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Kingdom ways
Transformation Series
Lesson 2: Sanctification and Transformation
Sanctification
Whatever good or bad character that is built in us must come to death and reformation in Christ. Sanctification is not a
process of removing each spot of corrupt practices until the whole nature shines as something beautiful. Far from seeing
ourselves as able to achieve perfection in ourselves, we need to remember that we have this treasure in earthen vessels
(2Cor. 4:7), and we have come to rest about that in Jesus.
Jesus became not only the perfect sacrifice for our sins, but he also became like us in every respect (Heb.2:14-16). Since
the fall of Adam and Eve, sin is our overpowering inclination. That is what Jesus became and what he died for. His was not
merely a physical death on the cross. Having become our sin in all that He was, He died in all that He was heart, mind, soul
and body. It is from that fullness of death that Jesus raises us to be new creatures in Him (2 Cor.5:17).
Nevertheless, a danger remains. We may forget that underneath the glorious new robe of Jesus, the rust of our own
corruption waits to reassert itself the moment we turn away from Him.
What the church lack is dayby-day death and rebirth in Christ. We have smugly sung that death and rebirth have been
accomplished when the process has only begun! The very saint who wrote that salvation is a free gift not works (Eph.2:8-9)
also wrote, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil.2:12). The blood of Jesus washes away sins, and the cross
redeems, justifies and atones, while His resurrection restores and gives new life. But it is our personal daily taking up of
our own cross that continues the necessary slaughter of our old man. Only as the daily work of continuing
sanctification happens to the fullest does the mature man of faith appear, whether it be an individual or the corporate body of
Christ (Eph.4:16).
From birth, each of us is trying to build a self we can accept. It is the same striving, no matter whether we want to be like
God, gentle, and good, or powerful or evil. The attempt is to build a character structure that works the way we want it to. Too
many Christians, without being aware of it, are still trying to use the Lord to build that good self. That whole search to build
something we can accept and rest in is the very thing that should have died on the cross. Continuing to try to build ourselves
is actually based on flight from accepting what we are as though - if we could just build something powerful or lovely
enough, we might come to peace about ourselves and forget the search to overcome the hidden rottenness in our core. But
the simple good news is that the search is already ended. We are already accepted, right where we are, as we are. The Lords
love is unconditional. He will build us.
The Lord wants us to accept ourselves as we are, rotten and unchanged in ourselves, and then let Him express His
goodness and righteousness in us through the Holy Spirit (1Pet.2:4-5). The call is not to build; the call is to die
(Rom.12:1-2; Lk.9:23; Gal.2:20; 5:24).
The tragedy is that too many Christians are still trying to build rather to rest in Him. Sanctification is the process by
which we come to rest in Him. Sanctification is daily death and rebirth. Sanctification is that part of the
maturation of the sons of God that proceeds from the Holy Spirit solely through the cross of Christ, borne
individually! The end product of sanctification is not only new person but also a clean one (see 2 Tim.20-21).
Before the Fall, sanctification and maturation were one and the same steady, simple growth in humility into the holy
wisdom of God, just as Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man (Lk.2:52), yet without sin.
The fall of man descending from generation to generation (Deut.5:9), demands death and rebirth.
In every age, Gods work has been to raise His sons. The new fact is that today God is calling the entire body of Christ to
ministry and maturity. Maturity comes by the Word and sanctification. Sanctification happens as Christians learn to speak the
truth to one another in love (Eph.4:15).

Transformation
Transformation is the process of death and rebirth whereby what was our weakness becomes our strength. Sanctification
overcomes the power of cancelled sin, but transformation turns the mess to glory. Transformation is the work of the total
body of Christ to prepare us all as a bride adorned for her husband.
Transformation proceeds from brokenness (see Ps.34:18). Wherein we still trust in our own righteousness, His grace has
little room to express his righteousness. But wherein we are acutely aware of our sin and brokenness, His life is mostly set free
to be the resurrection life in us. Truly our strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor.12:9).
