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And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life. 1 John 5:11-12. 

When God created the visible world, He made many forms of life, the greatest of which was human life. He created humans alone with a spirit as well as a soul and body. This spirit gave them the ability to “understand,” as Elihu put it as he began to speak to Job (Job 32:8). The understanding that God imparted to Adam allowed him to name the other forms of life that God brought before him; naming implies an insight into the character. 

Although the first humans possessed understanding, they had a choice to make: from what source would they draw? In other words, would they take God as the basis of their life, or something outside of Him? God had presented them with the tree of life in the center of the garden, and with an alternative source of life—the tree of knowledge of good and evil—and left them free to draw upon one or the other. Spiritual life and understanding as opposed to natural, soul-powered life and knowledge. They could have chosen to share in the tree of life, and they would have received into themselves divine life with its characteristics. Instead they joined themselves to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and received the life that we have all inherited, our fallen nature, having characteristics with which we are so familiar. 

But what if the humans who were created first had made a different choice? What would their lives have looked like? The answer is in God’s idea of the perfect man, Jesus Christ. Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine. Jesus, like our first parents, came into this world without a fallen nature. Jesus, in comparison to them, had the disadvantages of arriving as an infant rather than as an adult and living in a fallen world rather than the more favorable setting of Eden. But when he arrived at the Jordan River to be baptized, the Father declared from heaven: “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).

The Father made this statement before Jesus had preached publicly, attracted any followers or performed any miracles. It was a response to the life he had led as he grew up in Galilee. He was poor, working class, part of a large family that eventually he became responsible for supporting, a Jew sharing in the oppression of Roman occupation. Nevertheless his life was one the likes of which the world had never seen. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). During the brief years of his ministry Jesus openly talked about the source of his life, the Life that he always drew his own life from, the basis of his life. In public, and privately among his disciples, he said things like:

For as the Father has life in himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in himself.John 5:26

As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. John 6:57

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father?” Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? John 14:9-10

The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does His works. John 14:10

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. John 14:11

(Praying for his followers) I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:20-21

As man, Jesus lived by the life of another: the Father’s life. The author of Hebrews describes this as the “power of an indestructible life.” And what is God’s idea about our life as Christians? We also are to live by the life of another: “And because of him [God], you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1Corinthians 1:30). What the first humans rejected we, in Christ, have the opportunity to welcome back. We can enter into Christ who overruled the fall of humanity. Jesus not only is God’s idea of the perfect human, he is God’s idea of the perfect basis for our Christian journey. By receiving the life that is in the Son, which is eternal life, we gain everything that has everlasting value. 

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Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? 
Song of Solomon 8:5

This past Monday was a holiday at my workplace. My wife and I enjoy spending time out in nature, and we have a number of parks not far from our home. So, I asked her which one she would like to visit that day. Her answer was, “I don’t care, as long as I am with you!”

This reply made me think, not because it was unusual for her to respond in that way but because it captures something of our relationship with Jesus. In the last post I quoted Brennan Manning regarding faith, about it growing to the point that we want God, and we want to want nothing else. To be with Him is our objective rather than where He takes us or whether we become enriched in some way. 

In the resurrection, Jesus gave Peter a preview of the future: “‘…when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.’ (This he [Jesus] said to show by what kind of death he [Peter] was to glorify God.)” (John 21:18-19). Peter would not want to go there, but he would accompany Jesus for the sake of glorifying God. This willingness to place God’s interests above our own is a sure sign that a death has taken place, and new life has come. 

Lately I have been spending some time re-reading Watchman Nee’s wonderful book, The Normal Christian Life. He takes as the starting point our crucifixion with Christ, as the apostle Paul describes in Galatians 2:20. God the Father has placed us, as baptized believers, in His Son. Eventually we awaken to the fact that when Jesus died on the cross our old sinful nature died with him. And when he arose from the dead we were given a new life in him. As Paul put it in Romans 6:3-4, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” The nature of this new life is inclined to love him and seek him, to long to be near him—because now we share in his own nature, and this is how Jesus himself relates to the Father. This is not something that God regards as extraordinary for followers of Christ; it is, to Him, a normal Christian life. The Father placed each of us in Christ, and Christ in each of us, so that Jesus “became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). 

