14 - Transfiguration Of Character
Transfiguration Of Character
"Nature itself is the work of God; and it is the restoration, not the destruction, of nature which Christ came to accomplish. It is not the works of God, but the works of the devil which He came to destroy."
B. B. Warfield
"You are too much occupied in looking at yourself, and too little in beholding the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by the former that you are to be humbled; but it is by the latter that you are to be changed into the divine image."
Charles Simeon whatever other issues may be involved in this subject of Scriptural holiness, never for one moment must we forget that the supreme purpose of the Holy Spirit’s deeper work in the believer is the transfiguration of character. However often we may fight it down, there is a reassertive tendency in most of us to think that the infilling of the Holy Spirit is mainly an emotional experience. Perhaps this misunderstanding is the more persistent because of our knowing that sudden envelopments by the Holy Spirit have not infrequently been accompanied by an eruption of ecstatic emotion. It is important that we distinguish between the purposive and the merely associative. The human mind is usually conceived of as having three main areas or centres of activity: (1) intellect, or reason, (2) volition, or free-will, (3) emotion, or feeling. Which is the true order of precedence? The intellect is meant to be king; with the will as prime minister, or executive of the crown; and the emotions as obedient subjects. When that order is violated, and especially when the emotions run amok, we are soon in trouble, either physically or psychopathically, or both. We live in an age of suspense and nervous tension. Emotional behaviour patterns and disturbances are receiving more attention than ever. We dare not understate the importance of the emotions. Yet when we have said the most and the last about them it still remains true that they are comparatively the least important. They are the most volatile, the most variable, the most unpredictable, the most superficial part of us. Is it thinkable, then, that the Holy Spirit comes to do His deepest work in the least substantial part of us? No; whatever emotional accidence there may or may not be, that major invasion by the Holy Spirit which has been called the Second Blessing designs a renovation in the deepest depths of the human personality. It is meant to effect such a purification and refinement within the moral nature that there shall be a transfiguration of character.
I have made a distinction between "nature" and "character". Nature is the raw material, so to speak. Character is what we make out of it. In the final consummation, we shall all be presented "faultless" in our nature; but does that mean we shall all be equal in character! No; for as "one star differeth from another star in glory" (1 Corinthians 15:41) so will there be greater and lesser resplendencies of character, developed by our voluntary reactions while living on earth in the mortal body. (Oh, how important is this present span on earth!). In that gracious suffusion by the Holy Spirit which effects inwrought holiness, the divine purpose is not only even the correcting of wrong bias, and the cleansing of impure impulse, and the refining of desire; it is that the nature, being thus renewed, may be developed into holy character. In other words, inwrought holiness is not only negative; it is both negative and positive. Wonderful as are the aspects of it which we have already mentioned, those more negative features (i.e. cleansing, correcting, renewing, refining) are the clearing away of obstructions, so that all those traits and qualities which are most natively human, "after the image of God", may be unimpededly developed, even sublimated, in the transfiguration of character. Holiness is not only a reclamation of the garden from weeds, but a filling of it with fragrant flowers. It is not only (negatively) a clearing away of obnoxious undergrowths from the orchard, but (positively) a producing of gracious fruit, even "the fruit of the Spirit . . . love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, godly self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23), and all manner of "good works which God afore prepared that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). The kind of character-beauty which true holiness begets is not that of elegant marble statuary, charming in profile, graceful in silhouette, yet cold and hard to the touch, voiceless, uncommunicative, and locked up in itself. Any kind of holiness which turns the inner life into a mental monastery, and the outer life into a walled-off enclosure, is not holiness according to Christ. One of the loveliest traits of character engendered by true holiness is a self-forgetting otherism. Instead of a continually in-looking self-culture, there is an out-looking diffusion of goodness to others. Genesis 1:11 tells how God caused the earth to bring forth herb and fruit tree "whose seed is in itself". The miracle of herb and fruit self-propagation has been going on for all the thousands of years since, and it always happens at the point of full development or ripeness. Similarly, holiness in full development or ripeness expresses itself in an outreaching graciousness of character which propagates goodness and moral beauty everywhere. Except where there is Satanic resistance or Pharisaic hypocrisy, it gently "provokes to love and good works" (Hebrews 10:24) in other hearts and lives. It is never self-advertising, yet neither can it conceal itself. It continually reaches out in soul-winning activity, and atmospheres evangelism in the very love of God. It is full of effort, yet somehow it is effort with ease. Its hands are full of "good works". It produces character which visibly incarnates those words of the Apostolic benediction, "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit."
