God’s word is consistent. It has remained consistent through many ages, writers, translations, and versions. It is consistent in its use of certain symbols, metaphors and analogies. God’s symbols, analogies and metaphors are perfect and flawless. Consider the sayings of Christ Jesus, and the parables he told us. They were beautifully woven, spoken with every word given relevant meaning and purpose. Consider God’s use of an entire people and a Holy Law, a sacred covenant (contract) between He and his people. Consider the Tabernacle In the Wilderness. Perfect in Messianic symbolism down to the very finest of details. God told Moses to build it just so, as it illustrated Christ Jesus’ ministry perfectly (Hebrews 8, Exodus 25).
God used ravens as a metaphor for our corrupted and worldly flesh (i.e. Genesis 8 ). God used doves as a metaphor for the work of the Holy Spirit (i.e. Genesis 8, Matthew 3. Matthew 10). God used marriage as an analogy of our relationship with Him (i.e. Isaiah 54, Hosea 1 & 2, Jeremiah, 3). God also used marriage as an analogy of our relationship with His Son, Christ Jesus (i.e. Matthew 22 & 25, Mark 2, Revelation 21). God used sheep as a metaphor for those who follow Him and Christ Jesus (i.e. Isaiah 53, John 10). God used wolves as a metaphor for false pastors, false prophets and false teachers (i.e. Matthew 7 & 10, John 10). One of my personal favorites is God’s analogy of the “Potter’s House” and His complete control over our lives and our pilgrimage here on earth (i.e. Jeremiah 18, Isaiah 64, Romans 9), our trials and testing as we are in training as Heavenly citizens of His Heavenly Kingdom. God used snakes as a metaphor for sin, Satan, and evil (i.e. Genesis 3, Numbers 21, Matthew 10, John 3). God’s use of metaphors, symbols, prose, and analogy are prefect and Divine.
One analogy and metaphor that many of us who walk in “The Way” of Christ Jesus use for our pilgrimage here on earth is not mentioned in the Bible, but it equally stands up to the scrutiny of God’s consistency in His Word. It is an axiomatic truth, consistent throughout God’s word. That is the parable of the butterfly, and the analogy of the process of metamorphosis. Even though butterflies are not specifically mentioned by name in the Bible, our Spiritual metamorphosis is. In the Koine Greek language (the original language that the New Testament was primarily written in) the word “metamorphoó”* is used for the word we translate into English as “transform.” We use it as an analogy and metaphor for being “Born Again.” *[Strong’s Greek #3339]
“Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” “Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
“Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
“You are a teacher of Israel,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of Heavenly things? No one has ever gone into Heaven except the One who came from Heaven—the Son of Man [Messiah]. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who faithes* may have eternal life in Him.” John 3:1-15 NIV (*With the word ‘faithes’ corrected.)
The Monarch butterfly is a very special butterfly. It most closely resembles the life and perils of being Born Again in the Holy Spirit, and the pilgrimage that then ensues. The first stages of its earthly life starts like most other butterflies. When this tiny creature is born, it comes out of an egg that is barely seen with the naked eye. It is blind, and will remain blind all of its caterpillar life. It will only seek to serve itself with food and nourishment. That is all it knows. After about five stages of sloughing off dead skin and growing into its full adult larval stage, it suddenly without warning to itself reacts to an unknown change in its tiny body. It literally dies to itself, and begins to transform inside of itself in a dead chrysalis made from its own flesh.
After the young Monarch butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, the process of growing wings begins. It emerges into a bright and unknown world, as it now has full sight. Many dangers can present themselves at this time, as it cannot yet fly. Life-giving fluids are pumped into the crinkled wings, afterwards the wings must dry before it can fly. It is not yet mature enough, with wings strong enough to survive the elements, perils and onslaught of enemies waiting to devour it. It is still going through an excruciating transformation and regeneration process inside its tiny little body. Old fluids and toxins from its time changing inside the chrysalis are being expelled. It swivels its head back in forth in pain, not knowing why, or that the pain is only temporary. It must be a very scary time for the beautiful new creature.
