Translated - Part 2
By Bro. Alan Morrison

Colossians 1:13
"Who hath delievered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

After salvation, we begin our adaptation. Are you being adapted by Christ?

Have you ever used the Spanish word “Hola”? Or, how about, “Gracias”? They are very simple words that many English speaking people understand. Hola means hello. Adios, means goodbye. And, of course, Gracias means thank you. These words are very different from each other in many ways. They sound different, they look different, and they spoken with different accents. Yet, these words essentially mean the same thing. To say Hola, is to say Hello.

Just like these words, we are very different from our old life in the flesh, yet, so much is still the same. When I got saved, I went home with my same parents, to the same house, to the same bed, and in the same clothes. Yet, the Bible says in II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things become new.”

Thus, we find our second point in our translation ADAPTATION.

            2. ADAPTATION
The first thing to grasp about our adaptation is the person of our adaptation: God. It is not us that does the changing, and the working, it is God. If we get in the way, the process is broken. God must change us. He brought us unto Himself, He paid the ransom for our lives, He saved us and gave us eternal life, and He keeps us for eternity. Why do we try to change ourselves in our own power? It will never work to attempt to change into God’s image without looking to Him for that change.

The next thought in our adaptation is the toughest, the problem of adaptation. What is the problem of our adaptation? It is not God; it is the same person who causes all the other problems - self. It is not the Potter, but the stubborn clay. We must learn to die to self, to offer ourselves as a sacrifice and then take up our cross to follow Christ. Our text is Colossians 1, but in Colossians 3 we find an entire chapter about mortifying our bodies. Paul exhorts us to render our bodies useless for sin, and powerful for God.

But what is the purpose of our adaptation? Why do we go through this? It is to make us perfect, holy, and blameless before God. Jude 24 says this, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,” We are being molded into God’s image of perfection. God does not put us through this to make life rough, but to smooth off the rough edges.

            Are you being adapted today? Are you allowing God to change you?

Check back next week for the final step of our translation process: ASSOCIATION.