TRANSFORMATION

E. C. Muggleton

Romans 12: 1, 2; 2 Corinthians 3: 18; Philippians 3: 17–21

What is in mind is to seek help by the Spirit to say a word about transformation. I am wondering myself how much change there has been with us since we have been together. Of course we have individually to face up to that—what change has there been with me? I think we should look for some change as a result of the brethren having been together. I think the Lord is looking for some change too. If we have really been converted today there would be some change and the change would be apparent to everyone. Sometimes we say, ‘That brother, or sister, has got a touch from the Lord’. And we can see the change; it is tangible.

So the apostle in Romans 12 is speaking about the body. Every one of us has a body. Paul gives an appeal here to present our bodies a living sacrifice. We should value our bodies. Our bodies are said to be the temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6: 19). Paul then says,

“Ye are not your own for ye have been bought with a price—glorify now then God in your body”. We do not glorify God in our bodies if we are conformed to this world. So Paul says,

“Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. I think the change comes about as a result of the transformation. It is a very serious thing to be conformed to this world, this world that has crucified the Lord of glory. Paul says to the Corinthians that had the princes of this world known, they would not have crucified the

Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2: 8). Think of using your body to be conformed to this world!

You might say, ‘How am I conforming my body to this world?’ There are many ways in which we can be conformed to this world—by our deportment, by our dress, by our conduct, but Paul says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.

The mind is a great receptive faculty. We receive the truth through our minds. Paul could say,

“I myself with the mind serve God’s law”, Romans 7: 25. We should value our minds and should see that we have pure minds. Peter speaks of stirring up “your pure minds”. The Spirit would come in and stir up our pure minds. So you can see what a great work of transformation goes on through the mind; so we should present our bodies a living sacrifice.

The result of the transformation is that we prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The Epistle to the Romans shows how the believer is recovered to do the will of God. The Lord Jesus Himself is the great example to us. We have been reminded today of how He held His body wholly in relation to the will of God. What a body that was! a holy body, committed unreservedly to the will of God. Our bodies are not to be conformed to this world. So it raises the exercise with every one of us as to whether this work of transformation is going on, so that there is some change which can be taken account of in our testimony here. We love to think of Paul’s body. What a body he had! He says, “I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus”, corresponding with His sufferings. Apart from the Lord Jesus perhaps there was never a body like the body of Paul. There must have been something very precious in the body of Paul that they took napkins from his body and cures were effected, and the diseases left them (Acts 19: 12), showing how his body became available in relation to the will of God. We all have a body and we can present it a living sacrifice. So I thought of this exhortation, “Be not conformed to this world”. The compassions of God are the ground of the exhortation, so that we may be here transformed and holding our bodies entirely for the will of God.

In the second passage Paul says, “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image”. I think that is where the moral change comes in. It is not a natural, physical change, it is a moral change, and it comes about by way of transformation. Mr. W. Schubert was reminding us of the change several times in the meetings and quoted this very scripture, “We all looking on the glory of the Lord”. Where are we looking, dear brethren? It is wonderful to be all looking on the glory of the Lord. What a glorious Person we have as our object! We can look on His blessed face. They could not look upon the face of Moses when he came down with the tables of stone; he had to put a veil on his face. But there is no veil on the face of Jesus. “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”. I think it involves the present service of the Spirit because the Spirit is with us and in us and we thus are being transformed.

It does not say ‘shall be’ but “are transformed”. Think of the great work of transformation which is going on. We see it in Paul. Look at Paul’s face. What a great work of transformation had gone on with the apostle. That is to go on with every one of us as we are looking on the glory of the Lord. That is objective, but then the Spirit is working in the way of transformation so

that we are being changed. That can be seen in the faces of the brethren. No wonder Paul spoke about “The radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 4.

He does not bring out in the second Epistle to the Corinthians the facts of the gospel, he brings out the radiancy of it. And I think the radiancy is to be seen in the countenances of the brethren. “Transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”; how wonderful it is to see the change, the moral change. It says “even as by the Lord, the Spirit”. It is a very remarkable passage because it is interchangeable, whether it is the Lord or the Spirit.

So the transformation is going on and we take on the glory of it. We can see it in the apostles, and what examples we have in them. It says in the Acts that “they recognised them that they were with Jesus” (Acts 4: 13), not only that they had been with Jesus, but they were with Jesus. I think it should be seen in these two days we have been together that we are with Jesus. The moral change is a result of transformation, that we are a little more like Jesus. It should be seen in our testimony, that we are with Jesus. That is a beautiful expression in the Acts “that they were with Jesus”. I think it would give a radiancy in our testimony amongst men. Well, I think we should be a little brighter than we have been. It says that “the path of the righteous is as the shining light, going on and brightening until the day be fully come”, Proverbs 4: 18. The perfect day will be the day of Christ. But there should be seen now a change with every one of us. I would like to be a little more like Jesus. We sing that hymn, ‘Like Jesus in that place’ (Hymn 64), but why not be a little more like Jesus here in the place of testimony? What a brightness there would be about our testimony! Oh let the brightness come out, beloved brethren; let there be seen some change as a result of our being together in these meetings.

Now in Philippians 3 Paul says, “Be imitators all together of me, brethren”. He also says, “You have us for a model”. We are only a model as we are changed according to the same image. A sister can become a model. We like to see the models amongst us. So Paul says, “For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ—whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and their glory in their shame, who mind earthly things”. It is not the world, it is earthly things.

Romans would be more the world, but Paul here is concerned that we should not be among those who mind earthly things. Lot was a man who minded earthly things. He chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan. But Abraham was a heavenly man. He was not conformed to this world, and he was not minding earthly things.

So the apostle says, “Our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens”; it means our associations of life. Where do you find your associations of life, dear brother or sister? Do you find them in the world or among those who mind earthly things? Paul says that our citizenship is in the heavens “from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour”, and He is going to transform these bodies of humiliation. It is not a dead body, but it is these bodies of humiliation. The older we get the more we realize that it is a body of humiliation, but the Lord is coming and is going to change this body of humiliation. This will be the final change, and is what we are to be looking for. What a transformation it will be—“into conformity to his body of glory”. Think of His body of glory. The Lord Jesus Himself was here in a body of humiliation. It should affect

us, dear brethren. He took a body. As the apostle says, the One “who subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God”, took a bondman’s form and humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross, which brought out the moral excellence of the mind that was in Christ Jesus. I think we should contemplate more the Lord Jesus as taking that body and as humbled here.

He came into a condition which He was never in before—the incarnation—and in that body He became obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. But God has highly exalted Him, “and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”, Philippians 2: 9, 10. But He is our glorious Saviour and is coming and He is going to transform our body of humiliation into conformity to His body of glory. What I understand it means is that we shall be equal to being with Him in the conditions in which He is in glory. But it will involve this change. It is something very glorious and most blessed to think that in a moment we shall be transformed according to the same image, conformed to His body of glory, “according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself”. He has the power to do it; our glorious Saviour is coming and that will involve the final change of the saints, and we shall be equal to be alongside of Jesus in those conditions of glory, in complete correspondence with Him in the place where He is. That will be the result of the transformation. So it is encouraging for all of us that the change is coming; the final change may take place tonight. Think of being conformed to His body of glory!

Well, I just leave the word with the brethren. We are not to be conformed to this world, and not to mind earthly things, but just let your heart go out to the One who is to absorb the whole being of the Christian. I think the outlook of the saints is to be in relation to glory. We should have a change of outlook, for the coming of Jesus draws nigh. Amen.

Address at Bad Endbach
17 October 1981