Most butterflies die within about two days after being fully reborn from their change. That is, if they even survive the transformation process. However, Monarch butterflies are very special in that those born in the autumn do not die right away. They are not yet fully regenerated or mature adults. They begin a perilous journey, hundreds of miles away to warmer climates for the winter. The journey is harder than the transformation they just experienced. For it is through a dangerous world that this small creature must now journey. A journey fraught with winds that blow them away, automobiles that smash them to pieces, birds and animals that eat them, humans that want to catch them to put them in jars and stick pins in them, and rains that wash them away. Most will not survive the initial journey to the wintering destination.
Once the butterflies arrive at their wintering location they will continue to mature while they wait out the months until springtime, when they can return to the flowers from which they were born. The journey is not finished for our tiny creature. For when the winter is over, and springtime beckons, they must make the perilous journey all over again. It is one journey that every Autumn Monarch butterfly must make. Just like those of us who follow Christ Jesus in “The Way.”
The Parable of the Butterfly contains many comparisons to the life and pilgrimage of being a “Born Again” follower of Christ Jesus. We all as human beings begin the same, as flawed vessels, making our way in this life down here. We are all on equal footing, and are the same in God’s eyes: sinners. Many people recoil at this, because they have had very bad experiences with people judging them, and using the Word of God inappropriately as they did even in the apostle Timothy’s day. The truth is that we are *all* sinners. We are all born as sinners, fallen short of the glory of God which is in Christ Jesus. Each of us have gone astray like sheep, and gone our own way, which is the definition of “sin” according to the Bible (Isaiah 53, Romans 3:23). We will remain sinners until we put off this flawed fleshly body of corruption (Romans 7) in exchange for our perfect, un-corrupted Heavenly body, which we are vessels being made more to the Potter’s liking as it says in Jeremiah 18. There is something wrong with us all inside that makes us sinners, since Adam fell; and Christ Jesus died to set that right (Romans 5) so we would be given the Holy Spirit to transform us, so we too may be counted as Heavenly children of God. That is the true Great Equalizer of mankind, men and women alike. Every one of us are sinners, self-righteous and unbelievers alike. This is analogous to our little caterpillar, spiritually blind and imperfect.
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.” Romans 3:23 KJV
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him [Christ Jesus] the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6 KJV
This is the “Gospel Message,” or the “Good News” that Christ Jesus came to give us, and told us to tell others: The Son of God clothed Himself in human flesh and sacrificed Himself to set us free from this blind feeble state; taking upon Himself the wrath that we deserve as rebelious, evil and disobedient creatures. Christ Jesus *did* come to save sinners as Paul said in 1 Timothy 1. We change from the inside out by the Grace and Holy Spirit of God. There are many examples for us in God’s Word, especially with the original apostles and the apostle Paul. Those who faithe in God, His word and Christ Jesus; those who ‘repent’ will be ‘born again’ by the Holy Spirit, and be given the reward of Eternal Life (John 3). To ‘repent’ in the Bible simply means to “turn our hearts and minds back to God,” following His way again, like sheep returning to the Shepherd. God has the power to change any of us through faith in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus, being perfect, can make us right from the inside out, being born again in Spirit. This faith, and the implant of God’s Grace and Holy Spirit, initiates the metamorphosis in us. It is all His doing. This is what Bible scholars and theologians call “Prevenient Grace.”
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:44 KJV
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and all that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37 KJV
However, for something to be born again, something must first die. We are to willingly die to “self” or our “self-will” – our desires that are of the flesh and of the world (greed, pride, envy, malice, vengeance, “self-indulgence” which is deemed as self-worship, “false idols of the heart” which are anything we put in our heart as priority before God and His ways). We put “ourselves” on the altar as a full burnt offering, or “sweet-savor” offering to God. The wonderful part about this Spiritual Death is that the ‘Being’ or ‘Person’ we are being reborn into is so much greater, and so much more ‘ourselves’ as we were meant to be than the “Self” we thought we were. We are becoming who we were meant to be in Christ Jesus, our *true* selves: God’s Children and Heavenly citizens.
The Apostle Paul clarifies this for us: the “old self” must be wrestled with as our ‘fleshly nature’, and must be killed daily so that the “new self” can arise. This is analogous to our caterpillar dying to itself, and being transformed inside the chrysalis.
