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As Christians, we must be changed people.  We should be people who are no longer at home in this world, people who have crucified themselves and the passions of their fleshly bodies, Christians should be people who live new lives that seek to glorify God in everything they do.  Christians are people who have rejected the identity given to them by the world and taken up the identity that God gives to them.  There are no Greeks or Jews, Caucasians, Asians, African Americans or those of Hispanic descent, but all are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3.28).

This is a dramatic and drastic change in focus and purpose.  What does this change look like practically?  What does it mean to change in this way and how does it affect different people?  These are important questions; they must be answered.

Practically, the change of Christianity takes different forms depending on each individual’s personal background.  A person who has a nonreligious background will find that many external things change in their lives.  Where there was no religious devotion before there will now be abundance.  Prayer and meditation will become constant sources of encouragement and peace.  A person from an other-religious background will find the objects of their devotion changed from idols to the one, true, living God.  Their prayers and meditations will then be directed toward him and him alone.  Someone who has been raised by Christians may find that little, if anything, changes externally in their lives.  Where there are different people, there are different sins that must be repented of and different information that must be learned.  The intended end result of this change is a group of people who think the same, talk the same, act the same and love the same way as one another.  This is not because they emulate one another but because they are all called to imitate God.

Unlike the false identities the world offers, which lead to schisms, strife and hatred, the identity offered in the Bible to all who will seek for it leads to harmony, unity and love.  God sent Jesus in the flesh to give us a tangible example of the self he wants us to take on.  We are to imitate Christ; we are to imitate God (1 Corinthians 11.1, Ephesians 5.1).  As Zechariah said, we are to become those people who are like God and like the angel of the Lord (Zechariah 12.8). When the Scriptures show us character traits of the Son of God, we must make those our character traits.  When the Scriptures tell us how God thinks and what pleases God, we must learn to think in those ways and be pleased with those things.  Just as an earthly child is like his earthly father, we must become like our heavenly father.

Though some people will have much to change and some will have very little, the most important change is something demanded of all people.  There must be an inward change of attitude and motivation that strives after pleasing God in all things.  There must be a new reason for obedience even if there have been no external changes.  This is the crux of renewing our minds and transforming our lives (Romans 12.1-2).  Whether someone has changed much or very little externally, if this single most important change is lacking, then everything else is done for naught and conversion really hasn’t taken place yet.  If one prays only because their parents force them, if one attends services only to gain the affections of another, if one sings only because they like the music, then those are unacceptable reasons.  A Christian is not a good, moral, baptized person doing the right things in the right ways.  A Christian is someone who has been radically transformed by the power of God, by the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1.16-17).  Everything-every single thing-in our lives must be done with the aim of bringing glory to God.  We sing to glorify and honor God.  We pray for the same purpose.  If our speech, our conduct, or the television programs we view do not glorify God or aid us in that act, then we need to change.

There is a radical reformation that must take place in the life of everyone who becomes a disciple of Christ.  This reformation does not start with external changes but with an internal reconstruction of our “self” in the image and glory of God.  If anyone is in Christ Jesus, then they are a new creation.  This new creation begins with our minds and ends in our actions, not the other way around.