The Difference Between Transformation and Change

Mike Hosey, An Elder

In our day-to-day language, we use words like transform and change as if they are equivalents of one another. They are not. There is a world of difference between change and transformation. Change is when something becomes different, or is made different. Transformation, on the other hand, is when that “something” is made completely and totally different. Transformation, also, is usually a permanent change.

For instance, if I replace the door of your car with a day-glow green, dented door from a different car of the same model, then I have changed your car. But I have not transformed it. While it is different, it is also fundamentally the same. However, if I rip off all of your doors and replace them with wings, re-gear and reorient your engine to turn turbo props, and then hollow out all the metal so that it is light enough to fly, then I have fundamentally changed your car. I have transformed it into an aircraft, and I cannot change it back without destroying what it has become.

We live in bodies that are in desperate need of transformation. Not change, but transformation. Our bodies are riddled with sin, and everything bad. The condition is so desperate that even Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, recognized it. In Galatians 5:17 he explains how our bodies are at war with the spirit that God has given us, and how they keep us from doing those things that the spirit wishes us to do. In fact, in Romans 7:14-19 he opens up how he personally battles with sinfulness in his body, and how he often loses.

Thankfully, Paul shows us the way out of such a mess. In Romans 12:2, he contends that if we renew our minds, and center our thinking on God and not the world, that we will be transformed. That is to say that we will be made completely new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because when your mind is focused on what God wants you focused on, you will be able to discern what His will is, and what it is that He wants, and you will move toward that. You will be doing it not because you are trying to keep a law, but because you are trying to please Him. Your life will be marked and guided by His Spirit, and your old body will be destroyed, and in that process transformed into one that is truly alive and fruitful (Galatians 5:22-24).