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” Romans 6:4-7 NIV
The metamorphosis going on inside of the chrysalis is something that we ourselves cannot see. Just as we cannot see it happening within ourselves, we also cannot see it happening within others. It is the complete work of the Holy Spirit and none other. To say otherwise is considered blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and Christ Jesus said that particular ‘sin’ will not be forgiven, as all others will be forgiven. Only God can see the heart of a person, and only God can judge the heart. This is the reason why we are told repeatedly not to judge one another on sin and salvation, any of us. All of us, saints and the four gift minsters Paul mentions (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists and Pastoring Teachers – Ephesians 4) are alike, we are imperfect. No one is perfectly sinless, nor do they live a sinless life. That is why there is provision in the Law for “Sins of Ignorance,” meaning the things you did not know you did or were to do. Anyone who says they do not sin anymore is lying, as John said in his epistle. Only Christ was perfect, which is why He alone had the price for our redemption.
We are all sinners and we will all be sinners until we put off the corruptible flesh body. As corrupted beings, as fleshly being not spiritually minded and imperfect, we judge wrongly in general. We judge with fleshly and worldly minds, as Christ Jesus said. Which is why he told us not to judge. It is his right and authority to judge, and God alone has the last say, not fleshly corrupted humans. God alone dispenses Grace and Mercy, not humans. That is why it is said repeatedly throughout the New Testament to not judge your brother or sister. By our standards none of God’s chosen people would have made it in: not King David, not Abraham, not Jacob, not Rehab, not Jephthah, not Matthew, not Mary and Martha, not Paul, not even Peter. None of them. They were all sinners, every single one of them. Even the loud-mouthed big-name pastors, prophets, teachers, book-writers, critics, and those self-righteous Pharisaical modern church people: all of them are sinners and imperfect. We all fail, and we will all continue to fail because we are sinners in a corrupted state of sin, since Adam fell. We are living in a fractured universe that will be set right in the end because of what Christ Jesus did for us. So let those who think they stand take heed, lest they fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). What was Christ’s commandment concerning those of us who he called out? Judge ye one another? No, it was “love (agape) ye one another. By this they will know you are my disciples (John 13 & 15).” He also said unequivocally “do not judge.”
“Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For by what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and by what measure you measure out, it will be measured out to you. And why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam of wood in your own eye?” Matthew 7:1-3 LEB
“Therefore you are without excuse, Oh man, every one of you who passes judgment. For in that which you pass judgment on someone else, you condemn yourself, for you who are passing judgment are doing the same things. Now we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who do such things. But do you think this, Oh man who passes judgment on those who do such things, and who does the same things, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Romans 2:1-4 LEB
“Who are you, who passes judgment on the domestic slave belonging to someone else? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. … But why do you judge your brother? Or also, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will praise God.” So each one of us will give an account concerning himself. Therefore, let us no longer pass judgment on one another, but rather decide this: not to place a cause for stumbling or a temptation before a brother.” Romans 14:4,10-13 LEB
“Therefore my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For the one at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure, is God.” Philippians 2:12-13 LEB
Even after this miraculous rebirth in the Spirit, our journey does not stop there. It is a painful process, often causing us to take an honest look at ourselves. Often others will start to treat us differently through no fault of our own, just as Christ Jesus said. It is not an easy transformation. We are being remade, our self is being purified in the fires of the Holy Spirit, and the impurities removed like gold and silver. This is analogous to our butterfly emerging and our wings begin to unfold and dry. Our toxic behaviors begin to be expelled. It is a life-long process for us. This is analogous to the painful process the butterfly undergoes while its wings are growing and drying, before it flies.
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-8 NIV
“Consequently, I find the principle with me, the one who wants to do good, that evil is present with me. For I joyfully agree with the law of God in my inner person, but I observe another law in my members, at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that exists in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with my mind am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.” Romans 7:21-25 LEB
Christ Jesus also said that if we follow him, our journey will be perilous and fraught with danger (John 15 & 17). Satan seeks to sift us as wheat, devour our souls, and take away our promise of salvation through grace. There will be every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4), false doctrine brought by the wolves in sheep’s clothing, the false prophets and false teachers; to blow us away, and make us lose our footing that we had on the foundation of the Word of God. People will come at us, they will be jealous of us, they will treat us with malice and judge us. However, Christ Jesus said that this is what they also did to Him, so we must not expect differently. This is not an easy journey that we take. This is not going to be a pilgrimage where all of your problems are solved, or that you are happy every day. It will create more problems. This is not a journey about your earthly happiness, your earthly wealth, your earthly family, your earthly relationships, or anything earthly in nature. This is about you alone, and your relationship with Christ Jesus and The Father. Christ Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Households will be divided, brothers will turn on brothers, and friends will desert friends (Matthew 10, John 7 & 15). This is analogous to our young Monarch’s journey after its wings dry, and it flies for its life; waiting to be mature enough to fly back to its home.
