Caterpillars To Butterflies

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #131ay Re-Written 13MAY09

Save Me Today—Part Fifty One: Caterpillars To Butterflies

by rev dave c

Second Corinthians 4:13 It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (NIV).

Throughout the West we regard the matter and energies of material existence as the predominant “real world”. We even treat the intangibility of rational existence (thoughts, ideas, plans, images, etc.) as if it were made up of actual, albeit abstracted, objects (i.e., reification). We tend to deem spiritual existence, however, as a qualitative descriptor for our higher motivations, thoughts, and conduct within the material and rational worlds, rather than as a world unto itself. The Bible is clear that in an even greater fashion than we experience the material substance, form, and function of our bodies in the visible world, there is a spiritual substance, form, and function to the invisible world of the spirit (2Co 4:18 above). Just as life is right here and right now as an actual place that supports live beings, the spirit world is an actual place of right here and right now that also supports life. The angelic host may be very different from us, but they are just as real.

God created our minds to be animated “things” that receive information from both the natural, and the supernatural realms. While physical and spiritual existences are large pools that can support vast numbers of lives simultaneously, our rational existence is entirely personal and it is shared through communication via sentient (body-soul-mind) and sapient (spirit-intellect-mind) conduits associated with the material (e.g., each other) and/or the spiritual (e.g., God). Although Jesus died once for all of collective humanity—and for this creation in time and space—we must each individually claim that salvation secured through His sacrificial death because we are each a unique personality that is isolated from the rest of humanity within the bounded restrictions of our rational selves. Christ set all of mankind free from the Law of Sin and Death (AAA), but it is up to each of us to then choose life through obedience to the will of God, or to choose to remain in death through our disobedience. This choice is not a matter of becoming a better person; it is a choice that leads to becoming a different being.

As a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly it passes through the chrysalis stage within the confines of a cocoon. By looking at a caterpillar or a cocoon you cannot see the grace and beauty of the creature to come, whose life is set free from the limitations of the earth’s surface. A butterfly is not just a caterpillar with an improved attitude and steroids—it is a new creature. To be born again is not just becoming a bigger and better version of the old self—it is to be literally transformed by the Holy Spirit through our spirit into a new creation (2Co 5:17). From the time we accept Christ, until our death and resurrection we are passing through the chrysalis stage of that transformation. The birth of the butterfly requires the death of the caterpillar. During that process the beginnings of wings become evident just as the Fruit of the Spirit (AAA) becomes evident within a disciple’s life.

Regarding this ultimate, truly miraculous transformation, Paul tells us in First Corinthians 15:42-49, “[Concerning] the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body [soma psuchikon/soul body], it is raised a spiritual body [soma pneumatikon/spirit body]. If there is a natural body [soma psuchikon], there is also a spiritual body [soma pneumatikon]. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being [literally, a living soul]"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit [literally, a vitalized spirit; i.e., living spirit]. The spiritual [pneumatikos] did not come first, but the natural [psuchikos], and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven (NIV).”

The first man/first Adam’s flesh was a “soul-body” that was perishable, dishonorable, weak, and made from the dust of the earth. The second man/last Adam’s “flesh” is a “spirit-body” and it is imperishable, glorified, powerful, and made from heavenly material. As we are currently like Adam, our present material bodies are identified as being related to the soul (with all its associated weaknesses), hence they are soul-bodies. As we are resurrected in Christ, our future glorified bodies are identified as being related to the spirit (with all its associated strengths), hence they will be spirit-bodies. While soul and spirit are two integral components of what it is to be human beings as God created us, for Christians to believe that soul and spirit are two aspects of the same thing makes it difficult to understand that we are not just being “re-formed” in our minds and bodies. We have been spiritually “trans-formed” so that we might be righteously “con-formed” in our whole person. When Jesus tells us, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24; NIV),” He means exactly what He says.

[Jennifer Smith]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #131ay Re-Written 13MAY09

Save Me Today—Part Fifty One: Caterpillars To Butterflies


As a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly it passes through the chrysalis stage within the confines of a cocoon. By looking at a caterpillar or a cocoon you cannot see the grace and beauty of the creature to come, whose life is set free from the limitations of the earth’s surface. A butterfly is not just a caterpillar with an improved attitude and steroids—it is a new creature. To be born again is not just becoming a bigger and better version of the old self—it is to be literally transformed by the Holy Spirit through our spirit into a new creation (2Co 5:17). From the time we accept Christ, until our death and resurrection we are passing through the chrysalis stage of that transformation. The birth of the butterfly requires the death of the caterpillar. During that process the beginnings of wings become evident just as the Fruit of the Spirit (AAA) becomes evident within a disciple’s life.

Thank you for sharing that, dave.

At the church preschool where I teach, we brought in caterpillars for observation and watched them as they formed their chrysalides and finally emerged as butterflies. A couple things I didn't know; their transformation is so extensive that they turn into sort of a "goo" while inside the cocoon..Our painted lady butterflies were a brownish gray when they first emerged, but then they shed the remnants of their chrysalis and revealed their true, bright colors. Isn't that what Jesus does for us, when He brings out our true personality and the colors of who He has intended us to be? I'm so thankful that Jesus has done so much for us and helps us to shed the remnants of our old nature, the sin stain and corruption of the world, and He helps us to take flight in the joy of our purpose for Him.