The Apostle uses in his positive commandment, 'Be ye transformed,'
the same word which is employed by two of the Evangelists in their
account of our Lord's transfiguration. And although I suppose it
would be going too far to assert that there is a distinct reference
intended to that event, it may be permissible to look back to it as
being a lovely illustration of the possibilities that open to an
honest Christian life--the possibility of a change, coming from
within upwards, and shedding a strange radiance on the face, whilst
yet the identity remains. So by the rippling up from within of the
renewed mind will come into our lives a transformation not altogether
unlike that which passed on Him when His garments did shine 'so as no
fuller on earth could white them'; and His face was as the sun in his
strength.
The life is to be transfigured, yet it remains the same, not only in
the consciousness of personal identity, but in the main trend and
drift of the character. There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly marked
individuality which each of us receives by nature. Rather the Gospel
is meant to heighten and deepen these, and to make each man more
intensely himself, more thoroughly individual and unlike anybody
else. The perfection of our nature is found in the pursuit, to the
furthest point, of the characteristics of our nature, and so, by
reason of diversity, there is the greater harmony, and, all taken
together, will reflect less inadequately the infinite glories of
which they are all partakers. But whilst the individuality remains,
and ought to be heightened by Christian consecration, yet a change
should pass over our lives, like the change that passes over the
winter landscape when the summer sun draws out the green leaves from
the hard black boughs, and flashes a fresh colour over all the brown
pastures. There should be such a change as when a drop or two of ruby
wine falls into a cup, and so diffuses a gradual warmth of tint over
all the whiteness of the water. Christ in us, if we are true to Him,
will make us more ourselves, and yet new creatures in Christ Jesus.
And the transformation is to be into His likeness who is the pattern
of all perfection. We must be moulded after the same type. There are
two types possible for us: this world; Jesus Christ. We have to make
our choice which is to be the headline after which we are to try to
write. 'They that make them are like unto them.' Men resemble their
gods; men become more or less like their idols. What you conceive to
be desirable you will more and more assimilate yourselves to. Christ
is the Christian man's pattern; is He not better than the blind,
corrupt world?
That transformation is no sudden thing, though the revolution which
underlies it may be instantaneous. The working _out_ of the new
motives, the working _in_ of the new power, is no mere work of a
moment. It is a lifelong task till the lump be leavened. Michael
Angelo, in his mystical way, used to say that sculpture effected its
aim by the removal of parts; as if the statue lay somehow hid in the
marble block. We have, day by day, to work at the task of removing
the superfluities that mask its outlines. Sometimes with a heavy
mallet, and a hard blow, and a broad chisel, we have to take away
huge masses; sometimes, with fine tools and delicate touches, to
remove a grain or two of powdered dust from the sparkling block, but
always to seek more and more, by slow, patient toil, to conform
ourselves to that serene type of all perfectness that we have learned
to love in Jesus Christ.
And remember, brethren, this transformation is no magic change
effected whilst men sleep. It is a commandment which we have to brace
ourselves to perform, day by day to set ourselves to the task of more
completely assimilating ourselves to our Lord. It comes to be a
solemn question for each of us whether we can say, 'To-day I am liker
Jesus Christ than I was yesterday; to-day the truth which renews the
mind has a deeper hold upon me than it ever had before.'
But this positive commandment is only one side of the transfiguration
that is to be effected. It is clear enough that if a new likeness is
being stamped upon a man, the process may be looked at from the other
side; and that in proportion as we become liker Jesus Christ, we
shall become more unlike the old type to which we were previously
conformed. And so, says Paul, 'Be not conformed to this world, but be
ye transformed.' He does not mean to say that the nonconformity
precedes the transformation. They are two sides of one process; both
arising from the renewing of the mind within.
Now, I do not wish to do more than just touch most lightly upon the
thoughts that are here, but I dare not pass them by altogether. 'This
world' here, in my text, is more properly 'this age,' which means
substantially the same thing as John's favourite word 'world,' viz.
the sum total of godless men and things conceived of as separated
from God, only that by this expression the essentially fleeting
nature of that type is more distinctly set forth. Now the world is
the world to-day just as much as it was in Paul's time. No doubt the
Gospel has sweetened society; no doubt the average of godless life in
England is a better thing than the average of godless life in the
Roman Empire. No doubt there is a great deal of Christianity diffused
through the average opinion and ways of looking at things, that
prevail around us. But the World is the world still. There are maxims
and ways of living, and so on, characteristic of the Christian life,
which are in as complete antagonism to the ideas and maxims and
practices that prevail amongst men who are outside of the influences
of this Christian truth in their own hearts, as ever they were.
And although it can only be a word, I want to put in here a very
earnest word which the tendencies of this generation do very
specially require. It seems to be thought, by a great many people,
who call themselves Christians nowadays, that the nearer they can
come in life, in ways of looking at things, in estimates of
literature, for instance, in customs of society, in politics, in
trade, and especially in amusements--the nearer they can come to the
un-Christian world, the more 'broad' (save the mark!) and 'superior
to prejudice' they are. 'Puritanism,' not only in theology, but in
life and conduct, has come to be at a discount in these days. And it
seems to be by a great many professing Christians thought to be a
great feat to walk as the mules on the Alps do, with one foot over
the path and the precipice down below. Keep away from the edge. You
are safer so. Although, of course, I am not talking about mere
conventional dissimilarities; and though I know and believe and feel
all that can be said about the insufficiency, and even insincerity,
of such, yet there is a broad gulf between the man who believes in
Jesus Christ and His Gospel and the man who does not, and the
resulting conducts cannot be the same unless the Christian man is
insincere.
III. And now lastly, and only a word, note the great reward and crown
of this transfigured life.
Paul puts it in words which, if I had time, would require some
commenting upon. The issue of such a life is, to put it into plain
English, an increased power of perceiving, instinctively and surely,
what it is God's will that we should do. And that is the reward. Just
as when you take away disturbing masses of metal from near a compass,
it trembles to its true point, so when, by the discipline of which I
have been speaking, there are swept away from either side of us the
things that would perturb our judgment, there comes, as blessing and
reward, a clear insight into that which it is our duty to do.
There may be many difficulties left, many perplexities. There is no
promise here, nor is there anything in the tendencies of Christ-like
living, to lead us to anticipate that guidance in regard to matters
of prudence or expediency or temporal advantage will follow from such
a transfigured life. All such matters are still to be determined in
the proper fashion, by the exercise of our own best judgment and
common-sense. But in the higher region, the knowledge of good and
evil, surely it is a blessed reward, and one of the highest that can
be given to a man, that there shall be in him so complete a harmony
with God that, like God's Son, he 'does always the things that please
Him,' and that the Father will show him whatsoever things Himself
doeth; and that these also will the son do likewise. To know beyond
doubt what I ought to do, and knowing, to have no hesitation or
reluctance in doing it, seems to me to be heaven upon earth, and the
man that has it needs but little more. This, then, is the reward.
Each peak we climb opens wider and clearer prospects into the
untravelled land before us.
And so, brethren, here is the way, the only way, by which we can
change ourselves, first let us have our minds renewed by contact with
the truth, then we shall be able to transform our lives into the
likeness of Jesus Christ, and our faces too will shine, and our lives
will be ennobled, by a serene beauty which men cannot but admire,
though it may rebuke them. And as the issue of all we shall have
clearer and deeper insight into that will, which to know is life, in
keeping of which there is great reward. And thus our apostle's
promise may be fulfilled for each of us. 'We all with unveiled faces
reflecting'--as a mirror does--'the glory of the Lord, are changed
... into the same image.'