An Unchanged God Who Changes Everything
The only real text or context for dealing with change that many Christians have been exposed to is the promise that God is an unchanging God--the same yesterday, today, and forever. The metaphors of God as our rock, our fortress, our stronghold, and our foundation dominate our view of God and how he works. But if we are going to effectively regain momentum, we must go beyond accepting changes of reality and become agents of change.
To do that in a manner that is both pleasing to God and grounded in his Word, we must establish a proper theology of change. Although change is rarely taught or extracted from the Scriptures, the Scriptures are a document about change, You can never properly understand biblical theology without accepting that change is one of the most significant dynamics that God instigates in the church. It is often easier for us to see on a more personal level. If a person is to become a part of God's kingdom, radical personal change must take place. We call this conversion.
Paul says it like this in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" The Greek word used for "new creation" means metamorphosis. Many of us know metamorphosis through the image of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly or a tadpole becoming a bullfrog. It describes a radical and irreversible change in the very essence of the object of that metamorphosis.
When a person becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ, she is not simply accepting a new view of reality; she is not simply accepting new patterns of thinking; she is not simply accepting new habits for living; she is being radically and irreversibly changed.
In Ezekiel 36:26, God unwraps this concept with his new covenant: He will not fix our old heart but take out our old heart and give us a new heart. He will take our heart of stone and replace it with a heart in which his spirit lives. God makes the same point in Jeremiah 31:31-33: In his new covenant there will be a transformation of the human spirit. Again using the metaphor of the heart, he promises that to those who turn to him, he will put his law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
For those who understand the Gospel, we understand that it is a promise of transformation. Transformation is just another word for change. If you don't like change, you'd better not become a Christian. Once you belong to Jesus, change is inevitable. Our whole Christian experience is an experience of change. It is an experience of putting off the old and putting on the new. It is an experience of no longer being conformed to the pattern of this world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds.
The whole theological concept of sanctification is rooted in the reality that God changes people. Repentance is change, conversion is change, regeneration is change, transformation is change, and sanctification is change. All of the deeply theological constructs that we have embraced and understand to be true cannot exist outside of a theology of change.
We describe repentance as a radical change of heart and mind, a total reversal of life in actions, a 180-degree turn from one's present course to a divine call. These are, by their very nature, processes of change. Repentance was never understood to be an incremental decision or action; it is the complete surrender of the heart and will to the heart and will of God.
-Adapted from "An Unstoppable Force" by Erwin Raphael McManus
