The word “transformed” comes from the Greek word “metamorphoo” which means “to be transformed” (Young’s); “change, transfigure, transform” (Strong’s). It is the same word for “transfigured” in Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2, where Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John. Jesus’ whole appearance changed before them and they saw Him as He really is, rather than a natural person in a natural body.

To be “transformed” means that a major change or transformation takes place in one’s life from a natural earth-bound state to a supernatural state. In the animal and insect kingdom it is likened to a tadpole turning into a frog and a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. The end result is a total change than that which was started out with.

The power of that change is determined by the way we think, and the way we think determines our beliefs and actions. Hence the need for a conscious working on our thinking, our minds, to bring them into subjection to the truth of the New Covenant revelation that Jesus came to give us. As in the natural so in the spiritual; so the only way that we will experience a major change from that of being an earthly-thinking person to a heavenly-thinking person is for a “metamorphosis” to take place in our lives. In the Scripture that metamorphosis is called “the cross.” The cross is the place where we die to our self; where we deny our self and lay down our life for the life of Jesus to be worked out through us. Unless and until that happens for us individually, we will always be an “earth-bound” creature.

Take the caterpillar changing into a butterfly as an example. The caterpillar is earth-bound and is unable to fly in its present condition. As a result it spends its life feeding itself and growing fatter and fatter. No matter what it does, it cannot fly. Caterpillars cannot fly! But God intended that the caterpillar could be so changed that it would be able to fly! It all depended on the caterpillar “dying to itself” by crawling inside a cocoon and totally committing itself to the God Who created it. Once the caterpillar submits itself to the will of God, it dies. But out of that “death process” a transformation takes place that sees that caterpillar eventually emerge from that cocoon (the cross) as a totally different creature. It is now a beautiful butterfly, and as a butterfly it is able to soar into the sky and freely fly with the wings that God gave it. That butterfly can never become a caterpillar again. The transformation is such that it cannot return to where it came from. It is a new creation, with freedoms that it never knew as long as it remained a caterpillar.

And so it is with Christianity. The power of Christianity can only be truly seen when we who call ourselves by Christ’s name are willing to go to the cross in self-denial. The truth is that there is nothing to go back to. The caterpillar represents the Old Covenant law; the butterfly the New Covenant reality. Now that Jesus has come and paid the full price for our transformation, we must not ever seek to go back to the Old again. ~ Rodney W. Francis.

Bible  Readings:   2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Corinthians 3; Romans 6:4; Romans 12:1-2.