Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (48 page)

Ultimately the mirror of God’s Word brings about a
conversion
, meaning that we actually begin to live differently as a result of our exposure to the truth. That transformation begins the moment we come to faith, which is why we refer to that milestone as a conversion. But true conversion is not a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process of becoming more and more like Christ. That process doesn’t end until we go to be with Christ.

Let me give you a personal illustration. Philippians 2:14 is a dreadfully convicting verse: “Do everything without complaining or arguing” (NIV). Maybe that’s no problem for you, but for me that’s an extremely difficult verse. In fact, I wish I could just skip from verse 13 to verse 15. But there’s that little convicting verse right in the middle.

You see, there are many areas in my life where complaining and arguing pose no problem. For instance, teaching. I love to teach. I live to teach. To me, the greatest thing in life is teaching. I’d probably even pay to teach. But the verse says, “Do
everything
without complaining”—not just teaching.

So “everything,” for me, includes correspondence. I hate writing letters with about the same passion as I love teaching. But eventually it piles up, and I have little choice but to get after it. So that’s an area where I can apply Philippians 2:14. The verse doesn’t say I have to like correspondence; it just says I need to learn to do it without complaining and arguing about it. For me, that’s a conversion of my attitude from one that is not very Christlike to one that is Christlike.

Now doing correspondence without complaining may seem inconsequential to you. But you’re not me. When I looked into the mirror of Philippians 2:14, I saw something that had to change—and it didn’t seem trivial to me. So what do you see when you look into the mirror of the Word? What significant changes is that mirror challenging you to make, by God’s grace? Some examples I’ve heard individuals talk about include: deciding to faithfully drive the speed limit; finding at least one thing to be thankful for every day; quitting alcohol; establishing a regular pattern of financial giving
to the Lord’s work; stopping working on Sundays in order to rest; avoiding looking at pornography; turning off the television in the evening in order to build relationships with family members; getting control of their weight; selling their art collection because it was taking over their heart. I could list many more. The point is, people start living differently when they get serious about studying God’s Word—and thereby let the Word get serious with them.

But please note: these people did not make changes in order to get God to love them more. Their life changes arose as a
response
to what God had shown them in His Word. That’s the motivation for genuine transformation. True conversion is not merely a change in one’s behavior; it’s a change of behavior born out of a change of heart.

But what exactly do we mean by “change”? What changes? Let’s look at that in more detail in the next chapter.

P
erhaps you’ve seen a movie in which a character is hard at work doing a dirty task—herding cattle, plowing a field, playing football on a muddy field, fighting a battle. The sweat is pouring off of him. His face is streaked with grime. His hair is disheveled. His clothes are torn and tattered. Maybe he’s even got blood smeared here and there. He just looks a mess.

But then in the next scene, he shows up washed, clean-shaven, hair neatly combed, dressed in fine clothes. And as soon as he walks in, another character makes the remark, “My, don’t you clean up pretty!”

That’s not a bad analogy for what happens when we undergo the process of transformation as a result of firsthand study of God’s Word. Having looked in the mirror of biblical truth, we see how messed up we really are. The Spirit of God then uses that wretched sight to provoke us to confession and repentance, and we have a change of heart toward God. The Spirit then draws us toward a positive path of life and truth, and as we begin to walk that path, our attitudes and behaviors begin to change. Others are liable to see those changes and take note, saying, in effect, “My, don’t you clean up pretty!”

But now, what exactly has changed about us? We speak of someone whose life God has turned around, and we say, “Wow, she’s become a different person.” Or say a prodigal comes back to his loved ones after many years of sin and shame, but now God has effected a transformation of his life. He tells them, “I’m not the same person I was. I’ve changed.” What does that really mean?

It’s important to be clear on this point because the truth is, not everything about a person changes as a result of the sanctification process. People speak about a “complete and total transformation,” which sounds wonderful. But that’s not quite accurate, and can lead to misunderstanding.

One thing that never changes about us is our essential personhood. Who we are. Our core identity. That stays the same from cradle to grave. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul writes, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

If we submit this verse to the observational questions of who, what, where, when, why, and wherefore, we discover: who we are (God’s “workmanship”); where we come from (“created in Christ Jesus”); why we are (“for good works”); when we were made (“which God prepared beforehand”); and wherefore we should live, that is, what difference all of this makes (“that we should walk in them,” that is, “walk” in the “good works”). Clearly, this verse is telling us something very essential about who we are as people.

Now you can already see that there are some key terms that need to be chased down:
workmanship, good works, beforehand,
and
walk.
Let’s do that together.

The word
workmanship
refers to a “made thing” or “crafted thing.” Michelangelo’s magnificent masterpiece,
David
, is an example of what the word
workmanship
conveys. It refers to a thing that a craftsperson has carefully designed and put together. Not something that has come together by accident or random chance, but an intentional work of art. Ephesians 2:10
says that each one of us is God’s masterpiece, an intentional creation that God Himself has fashioned.