I am astonished to find myself coming up from the wilderness, leaning on Jesus. Astonished because I always thought that this experience of walking with him and leaning on him was reserved for the far-advanced, super-spiritual giants of the faith. Instead, our Lord intends for all believers to know Him in this way. The young woman in the poems of the Song of Solomon was not extraordinary in herself, but she was extraordinary in the eyes of her Beloved. As we learn His love we grow in trust. Trust leads us to greater openness, dependence and intimacy. As we walk in intimacy with the Son, our Beloved brings us up from the desert of individualism and into the family life of the Father.

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What are the most wonderful words in our vocabulary? There are many to choose from, but among them must be Grace, Faith, Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Fellowship—all of which are ours in Jesus and completely out of reach without him. Here are a few observations on the first two of these.

Faith and grace complement each other. On one hand, grace is God’s enabling power toward us, the source of which is His love. Grace empowers us to be and to do that which would otherwise be impossible. On the other, faith grows out of a favorable response to God and enables Him to do that which would otherwise be a violation of our free will. 

Faith begins as a seed that comes from God. It settles in a human heart that has responded to the outreach of the Holy Spirit. That response may be provoked by life circumstances or prompted by observing others who happen to be faithful Christians. No matter what, right from the start faith is a gift from God to a human heart—really, a kind of grace. Even the smallest spark of a response gives God something to work with. Ultimately, the apostle Paul points out, “…faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Our walk with Him starts in faith (Galatians 3:2) and proceeds by faith (Galatians 3:5). Our initial belief in God establishes a bond with Him, because the life of Christ comes to dwell in us and that life is unbreakably bound to God Who is all around us.

In the nativity hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” we sing:

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.

Faith comes to our hearts just like Jesus came to Bethlehem—small, weak and apparently insignificant. Yet it is the occasion for new life as the life of Christ is imparted to us. Everything is changed! It is the beginning of a relationship in which, by grace, faith can develop and mature.

Faith can grow to the point that “you want God and want to want nothing else” [Brennan Manning, Ragamuffin Gospel, chapter 9]. Manning continues: “It always means a profound dissatisfaction with our present state. In faith there is movement and development. Each day something is new. To be Christian, faith has to be new—that is alive and growing.” 

Faith is an inclination to say “yes” to God. It is an inner disposition to turn to Him and away from everything that holds us back: complacency, fear, personal failings with their guilt and shame, and distractions of every kind. Faith also has the dimensions of trust in God and loyalty to God. They come into play when external circumstances contradict the truth that He has revealed to us, and when we encounter human opposition or betrayal.

Our transformed lives are a miracle of His workmanship; ongoing faith on our part gives Him the opportunity to work that miracle. Where He encounters hardness of heart, however, He withdraws His hand out of respect for our free will. “And he [Jesus] did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). Even when we find ourselves in such a condition, He keeps looking to us for a renewed response of faith so that He can resume the work of transformation.

This great exclamation of the apostle Peter in his first letter (1 Peter 1:3-9) illustrates the ongoing interplay between what God has accomplished through Jesus and what God brings home to us through faith. The outcomes are, for Jesus, praise and glory and honor and, for us, the salvation of our souls—

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 
Though you have not seen him, you love him. 
Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

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Allow me to share something of our Lord Jesus Christ. It comes from Isaiah 11:1-3. 

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear….

The first verse in this passage establishes that it refers to the Messiah, who is to come from the same lineage as David, son of Jesse. In the next verse, the prophet foretold that the Spirit of God would rest upon him. Here is how the New English Translation presents verse 2:

The LORD’s spirit will rest on him—
a spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom, 
a spirit that provides the ability to execute plans, 
a spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the LORD.

The third verse begins with an expression that is commonly translated, “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” The Hebrew text reads literally, “and his breathing (or smelling) is in the fear of the Lord.” The expression suggests a lively perception of the Lord and a loving response to His presence. Robert Alter, in his recent translation of the Hebrew Bible, renders the expression, “his very breath in the fear of the Lord.” Alter notes, “The Hebrew here is literally a verbal noun that has somewhat perplexed interpreters, but the context indicates a sense like the one proposed in this translation. One should note that this verb reflects the same root as the reiterated word for ‘spirit.’” (He is referring to the reiterated word “spirit” that occurs in verse 2.) This man’s wisdom, ability and absolute loyalty to his heavenly Father would be the outcome of a constant connection to the Spirit of the Lord. 

Regarding the remainder of verse 3, Robert Alter writes: “This is reminiscent of God’s words to Samuel, which have to do with making the right choice, that is David, for the kingship: ‘For man sees with the eyes and the Lord sees with the heart’ (1 Samuel 16:7). The ideal king breathes the spirit of the Lord, and that, rather than appearances, guides him in judgement.”

