The Power of Transformation

An Address given in Edinburgh, 1922, on Isaiah 6:1-8; Acts 7:2-4; 26:12-19

It is well known, even in natural things, that it is the men of vision who come to the front, and when you get the extraordinary combination of both vision and great business aptitude, you have got a man who does great things in this world. It was a young Scotsman who went to Canada and had the vision of a railway, running from Halifax, Nova Scotia, right across the continent, through Canada, over the Rocky Mountains, and terminating on the Pacific Coast; and when everybody gave up faith in the project because of great difficulties, this man’s faith carried it through, and the other day he died full of years and honour—Lord Strathcona. Now if we are to progress in spiritual things we must have vision; not to be visionary, but to be practical; to have the vision of faith.

Now I want to speak about these three instances that I have read in your hearing tonight. First of all take the case of Isaiah. In chapter 5 he cries, “Woe” upon a number of people, and he is right in doing so. It takes no particular grace to do that, but it does take a great deal of grace to condemn oneself, and we find how Isaiah was able to cry that seventh “Woe,” that was the making of him. When he cried “Woe is me,” he put his finger on the right spot. Now, what was it that made him say that? Well, he had a vision. In this vision he saw the glory of the Lord; he saw His throne high and lifted up; he saw those holy seraphim veiling faces that had never looked upon evil; veiling feet that had never trod in the paths of wickedness; using their wings to fly with gladness at the bidding of their Master. He saw the very posts of the Temple move as he heard the cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory,” and as Isaiah got that vision it shrivelled up all self-complacency, and it put before him that which completely transformed him; and when the Lord said, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” he said, “Here am I, send me.”

Let me ask the Christians here, especially my younger brethren and sisters in Christ, Have you yet got a clear vision of Christ? Has God put before you the inexpressible beauty and glory of Christ until you are withered in the dust so far as you yourself are concerned, and you arise very anxious and glad to say, “Here am I, send me.” I would to God that some here would make a start for Christ. What is your object? When, years ago, a man of scholarly ability was urged to adopt a certain course in regard to a University Professorship, and told he would carry everything before him, and make his fortune, what was his reply? He said quietly, “For which world?” Oh, the folly of laying ourselves out for things that perish with the grave; but, oh, the nobility of a life surrendered to Christ!

Now let me say a word about Abraham. He was at the outset no different from his fellows, an idolater bounded by ignorance and superstition. In Stephen’s eloquent address to the Sanhedrim we read that, one day “the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said to him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.” How was Abraham drawn from that country of his where he was surrounded by these idolaters, and was one himself? Ah, there is a wonderful vision! The God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham, and he began to move. On foot he did at least twelve hundred miles. Now a person under impulse and excitement will start to do wonderful things, but it is perseverance that proves whether a person has got a true impetus, and I can see Abraham, step by step, amidst discomfort and dangers, journeying 600 miles north-west till he got to the place called Charran, and there, alas, he stuck fast for a good many years. Why did he stop? Well, he carried his father with him. It is no use carrying people. If they do not walk upon their feet, they had better not make a start. Year after year went by, and you would think that Abraham had forgotten what his objective was; but no, one day God woke him up. Death came and removed the hindrance; his father died, and then he began to set his face towards the south, and completed his journey.

Then, look at him as he traverses the land that was given to him. He did not possess it, and his descendants so far have never yet possessed the Promised Land in all its extent. The Lord Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; he saw it, and was glad.” Now what did the vision of Abraham make him? A stranger and pilgrim. I shall never forget an expression used by one who used to preach on this very site, though not in this building. A good many years ago he was talking very happily about approach and reproach: approach into God’s presence; reproach in this world, where Christ was reproached and cast out, and He said, “No one can take up the reproach except as they enjoy the approach, and no one can fully enjoy approach like those who taste reproach.” Happy are we if we are reproached for the testimony of Christ. I also remember him saying that approach and reproach are like the two blades of a pair of scissors; they cut together. Now, my dear friends, I ask you, Are you characterized by being strangers and pilgrims in this world?

Now, let me go to the third instance, and that is Saul of Tarsus. What a transformation was made in him! There is no doubt about it that a strong character needs a deep experience. There was Saul in all the armour of his self-satisfaction, imagining that he was serving God in hounding the servants of Christ off the face of the earth, and we find him one day on his road to Damascus, full of murderous intent. A light above the brightness of the sun struck him down, and he woke up to this fact, that a Man that be thought was only an imposter was none less than the long promised Messiah, and that He was no longer in the grave, but sitting at God’s right hand What did it do for him? It reversed all the current of his life and all the desires of his heart, and turning right round be went into the synagogues and boldly preached that Christ was the Son of God. What is the secret of it? He tells us in recounting his conversion in the 22nd chapter—“When I could not see for the glory of that light.” My friends, is the brightness you are looking at the brightness of the sun—the things of this life; it may be the pleasures of this life; the business enterprises of this life; the domestic relations in this life—or have you seen a light that is above the brightness of the sun? When Paul wrote those Epistles to the early Churches, he more than once spoke of himself as “a slave of Jesus Christ.” It was not like the bondage that the children of Israel groaned under in the land of Egypt, but it was a slavery that was the delight of his heart as he spent and was spent in the cause of Christ. Ah, it is a question of the heart; it is the heart that governs the man, and the only way in which we can be right is, that by the Spirit of God we get such a glimpse of the heart of God and the love of Christ, that our hearts are filled with answering love to Him.

Now I can say with joy that every one of you dear Christians are going to have a vision, for Scripture says, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” It is in that state we shall see Him as He is, and that is when the transformation will take place; but we want that transformation to begin NOW.

Whom are we going to serve? There are plenty to serve the devil; there are plenty to live selfish lives; then let us rise with our eyes fixed on Christ, and gazing upon His face we shall be transformed as from glory to glory. I cease; but I would look into the faces of you young Christians, and ask,—Am I to speak tonight in vain? Are you going away to embrace the pleasures of this life that can only give you disappointment? Yet the only power against the distraction which the world supplies is in attraction. You know those beech hedges in sheltered places. Winter comes with its rough winds and its heavy rains and its disintegrating frosts, and that hedge is still clothed with its dead brown leaves, and it seems as if those leaves will never be stripped off. Then one day they begin to fall. How is it that they are falling? The spring has come; the sap begins to rise; the bud begins to burst, and in the power of new life the old dead thing is pushed off, and the hedge is clothed in the beautiful verdure of Spring. That, my friends, is what Dr. Chalmers called, “The expulsive power of a new affection,” and that is the secret of the Christian life. God give us to lead that life, for His glory, till Jesus comes!