However, the word
workmanship
not only describes a beautifully designed thing, but a useful thing, as well. Indeed, the design itself endows the thing with features that enable it to serve a particular task. Think of a vessel of pottery, like a Grecian urn, crafted by a first-century artisan. Perhaps it is formed in a way that makes it ideal for serving water. Perhaps it is large and strong, predisposed to store grain. Perhaps it is fashioned to hold a reservoir of oil, so that it makes an ideal lamp that gives light. The word workmanship has the idea of functionality, as well as beauty.

That brings us to the next term,
good works
. We might be inclined to think of those as “generic” good works, like feeding the homeless or helping little old ladies across the street. Those are certainly good works, and they certainly ought to be done. But here we see an example of how context becomes crucial. In light of our study of the word
workmanship
earlier in the verse, it becomes apparent that the “good works” Paul is talking about here are related to the nature of the workmanship that God has made. In other words, each piece of workmanship has specific good works that it was designed to do.

Do you realize that? God has specific good works that He has designed you to do—there are tasks out there with your name on them. Think of yourself as a tool (that’s another way of understanding the term
workmanship
, a crafted thing whose design fits it for a particular task). A tool is not made to do just any task; it’s made to do a specific task.

For instance, a screwdriver is designed to drive screws. In fact, it’s designed to drive particular kinds of screws, depending on how the head of the screwdriver is machined. If you use the screwdriver to drive those kinds of screws, it works like a charm. It fulfills its function. Can you use it to drive nails? Well, you can. But it won’t work very well. It won’t drive the nails very effectively, and you might damage the screwdriver in the process. Better to get a tool that’s designed for driving nails, if that’s what you need done. Leave the screwdriver to do what it was designed to do best.

So what did God design you to do best? What are the good works for
which you were created in Christ Jesus? Ephesians 2:10 suggests that one reason many Christians have such a difficult time figuring out their purpose in life is that they don’t understand their design very well. And some who do understand something of their design are not using it where it can be most effective.

But now there are two other terms that we’d better not overlook. The first is
beforehand
. When is that? Before we were saved? Before we were born? Before the world was made? All three, we discover through an investigation of the term
beforehand. Beforehand
tells us that at some point prior to all three of those events, the eternal, triune God determined that He wanted certain good works carried out in the 21st century. To that end He created you. He designed you. He thought you up and then rendered you in human form—perfectly suited to the tasks, the “good works” for which He made you.

So what difference does that make for how you should live? Well, the verse answers that question explicitly: you are to “walk” in those good works.
Walk
means to live. The term has to do with daily life—at work, at home, in your community. The passage is saying that every day you need to be pursuing the purpose for which God put you on the planet. That purpose is not something special you do only on Sundays, or on a mission trip, or during a particular season of life. No, God wants you to carry out His purpose for you every day, and in the everyday events of life.

So now, having looked at Ephesians 2:10 in some detail, how does it affect our understanding of the transformational process? For one thing, it shows that we don’t have to “become” someone else for God to work in our life. Sure, there are going to be changes in our life. But we never have to change who we are.

That will come as incredibly good news for some people reading this book. You see, many believers have the mistaken idea that they have to
become like some other significant saint in order to experience God’s best. “I need to learn to think like C. S. Lewis,” someone will say after reading one of his classics. “I need to become like Billy Graham.” “I need to become like my pastor.” I’ve even had students at the seminary where I teach say, “I’m going to become just like Prof” (that’s what they call me there).

May I say it plainly? No! Never try to “become” someone else. Always be who God made
you
to be. Learn from others. Take wisdom from how they live. Follow their example if it helps. But stick with “who you ‘be.’” Never try to change who you fundamentally are. If you do, you are telling God He made a mistake. And you’ll never succeed anyway, because as Ephesians 2:10 shows, God determined from all eternity who you would be. That design will never fundamentally change over the course of your life. You are not one person at age 6, and then an entirely different human being at age 16, or at 26, or at 56, or even at 86. You are the same human being, with the same core personhood, throughout.

So what does change? What do we do with passages like 2 Corinthians 5:17, which states that “if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” That certainly seems to suggest a complete and total transformation.

It does, but transformation does not mean annihilation. If it did, then “a complete and total transformation” of an elephant would mean we would no longer have an elephant; we would have a giraffe, or a monkey, or even an oil derrick instead. The elephant would be annihilated. It would cease to exist, and something else would exist in its place.

But that’s not what happens when we are united with Christ at salvation. We do not cease to exist. If transformation meant that we were made into someone “completely and totally” different, then Ephesians 2:10 (among other passages) would make no sense. We would have to ask, What happened to the workmanship (the person) whom God crafted from all eternity to carry out specific good works in this world?

Actually, not even 2 Corinthians 5:17 teaches that we become “completely and totally” different as a result of our salvation. In the first place, it says, “if any
man is in Christ,” which implies that we can point to a specific man who was formerly not in Christ, but is now in Christ. It’s the same man. The verse tells us that that same man is a “new creature.” That indicates change. And indeed there is change. But note that while a man in Christ becomes a new creature, he does not become a different creature. If I have a heart transplant, I get a new heart, but I’m not a different man. I’m the same man, but with a new heart.