WHO ARE YOU BECOMING?

 

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

               I have been rereading a small volume of selections from C.S. Lewis’ writings. I have been challenged by Lewis’ ability to take profound theological truths and make them understandable. One of the selections is titled “Ordinary People”. Lewis makes the point that if we take seriously the idea that we were created for eternity, there are no ordinary people. In light of eternity, nations, cultures, and civilizations are only a blip on the timeline of history. Only human beings will endure on into eternity.

               Lewis goes on to make the point that the lives we live now are shaping us into the people we will be in eternity. Every choice we make is sculpting us into a particular kind of person that we will become fully aware of when we step from time into eternity. Here is how Lewis puts.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.” (The Weight of Glory)

               The question that Lewis brings to the surface is, what kind of a person are you becoming? Many years ago, someone told me, whoever you want to be when you are 80, you need to start becoming that person now. The question of who are we becoming is not an insignificant one. It is of ultimate significance in the light of eternity.

               Paul puts a positive spin on this question with his comment in 2 Corinthians. He informs us that as followers of Christ, who have seen His glory, are being transformed into His likeness. But to be honest, this is not automatic. It takes an intentional act of the will to move toward Christlikeness.

               Our natural tendency is to move in the opposite direction. Sin is always tempting us with present pleasures at the cost of our eternal reality. Like Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. For a moment of satisfaction, he forfeited a far greater future. We are not all that different.

               So, let’s get back to the question. Who am I becoming? The Bible does not leave us in a dark about how we move toward Christlikeness. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul challenges us to set the right course for our lives. As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3 (NIV) In essence, if we are going to become people who display Christlikeness, we need to model His character. Instead of shaping our lives to fit the current trends of our world, we need to have the courage to shape our lives to fit the very nature of Jesus. This will often mean that we will be going against the flow. We may seem weird and out of step to the world around us. But that is the way the world viewed Jesus as well.

               In one of Paul’s most profound statements, he crystalizes what it means to set our sights on being like Christ.

Philippians 3:7-14 (NIV)
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

               In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul expressed his commitment to attaining the goal of becoming like Christ. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)

               We cannot afford to coast through life. Each day is an opportunity to be refined and shaped for eternity. Who do you want to be when you step through the door into eternity? Start being that person now.

Colossians 1:9-14 (NIV)
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.