reaction to circumstances, perceptions or opinions.
2. When it fulfills a prior desire, vision or promise from God.
3. When it seeks to edify the church and bring life to people who are lost in sin.
Faith to Faith
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,[a] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”[b]
Romans 1: 17 (AMP), For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.
Grace for Grace
John 1: 15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”
16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Glory to Glory
2 Corinthians 3:18, And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect[a] the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.
The Way You Want Grow
Not “tossed,” but “taught”
Not “tricked,” but “trained”
Not “isolated,” but “included”
Not “waiting,” but “working”
Ephesians 4: 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Grow through the use of “pure” ingredients
1 Peter 2: 1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,[a] 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
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