Transformed by the Word

Examples of people who were transformed by the indwelling Christ are seen throughout the Word of God. In Mark 5:15, the demon-possessed maniac became a calm, quiet disciple. John, once a vindictive Jew, was supernaturally transformed into the apostle of love. The Samaritan woman of ill repute met Jesus at the well and instantly became a proclaimer of the truth to her home town. The cold-hearted jailer was converted and became a sympathetic friend to the apostles.

The testimony of the apostle Paul speaks loud and clear that this zealous murderer and bloodthirsty persecutor of those who followed Christ could only bow in reverent submission to the One he had previously disdained. Paul became a compassionate propagator of Christianity to the Gentiles (3), and his gifts were so completely given over to the control of Christ that he was used to pen a great deal of the New Testament. Paul was so consumed by the truths revealed to him when he was lifted up into the third heaven that he spent the rest of his life attempting to communicate them to the world. Yet his life was characterized by humility and brokenness. He called himself the “chief of sinners.” Paul understood that it was God working in him, and therefore, counted all other endeavors a loss so that he could “win Christ” (4).