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV
This is a life-long metamorphosis, unlike our beautiful butterfly. The transformation takes the entire life we live down here. That final Spiritual transformation comes at the end of this life, just like the butterflies and all living creatures (flesh). We will transition to that Heavenly realm, cross into that other dimension and state of being. We will be completed and made perfect when we finally put off these corruptible bodies for our incorruptible ones. We slough off this final skin of corrupted flesh, this body of death, and put on that ethereal body of light. We are given the clothes needed for the Wedding Supper of the Lamb (Zechariah 3); the un-stained, sinless clothes needed to be able to be in God’s presence once again. The beautiful white robes of purity and righteousness, given to us by God through His grace and the mercy and love of our Lord Christ Jesus.
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 NIV
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 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 3:17-19 NIV
Christ Jesus promised His Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us, like the children that we are. As we walk after Him, that Spirit is also given to us, and we become “born again” in Spirit into a Heavenly family. Born into a Heavenly Kingdom; His Kingdom, our Lord, Savior and King. This same Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Advocate; given to each person who is following Christ Jesus in faith, will do the work of transforming us more into His likeness, allowing us to exhibit His righteousness (Fruit of the Spirit) in faith. God will be with us, each step of the way. He promised to keep us from Spiritual harm and Spiritual death if we just trust Him and have faith in His One and Only Son. How glorious that God set us free to soar on wings like eagles (Isaiah 40) through His Son, Christ Jesus; and made us joint heirs and heiresses in the Kingdom of Heaven; a Kingdom of Priests, Priestesses, Kings and Queens on that Great Day.
The Gospel, or Good News of Christ Jesus is that we have salvation and redemption through Jesus the Christ (Messiah), being Born Again in the Holy Spirit as it says in John 3. It is God’s work, not ours, not by self-will. By Him are we being perfected. He is the Great Potter, we are the clay. We are His children, and His workmanship. We are to abide in Him and His word (John 15), being transformed, born again in Spirit, His Spirit; like brilliant young butterflies from the chrysalis. That way we receive the “Spirit of Son-ship” or adoption, as it truly means, true Sons and Daughters of God, Heirs to the Kingdom through Christ Jesus (Romans 8 ). We become Children of God (Matthew 18), in the image of Christ Jesus. It is His Holy Spirit, the Comforter, our Advocate in Heaven that does the changing in us. It is the Deceiver, the Liar, the Distractor, the Accuser of the Brethren, the Stone Thrower, the Serpent that accuses us before God. He tells God we are not worthy to be in His presence. Which was true. But Christ Jesus died for us and clothed us in white raiment, suitable to be in His presence once again. The Veil that separated us was torn from top to the bottom, as God allowed us to come boldly before Him as open books, once again allowed to view His glory. Our names were written in the Book of Life, and cannot be blotted out except by Him. The Lamb will read our names on that Glorious Day. Our journey will finally be complete.
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God. For, ‘All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever [Psalm 119].’ And this is the word that was preached to you.” 1 Peter 1:22-28 NIV
God’s love, grace, mercy and peace be on us all; that we all might be remade more each day into His glorious likeness, until His appearing. Amen.
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” James 4:10 KJV
“Truly I say to you, unless you turn around (repent) and become like young children, you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ! Therefore whoever humbles himself like this child, this person is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 18:3-4 LEB
Painting: “Precious in His Sight” by Greg Olsen, copyright 1999
*Originally posted as “The Parable of the Butterfly” in August 2020 and “The Metaphor of Metamorphosis” October 2018; see archives for original posts.
A Pilgrimage Into God's Word 