The good news of the Gospel is not merely pardon, which leaves the record of sin and says nothing of change in the
sinner. (In legal terms, pardon only says that sinner will no longer be punished, whereas forgiveness erases the record of sin).
The good news is justification (that in Christ the debt ledger is paid and we are even with the board again). The good news is
also, but not merely, redemption, that in Christ Jesus we are bought back from the hand of death. But the good news is a
victorious fulfilment!
It is not merely that our waste places are comforted. Rather every wilderness in our personal life becomes part of the tree
of life, Revelation 22:2, for the healing of the nations. Our deserts are turned to glorious gardens for the feeding of others,
which is the joy of the Gospel and the meaning of transformation: not merely returning, but fullness of victory for ministry to
others.
Grace never says that we should run out to sin in order to become wiser. Rather, as awful as sin is and as much as it is to
be deplored, the latter side of it by the foolishness of the Gospel is the grace of God to turn every worst degradation into our
highest glory!

Transformed to Minister
Transformation rises out of Heb.2:18, For since He Himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come
to the aid of those who are tempted. We are able to minister where we have been. The new creature in Christ now treasures
the lessons learned through struggling with the old man. If he does not appreciate who he has become in Christ and still
shudders in shame, transformation is not yet complete, for in the failures and corruptions of the old the gold of wisdom was
formed (see Ps.12:6; 2Cor.1:3-7).
A pearl is one of the symbols of wisdom because wisdom is formed in the same way a pearl is formed. A grain of sand
becomes an irritant, forcing the oyster to wrap layers of pearl around it. Likewise the irritant of sin, crucified and coated with
the blood and righteousness of Jesus, writes into our hearts a wisdom priceless beyond rubies (see Jer. 32:33; Pro. 3:15;
8:11).
Transformation says, For this reason we have lived and sinned and have been redeemed, and out of the ashes of what we
have been and have done has grown the ministry we are. Transformation holds implicit that nothing in our lives is ever
wasted. The grace of God is so complete that there is no event in our lives without which we would be better off.
Transformation, therefore, confirms that Satan has won no victories whatsoever among the saved, for from the ground plan of
creation even as God planned to turn the lowly cross to highest victory, so He has turned every aspect of our (seemingly)
defeated lives to glory!
Transformed alcoholics minister best to alcoholics. The formerly depressed know by their own desert experiences how to
feed the downtrodden the only kind of manna they can receive. The judgmental become tender-hearted extenders of mercy.
Hearts of stone become warm hearts of flesh to melt wintry souls (Eze.36:26).
We died and were made perfect, positionally, in every part of us, when we first received Jesus as Lord and Saviour
(Heb.10:14). Abraham was given the land of Canaan when he first arrived there (Gen. 15:7-21), but it took centuries of
suffering, imprisonment, exodus, trials, wilderness-walking, and conquering before the Israelites did, in fact, possess what was
already positionally theirs. Just so, our total being received its deathblow at the moment of our conversion. That innermost
salvation must become manifest in our lives in entirety (Phil.2:12). But our entire selves are not always aware of or ready for
death and rebirth! By common senses, we simply could not stand this side of death and to be completely transformed all in
one moment. The Lord intends to put His laws in our minds and to write them on our hearts (Jer. 31:33; Heb.8:10). That
writing lasts a painful while (1 Pet.5:6-10). It requires a slow process. That is one reason for the church and, within the
church; the ministry of small groups exist (or cell groups). As we were not naturally born and raised by ourselves, without
fathers and mothers, so spiritually we are not slain and reborn without the ministry of the body of Christ. Though the body
may err, Christ will use those very errors to inscribe lessons on our hearts, and He will not fail.
These transformation lessons are to inform the church of ministry. God has placed us within the church for this reason, that
through the church He may transform us (see Eph.4:12-16).