Old-fashioned diving suits had a long tether to the boat at the surface, along with an air hose. Now underwater divers carry tanks of compressed air, but that air came from the atmosphere above—as it were, a different realm. This provision of air is necessary to sustain human life in a hostile environment. Jesus drew His life from the Father through the Holy Spirit. In the same way we can draw upon him, our crucified, risen and ascended Lord. His life dwells within us. The Spirit of God sustains that life. We need only to be open and breathe. 

When God created the first human, He breathed into him the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). Human life was of His making, His craftsmanship. Our new creation life also originates in Him, as Paul points out in Ephesians 2:10, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…”

Breathing in the life of Christ keeps our spirits alive and keeps our focus on Him rather than ourselves. He protects us from becoming preoccupied with our past, present and future. In Him we have wisdom, ability and loyalty to God. He is our complete provision. He directs us in good works. He keeps us on track.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew, 
That I may love that which You love
And do what You would do.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until my will is one with Yours,
To do and to endure.

(Edwin Hatch, “Breathe on me, Breath of God” verses 1 and 2.)

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Every Christian leads a double life. One of the two is fading away, while the other increasingly comes to the forefront. 

Consider Adam, the first human, the progenitor. This is the man who was placed in a perfect environment, who lacked for nothing, who had access to the Tree of Life but never drew from it, and who chose as the source of his life the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He turned his back on God and God’s plan, exchanging allegiance to God for allegiance to himself. 

His legacy was the desire to be a god unto himself, to live independently of the only true God. This kind of humanity, naturally speaking, is our inheritance. The old man, the natural man, the old creation, the Adam in us, is not in right standing with God (here I’m drawing on a series of recorded messages by T. Austin-Sparks entitled “Right Standing with God”). He is the “wrong man”. He is by his own choice estranged from God’s family. In seeking freedom from the authority of God he falls into slavery to invisible forces of evil and has no power to liberate himself from them. In fact, in many cases, he lacks the awareness of his state of bondage. He is incapable of appreciating the things of God, and actually hostile to the life of the Spirit. This humanity is ingrained in each of us. The apostle Paul refers to this person as “the man of dust.” God’s decision regarding this man: he came from the dust and to the dust he would return. And He turns his attention to a new humanity. 

The new humanity owes everything to Jesus. In the gospel of John, Jesus “is presented to us as God’s thought concerning man.” He is, by God’s reckoning, the Right Man. The incredibly good news is this: “What is true of the Lord Jesus as man is to be made true of all the children of God.” This is our new inheritance as believers, our right standing with God. God has made Jesus to be, according to Paul, our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Jesus took our old nature with him when he went to the cross. As Paul writes elsewhere, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Corinthians 5:27). The term “sin” here refers the old humanity. The resurrection of Jesus brought the new creation to the light of day. This is the new humanity that, in Christ, is in right standing with God. As this new creation in Christ, we have the right to stand in the presence of God. 

However, the old creation does not disappear from view for a long time. “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:49). As T. Austin-Sparks puts it, “We are to be made according to God’s Right Man.” This is one way of describing our transformation: the process of coming into conformity with the image of Christ and relegating the image of the man of dust to the dustbin of our personal history. Transformation takes a long time. God knows me and He knows you. He sees how the process will unfold in each of us. More than knowing us, He loves us. He has a deep interest in our transformation. He knows how to intervene in each segment of the journey, to keep us on track and guide us back to the trail after every wrong turn. 

This being so, what would be an appropriate response?

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. 
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee. 
Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King. 
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages for Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold. 
Take my love, my God, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
(After Frances Ridley Havergal)

This is my eleventh post. I want to take a quick look back on the first ten, to make sure that I’m staying on course with the purpose of this blog.

The long journey to transformation, with its daunting demands, begins at the trailhead. We have cast in our lot with Christ. We have experienced the free gift of redemption by His grace. We recognize, however, that negotiating the transformation trail will require giving up old ways and patterns of thought to enter into a new reality: bearing the genuine image of the Son of God. We start out toward this tremendous opportunity because we know Him—at least something of Him—and we find ourselves drawn to Him.

