GRACE FOR TOTAL TRANSFORMATION

“Now may the God of peace Himself SANCTIFY YOU COMPLETELY; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless…” – 1 Thessalonians 5:23a

The Believer in Christ is privileged to enjoy GRACE for TOTAL TRANSFORMATION: “Now may the God of peace Himself SANCTIFY YOU COMPLETELY; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 The.5:23). By virtue of all that Christ has done for us, we are called to progressive sanctification and complete transformation to a new way of life – spirit, soul (mind), and body. In Christ, we receive GRACE for continuing growth in Christlikeness, wrought by the transforming Power of the Holy Spirit, the intake of the Holy Word, and Spirit-enabled obedience of the saints. Let’s break this down as follows:

Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as BY THE SPIRIT of the Lord” (2Cor.3:18).

Transforming Power of the Holy Word: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Mt.4:4b). The Lord Jesus Christ prayed to the Father: “Sanctify them by Your truth; OUR WORD is truth” (Jh.17:17). 1 Peter 2:2 admonishes: “as newborn babes, desire the pure MILK of the WORD, that you may grow thereby.” The Word of God is the main raw material for the believer’s spiritual development, growth, and maturity.

Transformation by Spirit-enabled Obedience: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil.2:13). “For God is working in you, giving you the DESIRE and the POWER to do what pleases him” (NLT).

Our meditation verse marks a transition from the preceding commands and exhortations to holiness, to a short but spiritually rich prayer for transformation, which God has promised to answer, since it is His Will: “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for” (1Jh.5: 14-15). God Alone is the Source of genuine sanctification: “The God of peace Himself,” working independently of our exertions, sanctifies us completely (wholly) – our “whole spirit, soul, and body.”

The human being has a tripartite nature consisting of spirit, soul, and body. The word “whole” or “entire” implies both entirety and completion. It means: complete to the end, absolutely perfect, or wholly complete. It describes something complete in all its parts, with no part wanting or unsound. Paul prays that nothing in us would escape the sanctifying power of God’s Word and Spirit; that God will sanctify us “through and through”; that transformation will extend to every part of our being, leaving no area untouched by the power of His Holiness; and that we would not be satisfied with a  partial and cosmetic Christianity, loitering on the fringes of worldliness.

The transformational work of God includes not only the non-material part of the believer (spirit and soul), but also the body. True sanctification reaches to the whole human – spirit, soul, and body. Spirit (pneuma) describes the inward, non-physical part of the human personality in contrast to outward and visible aspects of physical flesh and body (soma). The soul (psuche or psyche, meaning “to breathe, blow”) is the breath. Then, that which breathes is the individual, animated creature. Total transformation results from the Impact of the divine nature on the human spirit, soul, and body, and all that they represent. God’s GRACE is the ultimate secret of Total Transformation: “The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen” (v.28).