Metamorphosis of the Heart
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”—Phil. 2:12, 13
Happy Valentine’s Day… a perfect day for our focus in this post—the heart!
Before we dive in though, let’s do a quick recap.
In the last few posts, we talked about how the “heat” of our lives (pressures from without and struggles from within) that squeezes our hearts. This heat coaxes out fruit from our hearts: our thoughts, emotions, words, and actions. These behaviors, the way we cope with life, is tied to the heat.
Most of the time, when we see these often negative results, we set to work finding solutions.
Quick on the trigger? Try counting to ten.
Dissatisfied with life? Practice gratitude.
Always stressed out? Make sure to work in some meditation.
I mention this because in some way, isn’t this what this blog is about? In my desire to live out the gospel, it is all too easy to simplify change by looking for step-by-step solutions.
Now I am not saying that those are bad. In fact, these are great…as starting points.
The problem, however, is that we too often stop here. We figure that if we can fix our behaviors, that is enough change.
But the Bible tells us God intends more for us. He desires transformation (2 Cor. 3:18).
In fact, the Greek word for “transform” is metamorphoo, the base for our English word metamorphosis. It is the complete change at the most fundamental level. In the natural world, this word describes the process whereby a caterpillar’s “body tissue breaks down and reforms as wings, legs, and other adult parts.” (Source)
This word is not used often, but it is the word used to describe Jesus’ transfiguration (Matt. 17:2; Mark 9:2). Though we are not going to become gods, the Bible says that we will be glorified one day, exchanging this body of dust for a body like His (1 Cor. 15:49). Can you imagine? This is what God is aiming at—glory!
Until then, let us submit to our Father who lovingly works with us—not merely at the level of good behavior. That would be like a caterpillar gluing on wings and calling itself a butterfly.
No, God goes even deeper than that. As we walk in faith with Him, God breaks down all that is old in us and reforms it into something completely new—one degree at a time.
As we renew our minds instead of being conformed to the world, He transforms us (same word in Rom. 12:2!). Little by little, one degree at a time, He is moving us forward with steps often hidden and unseen, so that we become like Jesus (Rom. 8:29).
So if this change is not about our behaviors (our outward fruitfulness), then where does this change happen?
God Works at the Level of the Heart
When God transforms us, He gets right to the “heart” of the issue: our hearts. The real culprit is not the bad things we do or the troubles that surround us. It is our own hearts: darkened, sinful, and spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1-3).
Because of the fall, all humans are born with sinful hearts—a condition we inherited from the moment of conception (Ps. 51:5). Without God’s intervention, our hearts are deceitful and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9). On our own, this deception and blindness to the true condition of our hearts prevents us from seeing the truth.
But as we already discussed, God has His eye on glory! He intends for us to be in loving communion with Him and with one another, as He shapes His image within us to reflect His magnificence.
Though many view the Bible as a book of do’s and don’ts, which treats God’s Word as a list of rules and regulations, that is not the full picture. When we reduce Scripture to that level, it will skew how we read it.
Because our hearts are wicked—a very unpopular and offensive notion these days—all remedies that fall short of acknowledging this truth will have limited and short-lived results.
The good news, something we will dig into a bit more in future posts, is God knows where the problem lies and how to address it perfectly. As the Author and Creator of this Story, He knows exactly how to restore our hearts.
What Do You Mean When You Talk About the Heart?
Now, by this time, you might be wondering, What is the heart anyway? Is it the pumping organ in your body that pushes blood out to every cell in your body? What does the Bible mean when it tells us to guard our hearts (Prov. 4:23) or asks God to search our hearts (Ps. 51:23, 24) or that God understands our hearts (Jer. 17:10)?
Here are five things about the biblical heart:
Your Heart is Spiritual
As human beings, we are created with both a physical side and a spiritual side. These two are inextricably intertwined together and difficult to separate.
It is this spiritual nature that separates humankind from all other living things. We are not merely highly evolved animals. It is what is intended to reflect the image of God.
Your Heart is Dynamic
Our hearts are not in a vacuum.
Jeremy Pierre in his book, The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life, describes it this way:
“God designed the human heart to be both varied and varying, and he delights in his craftsmanship. By varied, I mean that human hearts function with a complex spectrum of thoughts, feelings, and choices that flow seamlessly together. By varying, I mean that this spectrum bends, adapts, expands, contracts, vacillates, turns—always dynamically responding to everything around it. Healthy change directs those dynamic responses to reflect the righteousness of God.” (pp. 4-5)
Our hearts both impacts and is impacted by all the heat around us. Which leads us to the next point about our hearts.
Your Heart is Central
David Powlison describes our hearts surrounded by “rings” of concentric circles.
Imagine a target. Your heart is the bulls eye, right in the center.
Our hearts are entwined to a physical body, as we already mentioned.
We live in this body in a created world—beautiful but tainted by sin, just as we are.
In this created world, we interact with other people in a social milieu, which creates a culture and worldview which we swim in.
This culture and worldview is under the control of our enemy, Satan. His worldview clashes against God’s, and he is always trying to snatch our hearts away from Him.
This means that our hearts are a spiritual battlefield. This is the target both God and Satan are after. It is central.
Your Heart is Blind
Though our hearts are the central focus of God and His plans for change, the problem is we are blind. In fact, Paul Tripp calls us “doubly blind.”
First, we are blind to the true nature of our heart. We fail to see what is wrong with us. Even when it is glaring to all around us, we still don’t realize what we are doing.
But that’s not all. We are blind to our blindness.
In fact, we live in a world that tells us we’re pretty good people. To even suggest that there is something faulty with the human condition is offensive nowadays. We fail to see that what is wrong is really wrong.
However, until we see the true nature of our hearts, not just the bad things we do, it is very hard to see real, true and lasting change.
Your Heart Can Be Changed
In all this, it seems like the odds are stacked against us. We’re sin-stained and in trouble—but we don’t know it. We’ve got an enemy that wants to keep it that way. And we live in a world that feeds this lie we live in. How do we even have a chance?
Though this seems like a very discouraging scenario, we do need to remember one important truth: God is sovereign.
He is sovereign over Satan, despite his seeming power.
He is sovereign over all our human interactions with each other.
He is sovereign over all of creation that He has made.
He is sovereign over every beat of your heart and every breath you take.
And He is sovereign over your very heart, your spirit. He holds it in his hands tenderly and carefully.
We are created by a God who dearly loves His creation. He has not wound it up and let it run. He is actively involved. He is the One who is doing the transforming. And He won’t quit until that work is done.
Heart Work
Though God is sovereign, He invites our participation. We do not merely let God do all the work.
Rather, we join with Him in this transformation process. Paul exhorts us to “work out our salvation” (Phil. 2:12)—not work for our salvation. This means that because we have been changed through our faith in Christ at the heart level, we now are able to live out different and changed lives.
In the next post, we’ll talk a little more about how that works. But for now, rest in this, my friend: Our Father cares about our hearts—your deepest you. He will transform this heart, not just your behavior, so that we fully reflect His image.
