Transformed from the inside

https://odb.org/2024/10/22/transformed-from-the-inside

One of the struggles faced by any believer, I believe, is the desire to be true to God from the inside. The journey of transformation may go this way. We conform on the outside but remain carnal and selfish on the inside. People can only deduce who we are from our external self, like the way we speak and act, but no one knows what is really in our hearts, even Satan doesn’t know. Thus, we become hypocrites like those people Jesus condemned in Matthew 23:23-33. We are “spiritually” beautiful externally but rotten on the inside. No one can really tell, except God, our Heavenly Father.

Then, later, we realised that being a hypocrite is not only terrible but also tiring. It’s just a facade, an appearance that’s illusionary. In a rebellious streak, we show the world who we truly are. So we do not conform anymore, and our external become like that of our inside; carnal and selfish. We only have one life to live. Why should we live any other way but the way we want? Children raised in strict Christian families have a tendency to morphe this way and just throw caution to the wind as they grow up and become adults. A time may come when they may break free from the shackles of strict family rules and become who they truly are.

Actually, I think the best way is to gradually transform but always from within first. Battle within ourselves. Pray for our Father’s intervention in our spirit. Ask for the strength of the Holy Spirit to break free from our natural tendencies. Learn to be selfless from within. This way, our external self will reflect Christ who transformed us from within. This, I believe, is the message of Matthew 23:23-33. Clean the inside first, and the outside will be clean.

Ultimately, even if we may fool everyone in the world, God knows who we are. Jesus knows our true self. On that day when we face Jesus, our true self will be for all to see. Jesus looks to our hearts and not our outside as only our spirit will face Him. How are we to explain to Him that after all those years of His grace and goodness, we are still as rotten on the inside like we were before we knew Him? The gift of the gab and twisting words will not help us when what’s seen by all is only our spirit. We have nothing to conceal our inner self on judgment day as it is our inner self that is judged. Our salvation may still be intact as we are justified by our faith in Christ, saved by the grace of God. But what a hollow victory will that be? Can we hold our heads up high to Jesus and say we have fought the good fight if we had been a fraud all this while?

No amount of rationalising will help as Jesus knows our hearts, our true self. Work on insides in ernest. In the end, what’s inside us that counts. Discard our old self, our carnal nature, and our selfishness, and embrace and become the person God truly and always wanted us to be, even before the foundations of the world! Fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives. Strive for the prize that awaits us as we look upwards to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith!