We are not transformed from the outside in; we are transformed from the inside out. One is transformed by saying yes again and again to Christ’s self-giving, poured-out, redemptive love. We receive it and are to be formed by it. This was Paul’s fixation. He later in this same letter described his concern for his “little children” by saying, “I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (4:19).
