One of my favorite songs early in my Christian life featured a refrain that I would pray in song: "You are the potter, I am the clay, mold me and make me, this is what I pray. Change my heart, oh God, make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God. May I be like you."
We discussed on Sunday that the anticipation of Christ's second coming is not only about being rescued from this world and its problems but also about the yearning to be like Him when we finally see Him as He is. Yes, there will be the joy of having a resurrected body without back pain, sore knees, or the need for doctor's appointments as we grow older. But the expectation of seeing Him should fill us with more joy than just the thought of no more pain.
“Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we shall be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we will see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)
What is God doing with His plan since the sin and rebellion of Adam and Eve? The answer is, He is working to win us back to Himself. Many theological terms describe salvation, including justification, regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. Yet, the concept that unites these ideas is our union with Christ—what it means to be "in Christ." We become like Him because the same Holy Spirit that filled Jesus also fills us. We do not become God; only Christ is to be worshiped, yet He makes us like Himself—filled with love, compassion, and holiness.
Although I believe in the sovereignty of God and His initiative toward us, I have always found Lewis’s perspective in "The Great Divorce" intriguing. Here is a summary of the book:
“A narrator takes a bus from a ‘grey town’ (a representation of Hell) to the outskirts of Heaven. He and the other passengers are ghosts, or ‘phantoms,’ in a land where everything is overwhelmingly solid and real, causing them immense pain when they try to walk or touch anything. Luminous figures, or ‘spirits,’ meet the ghosts and urge them to walk toward the mountains, where they can become more solid and reveal themselves. Many ghosts refuse, preferring to return to their former misery because they are unwilling to give up their pride, lust, vanity, and other vices. They linger on the edge, not wanting to enter.”
Lewis’s “The Great Divorce” presents an interesting thought: if we lack wonder and awe for the character and glory of God, and if we have no desire to be like Him in the ways He calls us to, why would we want to spend eternity with Him?
If there is no desire to be like him, Christmas becomes merely a quaint, traditional, family-driven holiday, reduced to a cute baby born in a manger with pleasant music. We’re called to more than just a shift in perspective—we must respond with awe, wonder and worship. As Tony Reinke reminds us, “Christianity isn’t merely about thinking differently; it’s about desiring differently. It requires a heart transplant.” This transplant occurs by God’s eternal spirit:
Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all-sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
