CO111
Gospel-Centered Counseling
Unit 2 – Transformation
By Kim Nackers
“Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.” (Ephesians 5:1). Paul is commanding—not suggesting—that as believers we imitate God in how we treat one another. This verse applies to every aspect of
counseling and walking with others in their despair. Transformation can only
take place in relationship, when we see Jesus through his grace in our lives such as through fellowship, bible study, baptism, and communion with each other. Striving to imitate Jesus, develop more of his character in our own lives and how he lived his life is our guide on how to be and live as man, it should be our goal in order to understand what our life purpose is and to fulfill that purpose in which God created us for. When we shift the focus off ourselves or counselee’s self and onto Christ and His love, mercy and saving grace is when we are able turn off the white noise or busyness we create in our everyday lives. It is through seeking and imitating God that we obtain the knowledge and develop the ability to understand the most important and life-giving facts he wants us to discover in the Word of God. Seeking to fully understand the Gospel awakens us to the truth, to the light of Christ, the forgiveness of our sins and the care and love he has for us because we are his beloved children. 1 John 3 tells us that there will come a time when we will be completely changed. First John 3:1 says, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God.” If we love
Christ, then we will see His face, and His face will be so beautiful that when we
see Him, all desire to sin will be purged, all of that will be burned away in
the beauty of His presence, in His glory. Just as he encourages us in The Word, we need to encourage each other not to shift aside from the hope of the gospel, but instead to look to Christ. 1 John 3:3 says, “Everyone who has this hope of transformation, everyone who has this hope in himself, purifies himself as he is pure.” So, we choose to change because we know that when we see Christ, we will bear His image, and as we do, we will be transformed, and the old life will be burned away in the glory of His presence. The Gospel is our good news! As we spend more time in his presence, studying The Word, applying the principles shared, speaking truth in love to others we become increasingly more like Him and begin to experience life differently. We are able to apply the biblical truths to the despair in our life and look at circumstances through the lens of scripture versus a worldview and see that all of the joy and all of the pleasure that we long for are, in fact, found in Christ alone. Psalm 16:11 reads, “You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forever.” God will make known to us the path of life and how we should live in order to experience life. He is showing us in the gospel how to live in His presence, because in His presence are the very things we desire. In His presence is fullness of joy. He is with us in our daily lives, we just need to tune into his presence through awareness of dying to oneself and living for Christ. You see, we can see him in our brother who comes to us seeking help, our sister who speaks truth in love, our pastor who preaches The Word, infants who need us to regulate their emotions and love them and care for them to meet their basic needs. Jesus lived a faith filled obedient life, he lived in obedience to the Father, just as you and I strive to do yet fall short. Our Savior knows our struggles since lived this life for us – Jesus walked by faith and not by sight, sin free and died for our sake, for his own glory. You see, being in the presence of God transforms us. We need to turn to and share with others and give them His glory by reminding them of the gospel, reminding them of how they have been loved, they have been forgiven, they have been cared for. The glory that God gives us in Christ as we are transformed isn’t a glory that fades. It’s a glory that’s transforming us into His image, that light that shines becomes brighter from within as we give him the glory and draws others to us because it is Jesus who lives in us shining through for his children to see.