We Are All Being Transformed

We Are All Being Transformed

When does this happen? It happens now while we are sojourners! But who are these “all”? Most believers have never heard anyone speak about it, simply because the speakers usually do not believe in such a work of God themselves. And the listeners have also not taken this word to heart because they, too, do not believe in such a tremendous work in their inner man during their time of sojourning. People are usually far, far more unbelieving than believing.

Paul writes that the few “all” who are being transformed from glory to glory are those who, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.

His glory is His mind and being, together with all the virtues that constitute the divine nature that we are called to partake of now while we are in this mortal body of ours.

Most people who call themselves believers or Christian have, unfortunately, a veiled face. A solid veil covers their vision so that they are unable to see the glory of the Lord. By and large, they see nothing but forgiveness.

Only Jesus’ true disciples, those who have truly forsaken everything of their own (Luke 14:26-27, 33) have the veil removed so that they clearly and increasingly see the glory of the Lord! Only they are accepted in Jesus’ school and can learn from Him, becoming more and more like Him! Therefore it is a decisive either /or! Either we fulfill the conditions, and transformation takes place, or we have not fulfilled them, and transformation cannot take place. In the latter case, the person is serving God on a human level as well as he can.

All those who behold the Lord’s glory with unveiled face are transformed through living faith into the glory they behold. In other words, they are being glorified, made glorious, as Paul writes in Romans 8:30!

By way of example, this glory consists of righteousness in all possible areas—not only in money matters—but of a godly and just treatment of everything and everyone, of being truthful to the utmost in great and small, so that each word on our lips is true and upright, without exaggeration and coloring, and of loving God and all mankind regardless of their behavior, so that you always requite evil with good, so that you love with boundless love and without exception! It consists of always being meek and humble, of always resting in God under all possible circumstances, and of being thankful and content without interruption, regardless of what you encounter and are exposed to in this world. It also consists of being perfectly faithful in everything, in the hidden and in the open, of always being peaceable and a peacemaker regardless of how contentious your fellow men may be, of suffering injustice and yet being quiet and meek and friendly and gentle and kind, of being an increasingly cheerful giver, even of being a disperser as it is written in Psalms 112:9, of being merciful by joyfully lending without expecting anything in return (Ps. 112:5; Matt. 5), and of being completely liberated from everything that goes by the name of anxiety about anything at all, without exception, resting in full confidence in God’s perfect leading in every detail for the very best of each one who fears and loves God with all of his heart. This glory consists of having your great delight in becoming acquainted with all the laws of the Spirit of life—first and foremost for yourself in order to live according to them, and then in order to proclaim them (Ps. 119:16 and 13) or letting the light shine, of being agile and adaptable and flexible, quick to give up your own will in daily life (1 Cor. 10:33), of being patient and longsuffering without limitations, without end, without ceasing, without exceptions; of walking, speaking, answering, asking, choosing, thinking, writing, conducting yourself, eating and drinking wisely, in a steadily increasing manner, etc., etc.

Therefore: not embellishing, not slowly getting a little bit better, not improving, not altering—all this is human—but something completely different; namely: transformation!