The initial posts had to do with prayer, with seeing Christ in everyday events, and with scripture. We start out with these essentials. They will help us “hike our own hike,” following the unique path through life that Jesus has laid out for us. The last couple of posts touched on Jesus as our security. This fundamental understanding will keep us from losing heart when the going is difficult. Much more could be said on these subjects, and I have begun to share some valuable resources that all of us can draw upon. I need to look to other believers who are more experienced, more spiritually mature. Although it may seem to me that I sometimes have to walk alone, I cannot experience the fullness of transformation all by myself.

Likewise, transformation is not primarily about me or for me. Maybe you knew this already, but this concept came to me only recently. So then—why transformation? So that God can have the purpose for which He created. So that we can take our place in that purpose, as partners with Him in achieving that end. 

Now the question naturally comes up—what is my part in this? Jesus was asked about this by a crowd, when he admonished them to “labor for the food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27): what is this labor?—”what must we do, to be doing the works of God?” The immediate reply of Jesus: Believe! “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29). Believe in a Christ who will never leave or forsake us. Believe in a Christ who will not compromise. Who brings the dead to life, and calls into existence things that are not. Who is passionate about accomplishing His Father’s purpose. Believe in Christ rather than promises. Keep turning to Him, beholding Him, pressing in to Him. Yielding and surrendering and decreasing in the magnitude of my powers, so that His power can be on display. Persistent believing redirects our attention from “our work” to the work of the Lord. 

This kind of belief leads to active participation instead of passive waiting. Patient endurance without anxiety. Full commitment rather than divided loyalties. In saying this I admit to going well beyond the limits of my own experience. Furthermore I am told (and I believe it is true) that the work can progress only so far in an individual who is living as an individual. Its completion requires community life, in the company of other believers who are on the same journey of transformation. Certainly those of us who want full transformation look forward to this part of the journey.

And what is the work that God has assigned to Himself? The work of conforming us to the image of the Son, producing in us the characteristics of Christ. This reminds me of a couple of things. One is an observation about Daniel’s friends made by Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon, in connection with the divine intervention that delivered them from the fiery furnace: they “set aside the king’s command” (Daniel 3:28). The other concerns Jesus himself who, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). On behalf of his faithful ones, who mark their determination by setting aside the commands of “king self,” Jesus makes His own determination: once again he sets his face, this time to see his work of transformation accomplished in them.

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I found something to share from a book by T. Austin-Sparks, The Spiritual Senses. He opens chapter 16 with a list of several passages in the apostolic letters of the New Testament. Immediately afterward he writes:

This selection of passages is quite sufficient to show that the dominating objective of the Lord for His people is full growth, the full measure of Christ. Every apostolic letter has that object in view, and every one of these apostolic letters deals with some factor related to full growth. If that is true, then surely it is incumbent upon us as the Lord’s people to have His goal before us, and to be found in the same spirit as was the apostle who said, “…that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended of Christ Jesus”. The force of that statement may not have come to our hearts. The apostle has there said in very clear and precise language that when the Lord Jesus laid hold of him, it was for something more than that he should just become a saved man. It was in relation to a goal with which there was bound up a prize, and unto that there was to be an attaining. He said that everything for him was regarded as of value only in so far as it would help him to reach that goal, and nothing was of value at all which in no way contributed to that end. So should the Lord’s people be, at all times, on full stretch for the purpose for which they have been apprehended. Everywhere in the Word of God His thought for His people is set forth as being that they should come to a full measure, to full growth, to the measure of Christ.

“Full growth,” “full measure,” and “the measure of Christ” are all ways of saying transformation. If our transformation is a goal that dominates the thoughts of our Lord, should it not also dominate our thoughts? I have to remind myself of this repeatedly. The apostle Paul wrote about this transformation—and he lived it! “He said that everything for him was regarded as of value only in so far as it would help him to reach that goal, and nothing was of value at all which in no way contributed to that end.” Such willingness to live free from every distraction is amazing! Those who are being transformed lead astonishing lives. 

This chapter in the book by Austin-Sparks continues with a look at the letter to the Romans. Here are a few brief excerpts:

We know what the theme of the letter to the Romans is, the object for which the apostle wrote it. We know that its great outstanding truth is that of righteousness by faith, or, as it is sometimes called, justification by faith…. Christ in resurrection provides the ground of our justification and our righteousness. In death He has dealt with all unrighteousness, and therefore with all that alienated and separated from God and meant condemnation, judgment and death…. Sin has been met and dealt with and all its consequences, right to the end, and in resurrection God’s way is open, and there is righteousness where there was unrighteousness, communion where there was alienation, fellowship where there was distance…. the relationship with God is established in Christ risen, and is established unshakably.

