How does God change a person?

The apostle Peter is one of the great leaders in the Bible. Peter and his brother Andrew operated a successful fishing business. Peter spoke more in the gospels than all the other disciples combined! Peter was aggressive. When the other disciples sat in the boat Peter jumped out and walked on the water.

When Peter was good, he was good. When he was bad, he was bad. In Matthew 16 Jesus gave a mid term exam. Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (verse 15). Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the God the Living One” (verse 16). Peter was given the keys to the kingdom. He was the leader in the crucial early chapters in the Book of Acts.

A mob came to arrest Jesus. The other disciples stood there. Peter pulled out a sword and tried to cut off a man’s head. He missed. Peter was a fisherman- not a soldier. Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Put your sword back into its place…. Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once send Me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:52-53). Peter did not yet understand that Jesus came to die.

Peter denied Jesus three times. Peter was crushed by his failure. In John 21 Jesus restored Peter to leadership. At that time Jesus made an amazing prediction. Jesus said, “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you don’t want to go. (This He said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God)” (John 21:18-19). “Stretching out the hands” was a euphemism for crucifixion.

Jesus told Peter, “Your failure is not final. I am going to transform you. You are going to become very strong and will one day die a martyr’s death.” Tradition says that Peter was killed by Nero. Peter watched his wife be crucified. He stood at the foot of her cross and reminded her, “Remember the Lord. Remember the Lord.” Peter then said that he was not worthy to die as Jesus died. The Romans crucified Peter upside down. He died a brave death.

How does God transform a person? How does God work to change us? How does God make us into a rock- a person like Peter? After salvation there are two primary tools God uses to transforms a person.

The first tool God uses to change a person is Scripture. Ephesians 4:23 says, “…be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The Christian faith is not primarily about emotion. It is not primarily about application. The Christian faith is about thinking. The Bible changes our thinking. Changed thinking then produces a change in action.

There are no truly independent thinkers. Our thinking is impacted either by this age or by the truth of God’s Word. As we meditate on Scripture God changes us.

For example, the devil uses fear to paralyze a person. Peter reminds us that the devil is a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). Lions roar at night. A lion’s roar can be heard two to three miles away on the open plain. The lion roars to paralyze its prey with fear. Instead of fear we meditate on God’s truth. Psalm 23:1 says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Yahweh, the transcendent God, provides everything we need! He is intimately involved in our lives.

The second tool God uses to change a person is found in 2 Corinthians 3:18. “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.” As we contemplate the Person of Jesus through Scripture, we are transformed into His image! The word transformed means “metamorphosis.” A caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly or moth. As we gaze or stare at the face of Jesus in the Bible, our lives are changed.

Peter watched Jesus feed twenty thousand people with five loaves and two fish. Peter watched Jesus teach the truth in the temple. Peter saw Jesus heal person after person. Peter observed the trials and beatings of Jesus. Peter saw Jesus after His resurrection.

You cannot stare at or think about Jesus without being changed. In Acts 4:13 the Sanhedrin was astonished by Peter and John. “Now when they (the Sanhedrin) saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men (they had not attended a rabbinic seminary), they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” Spend time with Jesus through Scripture and you will be changed also!

Failure is not final with God. God transforms and changes us into His image. As we understand the Bible and learn to think biblically and as we stare at the Person of Jesus our lives are changed. May God transform us into modern day Peter’s who live for His glory!

Ethan Hansen is a pastor at Faith Bible Fellowship in Big Lake.