Spiritual Transformation

1 They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks.’ — Isaiah ii. 4.

THIS is what always takes place when the Kingdom of God has dominion among men. Wherever Jesus reigns, this is one of the fruits of His sovereignty. The swonl is converted into a ploughshare, and the spear into a pruning-hook. The sword is not destroyed. It is transformed. The power of the sword is not annihilated: the power remains, but converted. A destructive energy is changed into a beneficent energy. A weapon which has been used for purposes of mutilation, is now used in the ministry of cultivation. It is thus that the law of the conservation of forces prevails in the realm of the spirit.

We may then lay down an axiom in the science of the spiritual life. Jesus Christ never destroys a force; He converts it. He

came ‘not to destroy, but to redeem. Wherever He finds an implement of destruction, He does not annihilate it; He transforms it into an implement of spiritual culture. He retains all the energy of the sword, only it is converted into the energy of the ploughshare. The ploughshare is just the sword transformed, with no particle of its original energy wasted or destroyed.

This is the method of Jesus. When I enter the Kingdom of God, and become a member of the pledged and aspiring host, I pass under the active and liberal influence of grace. I bring with me all the powers which I have been exercising in the ways of the world. I bring with me this or that faculty, possessed of so much power. I bring with me my passion, possessed of so much power. I bring with me my humour, possessed of so much power. How does the work of grace operate upon me? Does the great King denude me of my powers, and do I remain in the world emasculated, with the compass of my being diminished, and the totality of my energies decreased? Jesus Christ our Lord never diminishes our power. Whatever powers I bring to Him I retain, only I retain them converted and glorified. The ‘new man’ has all the powers of the

‘old man, but they have been transformed. He takes my swords, and He hands them back to me as ploughshares. He takes my spears, and returns them as pruning-hooks.

How does the good Lord find us? He finds us with plenty of force in our beings, but it is force perverted, and, therefore, destructive force. That is how the Lord found Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was not a weakling. His force of character was abundant. He was shrewd, cute, enterprising, firm, decisive. He had force enough, but it was the force of a sword, and was being used in self-destruction. That is how the Lord found Hugh Latimer. In his unredeemed days Hugh Latimer was not a milksop, a poor insipid, nerveless semblance of a man. Latimer had force, exuberant force, but it was the force of a destructive sword piercing with poisoned tip into the very marrow of his moral life. The Lord finds us in the possession of force, but it is force perverted; and the method of His redemption is to take the perverted force and convert it, changing it from a sword into a ploughshare, from a spear into a pruning-hook. When the Lord laid hold of Zacchaeus, He did not destroy his shrewdness and despoil him of his foresight and enterprise. The reifyitituat ^raueformafton 97

defied Zaccliseus was just as shrewd as the urr-?deemed Zacchaeus, but the shrewdness had been transformed. It was no longer a poisoned sword; it had become a ploughshare used in the general welfare of the race. When the Lord laid hold of Hugh Latimer, did He draw away the power of his wit? Nay, the redeemed Hugh Latimer was just as witty, just as humorous as Hugh Latimer unredeemed, only the wit had been transformed. It was no longer a sword, but a ploughshare; no longer turning with destructive energy upon his own soul, but used in the ministry of purity, and as the happy servant of righteousness and truth.

Let us rid our minds of all small and impoverishing conceptions of redemption. To many people the word redemption is equivalent to annihilation, and to many others it is synonymous with mutilation. Redemption does not mean power maimed or power abolished. Redemption means conversion, transformation. Converted force is force with the destructive element extracted, the sword changed into a ploughshare, and the spear into a pruning-hook.