The striking thing is that our unshakable foundation in no way depends on us: our efforts, abilities or resources. As Austin-Sparks puts it,

There is a ground that is settled and fixed, unshakable in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That ground is the expression of the love of God in Christ Jesus for me; not my love for Him, not anything that I have done or can do, not anything that is in me or that I can produce, but it is all what He is, what He has done, what He has given, and what He has established in His own Person at the right hand of God.

We have complete security and certainty in the Father and the Son. This is the basis on which our transformation rests. Our long journey of transformation will have many features that are unique to each one of us, but Christ is our common starting point.

I’m looking back to the parable of the two sons and I see that both had a sure place in the father’s house. Every day, in love, the father had his eye on the road that would lead his younger son back home—that road is a picture of Christ, Who is the Way. He gave his prodigal son the best robe—a picture of the righteousness of Christ that envelopes us, so that when the Father looks upon us He sees Jesus. The ring is a sign of unity and communion that extends from the Son of God to include us, His sisters and brothers. The shoes that the father placed on the prodigal son’s feet symbolize a new lifestyle. It is the life of the new creation in Christ that walks in fellowship with God. To reiterate, “in resurrection God’s way is open, and there is righteousness where there was unrighteousness, communion where there was alienation, fellowship where there was distance.”

Afterward the father, in love, stepped away from the celebration of the younger son’s return to beg his older son to join them. He even told that son, “All that is mine is yours!” Neither son had lost his inheritance, because the riches of Christ are immeasurable (Ephesians 2:7) and unfathomable (Ephesians 3:8). The father never lost his love for either of them. Our Heavenly Father never loses his love for us, either, because our relationship with him is not based on anything we have done or failed to do. It is established forever, unshakably, in the risen Christ.

Just a comment on T. Austin-Sparks: This brother in Christ lived from 1888-1971. I haven’t been acquainted with his writings for long, but everything I have had a chance to examine thoroughly has been a real encouragement and revelation of Christ. He spoke and wrote prolifically. He requested that, if his works were to be distributed after his passing, they should be made freely available. This has become a reality! A large collection is available online, free of charge, at the following address:

http://www.austin-sparks.net/

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Jesus told a parable of a prodigal son and his brother. You can find it in Luke 11:15-32. It is not a stretch to equate the father in the parable to our Heavenly Father—as far as I am aware, every other time Jesus used the term “father” it was in connection with God the Father, and I doubt that this instance is an exception. The father in this familiar parable had two sons. Incredibly, although he was still very much alive, he consented to divide the inheritance between them. Both of them went off, the older one to his field nearby and the younger to a far county. The older son labored at agriculture—the family business, so to speak. The younger one wasted his resources, falling into extreme poverty. 

We can look at these sons as representatives of two groups of people, Jews and Gentiles. The Jews had been chosen as God’s firstborn among all of the nations. They were descended from the patriarchs. They had God’s law. And, while they retained vestiges of a relationship with Him, they had gone their own way. 

The Gentiles were from all the other nations. They lived separate from God. “But now,” the apostle Paul writes, since the Father raised Jesus from the dead, things have changed:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2:13-18. 

Right at the outset of our transformation journey, God has established all of us believers on an equal footing. In Jesus’s time on earth, there were clear-cut distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, freemen and slaves, males and females, wealthy and poor. In modern times we have added others such as race. In the cross all of these were abolished. God recognizes only one race, one people group, in His Son.

And why has He done this? We seek transformation in Jesus Christ but we’re not the only ones who have an interest in our progress. I used to think that God’s transforming work was all about me, and for me. You may think that it is about you and for you. But it is really about, and for, Him. Paul continues, 

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.  Ephesians 2:19-22. 

God’s goal is for all of us to be joined together as a home for Himself. For us, home is a place of security, comfort and intimacy. In the parable both sons—regardless of their pursuit of their own agendas—had a sure place in the father’s house, where they would always be welcome. God is at work, pursuing us, gathering us, uniting us into that “one new man” with whom He can dwell in security, comfort and intimacy (2 Corinthians 6:16-18). We get transformation in all of its aspects. Amen. Transformation, at least in its initial stages, is a preparation for living in Christian community. Everyone is coming into conformity to the image of His Son. Ultimately, the Father gets a holy temple, a place where He can dwell in the company of His own household.