Inward Metamorphosis
Now of course there are many New Testament verses which bear on this matter of Christian character; but I here call special attention to two, because of their using a certain Greek verb, i.e. metamorphoo, which, incidentally, seems to have found new vogue today in our rather modern word, "metamorphosis". Both in the Greek and in the English the meaning is to transform. That Paul should speak about a character-metamorphosis through inward renewal is, to say the least, arresting. In Romans 12:1-2, he writes,
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not fashioned according to this world; but be ye transformed [metamorphosed] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
It is interesting to see how different translators try to bring out the full force of the meaning in these two verses. From a dozen or so, I pick out the rendering given by Weymouth’s New Testament in Modern Speech.
"I plead with you therefore, brethren, by the compassion of God, to present all your faculties to Him as a living and holy sacrifice to Him—a spiritual mode of worship. And do not conform to the present age, but be TRANSFORMED BY THE ENTIRE RENEWAL OF YOUR MINDS, so that you may learn by experience what God’s will is, namely, all that is good and acceptable to Him, and perfect." This metamorphosis is here connected with certain factors which immediately catch the eye. (1)Separation from the world: "Do not conform to the present age." Our Lord could transfigure a Stephen, but never a Demas who "loved this present age". (2)Consecration to God: "Present all your faculties to Him as a living and holy sacrifice". Our Lord may bless others in many ways, but it is only the completely yielded whom He transfigures. (3)Renovation inside the human personality: "the entire renewal of your minds". Nothing less than this can really transfigure character. (4)Realization of the divine will by new perception and in actual experience: "that you may learn by experience what God’s will is. . . ."
All these well merit separate consideration, but the central and vital thing to grasp is that this character-transformation is wrought by "ENTIRE RENEWAL" OF THE MIND. If anything could unanswerably show to us how astray both the eradication theory and the conventional counteraction theory are, this second verse in Romans 12:1-21 does. If, as eradicationism says, the Second Blessing completely extirpates the so-called "old nature", leaving only the "new nature", then Paul’s exhortation here, in Romans 12:1-2, must be to that "new nature", which, however, makes the exhortation a useless redundance. For if the so-called "new nature" is (according to theory) sinless, why need Paul exhort it to separation from the world, and consecration to God, and inward renewal? On the other hand, if, as says the "counteraction" idea, the "old nature" must persist within us as an inerradicable evil entity to our dying day, how could Paul exhort us to "ENTIRE RENEWAL OF THE MIND"’?
How long must some of us continue to sponsor such exegetically untenable concepts in the name of Scriptural holiness? How long must unsuspicious audiences be a prey to such misguidance and its hurtful after-effects? How long are we to let well-meant theory, venerated names and tenacious shibboleths blindfold us to the true, precious teaching of our New Testament? With such clear guidance flowing to us through Apostolic pens, why are we so slow to see the real truth about regeneration and sanctification? Regeneration, other than being merely the superinducement of a (suppositionary) "new nature" which is not the human "I" or "me", is the Holy Spirit’s transfusing of a new spiritual life into our human nature itself. And, through His further work in us, this new life may fill, may interpenetrate, may "renew" our whole moral and spiritual nature—not to a static ethical absoluteness but to moral and spiritual fulness of health in which inward purity, at last, has the upper hand over all animal appetites, over all temptations injected from without, and over every wrong response from within. That is the true New Testament teaching as to regeneration, inward renewal, inwrought holiness, and transfiguration of character.
Yes, that is the central, vital thing: true Christian character-transformation issues from this "entire renewal of the mind". Our Lord said of John the Baptist, "He was a burning and a shining light" (John 5:35). The burning was inward. The shining was outward. There would have been no outward shining without the inward burning. The inward burning was sanctification through the infilling Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15). The outward shining was that of transfigured character. It is still true that there cannot be a true outward "shining" without the same inward "burning". Many of us are needing to learn that more deeply. So, then, let us briefly analyse this character-transfiguration in its wwrought and ouPffiought features.
First there is transformation of themind. The word which Paul uses in Romans 12:2 (transmorphose) is used of our Lord’s mountain-top transfigxiration: "He was transfigured before them" (Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:2). Luke’s verbal variation of it is, "the fashion of His countenance was altered" (Luke 9:29); it was the same face, yet not the same.
