During Sunday’s sermon, I briefly discussed the implications of being in Christ on three different aspects of a person’s life:

• First, the inner life: How do you think? What occupies your mind? What do you value and treasure? What do you long for?
• Second, the personal life: How you work, how you allocate your time, how you spend money. These are decisions you make on your own that primarily affect you.
• Third, your Life in Community with others: Your relationships in marriage, in your family, among your neighbors, among your colleagues.

Most Christians would agree that becoming a believer should change all three aspects of our lives. But how do these changes take place? Is there a correct, biblical order to the changes?

Consider Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

We are to be transformed, to be changed utterly. The Greek word translated “transformed” is the source for our word “metamorphosis.” But where does this metamorphosis begin? Not in our behavior. It begins inside us, through renewing our minds. The inner life changes first, leading to the other changes.

We see the same idea of God changing us from the inside in many other Scriptures. Consider the great New Covenant promise in Ezekiel 36:26

Ezekiel 36:26-27a And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you . . .

God replaces my old, corrupt, stony heart with a new, tender heart – indeed, He gives a new spirit, His Spirit. This is true internal change.

Only after the internal change takes place does he then deal with behavior:

Ezekiel 36:27b . . . and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Or consider Psalm 119:97. The verse begins with the inner change: “O How I love your law!” But that inner change has an impact on decisions about how to spend time, as the second half of the verse shows: “It is my meditation all the day.”

This idea – that the transformed mind in turn transforms personal decisions – is common throughout Scripture. Consider these examples:

1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Ephesians 5:15-16 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Thus, the changed inner life leads to a transformed personal life.

But the changes don’t stop there. The same Spirit that transforms our minds and our personal decisions in consequence also transforms our relationships. We see this especially clearly in the book of Ephesians. After spending three chapters explaining and praying for profound inner change in his readers, in chapters four and five the Apostle deals almost exclusively with interpersonal relationships. Consider these excerpts:

Ephesians 4:1-3 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:11-13 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Ephesians 4:32 – 5:4 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Beginning in 5:22, Paul then discusses the transforming effects of the Gospel on our most intimate relationships: between husband and wife (5:22-33), between parents and children (6:1-4), and between employees and employers (6:5-9).

Thus, being a Christian must entail changes in personal life and in our relationships. But note the danger: It is easy for us to exhort people to improve their personal decisions and improve their relationships apart from any Spirit-wrought internal change. And, given that we are forced to admit sin and failure more easily in our relationships than in our inner lives, people are hungry for such advice. Thus the proliferation of how-to books and seminars: “Twelve steps to a happy marriage;” “How to raise great kids;” “Seven keys to success in the workplace.”

But we cannot start with external change. For this is not the Gospel. The Gospel says that I am a slave to sin, and will continue to be a slave to sin even if I take a bath and thus have a less putrid odor. Changing the outside does not change the inside. Remember, Jesus said the Pharisees were like whitewashed tombs – clean, lovely on the outside but inside full of rotting carcasses.

Instead, the Gospel says that I will never have a marriage that reflects the relationship of Christ to the church unless God replaces my heart of stone with a heart of flesh, unless the Holy Spirit opens my eyes to see the beauty of Christ’s death and the power of His resurrection. Furthermore, as one who is in Christ, I will become more and more the husband, the employee, the child, the church member God intends as I apply the cross to my life, as I grow in the inner fruit of the Spirit, day by day and hour by hour.

So, yes, let us tell people that God cares about their felt needs: their marital problems and workplace issues and child-rearing challenges. But we must go deep, to heart issues, to internal change – that is, to the Gospel. Then and only then will we fulfill our purpose; then and only then will Christ will be glorified in our inner lives, in our personal lives, and in our relationships.

Praying that we might live out the Gospel,

Coty