God always transforms from the inside out. His work begins in our hearts and works itself out in our lives. He works in us before he works through us.

As followers of Jesus, we have all experienced the transforming power of God at work in us – that quiet work of the Holy Spirit convicting us of wrongdoing, cleansing our hearts, shaping our character, changing our attitudes, and influencing our actions. We also look forward to a time when our lives and communities are completely transformed in the new heaven and the new earth. Biblical transformation is that quiet work of the Holy Spirit, and it is the loud-sounding of the trumpet at the return of our Lord Jesus: shutting up evil and establishing righteousness, justice, and peace for all eternity.

Jesus taught us to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-11). Transformation is God’s kingdom work. This transformation is a process and an ideal, a present experience and a future hope, a means and an end, a struggle and a victory. God is at work in us and through us today, and he will bring what he has started to completion when the Lord Jesus returns in all his glory.