The Gospel is about transformation. It is about how God became Sin on a cross which changed everything. And when people choose to accept Jesus' work on the cross and surrender to Him, then transformation is set into motion. Its all about transformation. We go from dark to light. Be become born again or born from above. We go from unsaved to saved. We go from being orphans to being adopted. We go from death to life. It is all about transformation. But it doesn't stop there. Our entire Christian lives are about transformation. In the gospels we read of these messed up, unpolished, rough people and he transforms them into kind, compassionate, loving people who became the leaders of the most powerful movement in the history of the world.
And for us that same transformation is the goal. To actually be transformed into the likeness of Christ. Jesus in his call to all disciples everywhere in Matthew 4:19 says that when you follow him something amazing will happen...he will change you. You will change. You will become something else. In the book of Corinthians, Paul says that the Christian life is about this transformation where the old is gone and the new has come. That you will become something new. You will be transformed. The gospel is about transformation.
Now this is where we come in. With God you always have an option. To accept him or not and here you have a choice to be transformed or not. Transformation can only happen through surrendering to the Holy Spirit. It's more than just reading our Bibles everyday. More than just going to church every week or going to a small group or serving. It is an active and intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit of God which brings about transformation. That means we have to surrender to the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We have to spend time with Him. We have to spend energy to get to know Him. We have to seek Him continually. The problem is that it is much easier to keep a list of do' and don't or a religion than to actively seek an intimate relationship. That is why there are so many Christians who go to church every week, read their Bible everyday, go to a small group and serve at church faithfully, yet they are just as mean, greedy, wealth seeking, cold and unloving as they were the day they accepted Jesus into their lives. And this kind of Christianity is a huge blow to the movement that Jesus is all about. Jesus is all about transformation. So when we share the gospel with people, we are essentially sharing them a gospel of transformation. But the key is not just he gospel that we are sharing it is also the gospel we are living. That is the gospel most people see. And if are not transforming, if we as followers of Christ are not actually changing into better people from the inside out then we are detrimental to Jesus' movement because and here is the key....."PEOPLE WILL NOT ACCEPT A GOSPEL OF TRANSFORMATION FROM UNTRANSFORMED PEOPLE!"
