3 Means God Uses to Change Us (and 3 Ways We Change)
The Need for Change
When Paul described the change that takes place at salvation, he said: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). But he knew that after salvation all Christians have many thoughts and actions that they still need to give up, and many they need to take on. There needs to be a massive shift in thinking in many areas. Jesus faced the same challenge with the disciples. A. B. Bruce says of the disciples, “At the time of their call they were exceedingly ignorant, narrow-minded, superstitious, full of Jewish prejudices, misconceptions, and animosities.”1 These wrong ideas did not leave them at once. Peter, for example, after Jesus’s ascension to heaven, had to be jolted into realizing that Gentiles too could be saved through a vision and accompanying experiences. Jesus’s method of effecting change in the thinking of the disciples is instructive to us.
Christian anthropologist Paul Hiebert explains that the “biblical view of transformation” includes “both a point and a process; this transformation has simple beginnings (a person can turn wherever he or she is), but radical, lifelong consequences.” Hiebert continues, “It is not simply mental assent to a set of metaphysical beliefs, nor is it solely a positive feeling towards God. Rather it involves entering a life of discipleship and obedience in every area of our being and throughout the whole story of our lives.”2
Some basic beliefs must change. Most people who come to Christ, whether from Christian backgrounds or not, previously depended on their good works to justify themselves. They may take some time to understand the Christian teaching of salvation through grace mediated through the work of Christ. Some ingrained practices also must change. Many people come to God because they see him as an answer to their problems. While they may have understood that coming to Christ includes a change of lifestyle, they may not realize how dramatic that change needs to be.
Discipling in a Multicultural World
Ajith Fernando
This book will equip Christians to effectively carry out the biblical principles of discipleship in a world where many who come to Christ have little or no prior knowledge about Christianity.
Christians in the West find that the community solidarity and commitment of Christianity clash with the individualism they have grown up with. In non-Western countries, some might consider it wrong to refuse to lie or take revenge in situations where the family honor is involved. All over the world, race and class prejudice is common among people who claim to have had a born-again experience, even many years after their spiritual rebirth.
In Ephesians 4, Paul tells Ephesian Christians that they should put off the things that characterized their former life and put on things that characterize the Christian life. Among the things to put off are their “manner of life” and their “desires” (4:22). And they are to “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (4:24). This comprehensive change does not take place automatically, right after conversion. If we do not address these areas in people’s lives, there could be disastrous consequences. History is loaded with shameful examples of “born-again” Christians who have behaved corruptly when in power or have acted out of racial, caste, or class prejudice. Such areas of unholiness must be addressed early in the life of a new believer.
Three Agents of Change
There are three primary agents in the character formation or sanctification of a Christian. Within these three categories come several other means that God uses to change Christians.
1. The Word of God
The first agent is Scripture, as is shown in Jesus’s statements “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17) and “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you” (John 15:3). As we read the instructions of the Bible, we are urged to obey them, and resolving to do so, with God’s help, makes us grow in holiness. Being exposed to the Scriptures also exposes us to the nature of God. When we spend time with God in prayer and in the word, his nature permeates us, causing us to change without our even realizing it. When I got to know my wife and her family, they would use some expressions that I found strange. I would laugh when I heard these expressions. After a few years I found myself using the same expressions. It happened unconsciously. Paul said: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
2. The Work of the Spirit
The verse just quoted introduces the second source of character formation: the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Christian character is described as “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22–23). Peter talks of “the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2). And Paul declares, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:13). Sometimes this work of sanctification is attributed simply to God. Paul says to the Thessalonians, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23).
The life of holiness may involve giant leaps forward through powerful works of the Holy Spirit in what may be called crisis experiences. The apostles’ experience at Pentecost is an example. Many Christians testify to a new level of holiness following a specific act of faith or surrender or rededication. But change generally takes place as a process. Martin Luther is credited with having described the growth of a Christian after conversion in this way: A person is rapidly declining in health because of a disease, and the doctors do not know its cause. Then the doctors correctly diagnose the disease and prescribe the appropriate medicine. He is not completely healed immediately upon starting to take the medicine. But from that point on, he improves until he is completely well. In the same way, after we experience conversion, there is a decisive turn in our lives, after which the movement is in the direction of holiness rather than sin and death.
3. The Fellowship of Believers
The third agent in character formation is fellowship with other Christians. Paul says, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22). The writer to the Hebrews says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Heb. 10:24). The flight from evil and the pursuit of holiness occur with the aid of other Christians. Under the category of fellowship, we can also include the disciplers and the discipleship groups to which Christians belong. It is in community with them that some of the most marked changes take place. In the chapters that follow, we will see how God uses means like prayer, worship, chatting, and teaching in community, along with the understanding and affirmation of friends, to help Christians to grow and experience healing from wounds.
Three Kinds of Transformation
Hiebert talks of three kinds of transformation that take place when a person is converted.
1. Cognitive Transformation
First, there is cognitive transformation, where a person’s belief system changes. Certain facts about the gospel must be understood in order to exercise saving faith and to continue living the Christian life. We must believe these facts if we are to become open to receiving God’s salvation and growing. The preaching and teaching of the word and personal and group Bible study are among the means used in this kind of transformation.
Our minds believe the truth of God; our hearts experience the love and power of God; and our wills obey the ways of God.
2. Affective Transformation
Second, there is affective transformation, where we personally experience God. He speaks personally and specifically to our situation, he guides and comforts us in clearly recognizable ways, he assures us of our salvation through experiences that affirm our identity in Christ, and he intervenes in our lives and the lives of people near to us in miraculous ways. We change as we learn about God through these experiences, and we experience new depths of love, joy, peace, and freedom from guilt.
3. Evaluative Transformation
Third, there is evaluative transformation, where we evaluate the beliefs and practices of the prevailing culture. Those in keeping with the gospel (like honoring parents) are retained with a Christian flavor, and those which contradict the gospel (like sexual indulgence, prejudice, and dishonesty) are rejected. It would be good for Christians to discuss these cultural factors and see how they square with biblical teaching. When my children were young, we would sometimes watch television together and discuss from a Christian perspective what we saw in the programs and the commercials.
So our minds believe the truth of God; our hearts experience the love and power of God; and our wills obey the ways of God. It is sad that individual churches usually major on one of these three kinds of transformation and do not give sufficient emphasis to the other two. How health-giving is a church that demonstrates God’s commitment to impacting believers completely!
Notes:
- A. B. Bruce, Training of the Twelve (1894; repr., Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1971), 14.
- Paul G. Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 312–14.
This article is adapted from Discipling in a Multicultural World by Ajith Fernando.
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