Correspondently, there can be such a transfiguration of the mind, by the Holy Spirit, that the very "fashion" of its thinking is changed; so that although it remains the same mind as to personal identity, it is no longer the same in its deepest impulses and responses. It means that all the thoughts, imaginations, emotions, motives, ambitions, yearnings, joys and loves of the heart and mind are made to become radiant with "the joy of the Lord". I myself have known persons who have given every convincing evidence, under widely varied testings, of this fundamental refashioning of the mind.
Resultantly, there is transfiguration of thepersonality. This is the very opposite of self-decoration. It is also quite different from a prepossessing natural charm, which in its own way, of course, can be quite delightful. It is no mere exterior impressiveness of figure or feature, nor is it any kind of personal force which is self-achieved. It is an inner radiance which somehow shines through the personality, not in any way because of natural appearance or engaging gifts, but, as often as not, despite the absence of them. It is an indefinable but unmistakable glow which tinges and lustres one’s way of saying and doing things. It is utterly unconscious of itself, yet it atmospheres the whole personality, expressing itself most often through the most ordinary activities of the most ordinary days. It shows itself distinctly to the public through the ministry of public men, but it shows itself most clearly to those who live nearest to it and observe it continually in private life.
I remember reading about a man who once went to breakfast with the saintly John Fletcher (whom John Wesley described as "the holiest man in England"). The breakfast was very plain fare, in itself, but the visitor afterwards described the meal in this way: "Do you know, taking breakfast with John Fletcher was like taking the Sacrament"! This transfiguration of the personality is a lovely fulfilment of that prayer in Psalms 90:17, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us".
We may go further and say, with all due cautiousness, that this "entire renewal" of the mind often gradually transfigures the face. This may not be one of its most solidly important effects, but it is one of its most appealing adjuncts. It must have been transfixing to the gathered members of the Jewish Sanhedrin when they saw Stephen’s face become "as the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15). Of course, it still remained the same human face, but some unearthly sheen must have shown through it.
I never thought I would ever see anything on earth near enough to that to remind me of it, but I did, a few years ago. My dear wife and I were travelling through what was then the Belgian Congo. On the occasion of which I now speak, I was addressing a crowd of between twelve and fifteen hundred negro men and women of varying ages, from several different tribes, many of whom had come, in larger or smaller contingents, two or even three days’ trek through the jungles in order to be present at our Conference. I had asked beforehand for guidance as to my type of message, and had been told, "They will go as deep in the Word as you can take them"—which proved to be true. I believe that many of those beaming-faced African brothers and sisters in the Lord knew more about implicit trust in the Word, and about deeply experienced sanctification, than I did myself. My subject was: "Out of Egypt and into Canaan"—and oh, how they listened, even though it had to be through two interpreters, because of different tribal languages.
Because of needing to preach through two interpreters, I practised, as closely as possible, one complete thought to each complete sentence. Next to me, on my left, a lady missionary interpreted, and next further left was a negro interpreter. In that way the main two groups of languages were covered. I could not help noticing how the people looked at that negro interpreter. Maybe they could not help noticing how I kept looking at him. I became so absorbed in watching his face that sometimes when it was time for me to add my next bit, I had momentarily forgotten the thread of my discourse!
