by Pastor Douglas Brauner
God Builds Us by His Grace
When looking at this construction site, the best we can do is guess what the workers are building. Is it offices, apartments, or parking garage? What it is in this picture is not what it will become.
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 English Standard Version
This building is a mess. Yet, every part of that mess had a purpose, a reason for looking messy in the process of becoming a hotel. Since people built this structure, they encountered false starts, and yet it became what the architects designed it to be.
Being transformed by God’s grace is messy business.
Paul reminds us that God is transforming us from one degree of glory to another through the power of the Holy Spirit. This doesn’t mean that we will become perfect on earth. That only happen as we pass through death and are raised to new life in the coming kingdom. However, God sees us as lumps of clay which he continually shapes into the image of Christ.
This transformation is messy. There are false starts and new beginnings. Some days it might feel like we haven’t change, that we might even have regressed in our walk with Christ. God is transforming us even in these moments.
If I return to the top level of the parking garage from which I took this picture, I will see a completed project. I will see that the mess has been transformed into an active hotel. It is when we look back over our lives that we see the Spirit’s power transforming us. It is in looking back that we see that our transformation comes under the cross of Jesus, his mercy and forgiveness.
Grace covers our messy transformation.
And when we look back at God’s faithfulness, we also look forward to his continued transformation, to what the Holy Spirit is yet to accomplish in and through us.
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
