Have you heard the illustration of how to trap a monkey? All you need is a rock and a coconut. Drill a hole in the coconut large enough to put the rock inside, but not large enough for anything else. A monkey will reach inside to take hold of the rock, but its clenched fist around the rock will not fit back through the hole. The monkey will, in effect, trap itself because of a refusal to let go of the rock.
Many Christians trap themselves with a clenched fist. Holding onto pride, hobbies, preferences, or anything else can keep a person from the new life Christ wishes to form in them. Many must realize it is time to unclench our fists and allow Christ to embrace us.
Real change starts with new life, not just a new leaf. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come”. The very heart of the Christian faith revolves around change. Still, it is not turning over a new leaf; it is living out a new life. Christian transformation always involves something old passing away and something new taking its place. Everyone needs spiritual change; the poor and the rich, the successful and those struggling with failure.
Our spiritual lives require more than slight changes to our calendars, processes, or surroundings. We need to embrace transformation. Transformation is not about trying harder or having a better life. We don’t want to produce good religious people. We see what becomes of good religious people from Jesus’s encounters with the Pharisees. God wants to see people transformed at a spiritual level rather than a behavioral level. Author Tim Keller says this: “Religion says, ’I obey; therefore, I am accepted.’ Christianity says, ‘I’m accepted; therefore, I obey.’”
Real change is a process, not a destination. Nobody ever becomes everything God has called them to be on this side of eternity. It is part of why we yearn for the eternal life with him. Our life is one of growth. The transformation we encounter because of the gospel is how God is shaping our lives to mirror Jesus. Paul wrote to some of the early Christians, “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
God is starting and completing the work of transformation in us. Real change happens at the moment of our salvation. When a believer sets their eyes on God, life will be in the process of transformation. Transformation happens in a moment to secure a person eternally, but it consistently happens moment by moment to change that person daily.
God doesn’t force anyone to change, but he calls us to change. He says things like, “Be holy as I am holy,” and it sounds like an impossible task. But its possibility comes by God’s work and not man’s. The transformation that comes to us spiritually empowers us to move from religious behaviour to spiritual acceptance of God’s work.
Paul put it this way: We are called to put off the “old man” and take hold of the “new man.” But we all know that letting go of the familiar is difficult, even when the new that is offered is better. Seek change. Seek God.