Oh, that face! I have seen many beautiful faces in my time, but never one quite like that. I have seen eyes shine and features beam, but never elsewhere quite like that. Using the word in its finest, uttermost sense, that negro’s face was radiant. If ever I saw the "spiritual glow", I saw it there. As evidently as anything could be, it was the outshining of an inward purity. In Scriptural phraseology, it was "the beauty of holiness". I learned afterward that the beauty of his character matched the radiance of his face. That was not the only thing which we learned afterward. On our way back from the meeting to the missionary’s dwelling, we passed a group of naked natives—six or seven men, squatting at the base of a great tree. Never before in our travels had we seen human beings so facially ugly, or with such prominent suggestion of the ape. I suddenly realized how easy it would be, if we had no authentic guidance from the written Word of God, to believe in human evolution from the anthropoid apes. One of those men was so strange-looking, so gorilla-like, it was disturbing to look at him, yet we could scarce turn away our gaze. As soon as we were past them, our missionary friend said, "I know what you were thinking. We missionaries have thought the same at one time or another. You were shocked at the appearance of that big one, with the coarse hair and ugly gorilla face. Well, he is the brother of the man who interpreted your sermon just now; and your radiant-faced interpreter was even uglier than that before his conversion to Christ"! For the moment we were dumb-struck. The contrast between the two was so great that such a transformation seemed incredible; but the missionary assured us that similar transfigurations had occurred in tens of hundreds of lives. When, despite their crudeness, those dark-minded people are brought to the point of simple yet vital faith in the Saviour, and become truly regenerated by the Holy Spirit, there is such a sheer contrast between their new life in Christ and what they were before, in their pre-conversion mental darkness and animalism, that the gracious shock of it causes wonderful facial transfigurations. In a gentler, less vivid, yet equally real way, I have seen transfigured character and transfigured faces in England and America. Pure-hearted Christian saints, I think of them now, and my memory of the gentle light shining through some of those dear faces tempts me to fill pages here, telling about them and the gracious witness for Christ which they diffused. But I must forbear. I would only say that those faces, some masculine, some feminine, some younger though perhaps the more of them rather older, some naturally well-featured, others rather peculiar or else of the plain Jane type, have all had a radiance, a light, an expressive something which transfigured whatever kind of natural cast or feature they had. There was that Shekinah light within which tinges with beauty whatever it shines through.
Then again, going with this inward renewal and transfiguration of character, there is always transfiguration ofdisposition and behaviour. "Entire renewal of the mind" inevitably registers itself in refined and tempered attitudes. Hasty verdicts and drastic reactions drop away. The way of looking at things and dealing with things is modified. There is a new interest in others, a new appreciation of others, a new sympathy with others, a new tolerance of others, a new warmth of kindliness toward others. In matters of faith and conviction there is a new firmness which is the more Christlike because it is firmness without fierceness. The very manner of doing things is changed, even in the commonplace duties, chores, and contacts of everyday living; the way of answering questions, the way of conversing, the exhibiting of charitableness to those who differ—oh, in so many ways, transfigured character communicates itself through transformed disposition and behaviour. Have we not seen such transformation of character, of personality, of countenance, of disposition and behaviour? It sheds abroad the most winsome of all influence for Christ. It is the most magnetic of all apologetics for the Christian faith. It generally shines out with its most victorious splendour amid life’s darkest experiences. With heaven-reflecting eyes it smiles upon us even through sickness, and somehow gives the thin, wan face of the wearied invalid a soft, gentle light and beauty which transfigure even the mystery of permitted pain. It is indeed the transfiguration which comes from the Holy Spirit’s deeper work in the entirely sanctified believer. It is the inner glory-light of inwrought holiness, gleaming through the outer windows of the consecrated personality. Or, in those words of Romans 12:2, it is "entire renewal of the mind" expressing itself through a metamorphosis of character.
Progressive Christlikeness This brings us to a point where we ought to glance at the other place where Paul uses the verb, "metamorphose" in connection with transfiguration of character. It is 2 Corinthians 3:17-18,
"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding [or, possibly, ’reflecting’] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed [metamorphosed] into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit."
There is some doubt as to whether Paul here means (1) that we are the reflecting mirror, or (2) that our Lord Jesus is the mirror, reflecting "the glory of the LORD" i.e. of Jehovah, or (3) that the Gospel, as the "new covenant" (see verses 6-11) is the mirror, reflecting the glory of Christ. Perhaps number three best fits the context, but, yes or no, the central idea remains the same, namely, that we, by beholding with "unveiled face", our glorious Lord, are "transformed into the same image".
It is a striking figure, and flashes with meaning for us. Like Romans 12:2, it certainly teaches a transfiguration (metamorphosis) of character. The phrase, here, "with unveiled face", means with unveiled eyes of the mind. With our outer, physical eyes, we cannot see our Lord at all, for the present; but with unveiled inward vision, we may see Him as being luminously ever-present to the mind. Let us be quick to notice the four aspects of this character-transfiguration which are here indicated and blended.
(1)It is transfiguration throughcommunion. The participle clause, "beholding-as-in-a-mirror" is all one word in the Greek (katoptrizomenoi), meaning a beholding or mirroring which is contemporaneous and going on. One of the things which we never dare forget, especially in teaching inwrought holiness through consecration and faith, is, that no matter what crisis we may experience or what spiritual elevation may come to us, no blessing of the Christian life ever continues with us unless there is continuous communion with Christ. Moreover, this "beholding" or "reflecting" is that kind of communion which we call adoring contemplation—of which, in this age of inane rush, there is so little that we are spiritually poverty-stricken.
