The Human You Are Becoming
Day 9 — Unseen: 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Peter 1:3-4
Introduction
Yesterday you looked at the blueprint. The original design. The fully human human being that Jesus — and only Jesus — has ever been.
And if you’re honest, there was probably a moment when the distance between that and your actual life felt enormous. The gap between the image of God as it was designed and the version of it you’ve been living — distorted by sin, shaped by wounds, worn down by years of drift — can feel like too much ground to cover.
But here’s what Day 9 is about: you are not standing at the bottom of a mountain you have to climb alone.
The restoration of the image of God in you is not a self-improvement project. It is not a matter of trying harder, behaving better, or becoming more disciplined. It is something being done to you — in you — by the same God who designed the original, through the presence of His Spirit, one degree of transformation at a time.
You are not just the human you were designed to be. You are the human you are becoming. And the one doing the work is not you.
Scripture
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
— 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
— 2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV)
Reflection
The Work Already Underway
Paul uses a word in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that deserves to stop you cold: being transformed.
Not will be transformed — someday, eventually, when you get yourself together. Not could be transformed — if you try hard enough. Being transformed. Present tense. Active. Already in motion.
The image of God in you is not a ruin waiting for renovation. It is a restoration already underway. The Holy Spirit — the very presence of God living inside every person who belongs to Jesus — is actively, continuously conforming you to the image of Christ. Degree by degree. Glory to glory. The original design, being recovered from the inside out.
This is not what most of us were taught to believe about spiritual growth. We were handed a performance model — a list of behaviors to adopt and sins to avoid, a standard to meet, a gap to close by effort alone. And we’ve been exhausted by it ever since, because the gap never quite closes and the effort never quite feels like enough.
But Paul describes something entirely different. The Spirit does the transforming — but you are not a passive bystander. You are a co-laborer. You fix your eyes on Jesus. You open doors the Spirit is knocking on. You say yes to what He is already doing in you. You cooperate with the work rather than either manufacturing it yourself or waiting for it to happen without you.
This is the partnership: His power, your participation. His initiative, your cooperation. The Spirit does what only He can do — and you bring everything you have to the process of becoming who He is making you.
Participating in the Divine Nature
Peter adds something remarkable: through God’s promises, you are invited to participate in the divine nature.
Not become God. But share in His moral character — His love, His holiness, His capacity for compassion and courage and truth — as the Spirit works it into the fabric of who you are. The nature of Jesus, slowly becoming your nature. Not because you manufactured it, but because you are actively cooperating with the one who designed the original and is restoring it from within.
Think about what this means for the echo you identified yesterday — that moment when you felt most fully yourself, most alive, most like you were doing exactly what you were made to do. That wasn’t a coincidence. That wasn’t luck. That was the image of God in you functioning as designed, however briefly, however imperfectly.
And it is not a ceiling. It is a beginning.
The Spirit is not finished with you. The transformation Paul describes is moving in one direction only — toward the image of Christ, toward the original design, toward the fully human life that Jesus modeled and made possible. Every moment of love that surprised even you, every act of courage that came from somewhere deeper than your own resolve, every glimpse of the person you were made to be — all of it is evidence of a work in progress.
You are not who you were. You are not yet who you will be. But you are becoming — and the one doing the becoming in you is the Lord, who is the Spirit. Your part is to show up, open up, and keep saying yes.
Grace Note
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 1:6 (NIV)
He started this. He will finish it. The restoration of the image of God in you is not dependent on your consistency, your performance, or your ability to close the gap. It depends on His faithfulness — and He has never left a work unfinished.
Prayer Prompt
Jesus, I’ve been trying to close the gap by myself for a long time. Trying to be better. Trying to do more. Trying to become the person I’m supposed to be through effort and willpower and sheer determination.
And I’m tired.
But You’re showing me something different today. That the work is already underway. That Your Spirit is inside me, moving, transforming, recovering the original design from within — not because I earned it, but because You started it.
I want to participate in that. Not perform my way toward it — participate in it. Teach me what it means to fix my eyes on You and let transformation happen, rather than trying to manufacture it myself.
I believe You started this work in me. Help me trust that You will finish it.
Amen.
Response
1. Name the Evidence: Look back over the last year of your life and write down two or three moments when you responded to something — a difficult person, a hard situation, a moment of temptation — differently than the old version of you would have. Don’t dismiss them as small. They are evidence of the transformation already underway. Name them and receive them as that.
2. Read the Promise Slowly: Read 2 Peter 1:3-4 again and underline every word that describes what God has already provided — given, called, given, precious promises. Notice that every verb is past tense. This is not something you are working toward. It is something you are working from. Let that reframe how you approach today.
3. Cooperate, Don’t Perform: Identify one specific area of your life where you have been trying to change yourself by effort alone — and consistently failing. Write it down. Then write next to it: “Spirit, I give You access here.” This is not passivity. This is the most active thing you can do — opening the door to the one who does the work.
To read all the posts in this devotional series, visit: https://www.thisistheway.live/t/unseen
© Steve Peschke / This Is The Way