(2) This transfiguration isprogressive. The verb is in the present tense: "being transfigured". In these chapters we have emphasized that in no sense is inwrought holiness our reaching a fixed point of static sanctity. Viewed as a "Second Blessing" it marks a crisis-point of new departure into a progressive transfiguration of character. Heart-holiness is never a reservoir, but, in Frances Ridley Havergal’s words, a "river glorious".
(3) This transfiguration is inwroughtby the Holy Spirit. It is "from the Lord the Spirit", that is, it is a result from His activity in the mind. The noteworthy thing is that He effects His transfiguring work through the believer’s adoring contemplation of "the glory of the Lord". In Romans 12:2, the transfiguration begins with "entire renewal of the mind". Here, in 2 Corinthians 3:18, it is developed through communion; through an adoring contemplation, which absorbs into itself the very impress of that beloved heavenly Lord.
(4)This transfiguration is an approximatinglikeness to Christ— "transformed into the same image". Yes, that is the supreme goal of true, Christian sanctification: to become ever-increasingly conformed in character to the sublime character of Christ, "the Altogether Lovely". Let it be reiterated yet again: entire sanctification, or restoration to holiness, is not, according to the New Testament, either a man-achieved or God-inwrought ethical top-level, an accomplished goal of moral perfectness; it is restoration from moral and spiritual disease to fulness of health, making possible therefrom an ever-developing likeness to the character and beauty of the Lord Jesus, who is the ineffable moral loveliness of God Himself in visible embodiment.
Inwrought holiness through "entire renewal of the mind" certainly is both restoration to moral fulness of health and an elevation to a new high plane impossible of attainment by merely human struggling; but instead of its being a high level from which we look down, conscious of an exalted superiority, it humbles us with a prostration deeper than any ever caused by the heartbreaking repentance of a prodigal returning from his wallowing in the mire. Why? Because, on that higher level of holiness through "entire renewal of the mind", we see as never before, "with unveiled face", the "heavenly vision" of the ineffable, all-holiness and all-loveliness of Jesus; the very "glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6); the one, ultimate attraction of all holy heart-longing; the solitary, absolute all-perfection in the universe; the one-and-only, all-eclipsing, ever-alluring GOAL which ever fills the gaze of all the truly sanctified. When once, through inwrought holiness, we have seen that exquisite Goal, we never again talk about our own holiness, much less of "perfection"!—for the nearer we ’get to that beatific Goal, so the more do we realize how far we are from it. The more truly we may approximate to that perfection, the less conscious of it we are, and the more humblingly conscious are we of our own wwperfection. That which lifts us highest brings us lowest. Is not that the reason why, in this matter of "Christian perfection", John Wesley is far safer as an example than as teacher? However insistently he may have preached and urged "Christian perfection", he never once claimed it. Nay, he disclaimed it. In a letter to Dr. William Dodd, he writes, "I tell you flat, I have not attained the character I draw." As time went on, the Wesley teaching of Christian "perfection" became so pared and trimmed that in reality it was no more than a self-contradictory concept of imperfect perfection.
So, then, to summarize. The supreme purpose of the Holy Spirit’s deeper work in us is transfiguration of character. That inward transfiguration begins through "entire renewal of the mind", or inwrought holiness, and is revealed outwardly through transfigured personality, facial expression, disposition, attitude, and behaviour. It develops especially through communion with God. It is not the suppositionary ethical immaculateness of the religious perfectionist, but a growinglikeness to Christ.
Oh, for a deeper knowing of such character-transfiguration through "entire sanctification"! Is not this inwrought holiness the "perfect love" which "casteth out fear"? (1 John 4:18)—and is not this character-transfiguration that which John means when he says, "AS HE IS, even so are we in this world"? (17)—and is not the most thrilling prospect of the coming Rapture just this: "When He shall appear, we shall be LIKE HIM"?
Now, O my King above,
Now, even more, Thee for Thyself I love,
Thee I adore; For ’tis the glorious loveliness Thou art Which captures and subdues my wondering heart.
Now, all my prayer is this:
More, more of Thee.
Thou art the perfect bliss;
Live, live through me.
Let me Thy life absorb, diffuse, express, Till heaven itself unveils
Thy loveliness.