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Death and Transfiguration into a Newness of Life

February 7, 14, 21, 1982
Rolling Hills Covenant Church - Rolling Estates, CA

Spiritual Formation Peace Death (to Self) Audio Teaching Series

Dallas delivered this three-part series on successive Sunday nights at Rolling Hills Covenant Church in February 1982. He guides us through a transformative journey of Christian discipleship—from Death and Transfiguration, to The Way of Peace, and finally to the meaning of Witness. These are not casual messages. They are rich, deliberate, and penetrating. Dallas speaks as one immersed in the reality of life in the Kingdom of God and calls his hearers to do the same—not by effort alone, but by vision, surrender, and experience. His insights bring biblical language down from abstraction and root it in real, lived existence, asking us to reexamine whether we truly grasp what it means to be dead to sin, alive in Christ, and governed by peace.

Throughout the series, Dallas insists that the Gospel is not primarily about escaping punishment or joining a religious club—it is about receiving a new kind of life. He explains how the death spoken of in Scripture is a way of being cut off from God’s reality, and how true resurrection life is available now to those who will entrust everything to Christ. Peace is revealed not as the absence of trouble, but as harmony and wholeness in the life of the servant of God. And witness, far from manipulation or pressure, is shown to be the natural overflow of a transfigured life. This is discipleship not as formula or facade, but as a life that flows from the living Christ. 

Resources

1: Death and Transfiguration

Dallas explores what it means to truly pass from death in sin to life in the Kingdom of God—not just as a future hope, but as a present reality. He urges believers to move beyond abstract language and embrace the experiential reality of being alive in Christ. 

2: The Way of Peace

Dallas considers how true peace isn’t merely the absence of conflict or the presence of comfort, but a deep and lasting harmony rooted in life with God. He invites listeners to reimagine peace not as a fleeting emotion or circumstantial gift, but as the fruit of a transformed life—one shaped by death with Christ, resurrection into His kingdom, and an identity as His servant. 

3: The Witness

Dallas examines the meaning and power of witness as Jesus intended it—not as persuasion or manipulation, but as the overflow of a transformed life rooted in the Kingdom of God. He invites us to rethink what it means to live as people who show the world how to live—not through pressure, but through presence, peace, and power that cannot be hidden.

Photography by James Hutter

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Death and Transfiguration

Highlights:

  • Death as a Mode of Existence: Death is redefined not as nonexistence but as separation from another sphere—the Kingdom of God. Being “dead in sin” is recognized as the lived experience of disconnection from God’s reality.
  • Faith as Vision: Faith is perception, not wishful thinking or forced belief. It allows us to see both the death of sin and the life of Christ in ourselves and others with clarity.
  • You Must Experience the Power: Confession alone is insufficient; life in Christ is marked by being led by the Spirit. The reality of God’s power must be experienced personally and actively.
  • There Is Something Better to Do: Sin is not overcome by sheer willpower but by desiring something better—the life of the Kingdom. Transformation flows from vision and the reorientation of desire toward the good.
  • Truth Without Life Is Not the Truth: Words about God or the Christian life that lack lived reality become hollow. Such emptiness corrodes belief and leaves the soul vulnerable to drift.
  • A Life Fit for Heaven: The Gospel offers a life so transformed that heaven becomes its natural home. Salvation is not earned but received as a new kind of life that longs for God’s presence.

The Way of Peace

Highlights:

  • Peace as a Reality, Not a Role: Faith is not Christian role-playing but stepping into reality through Christ. True peace is found only in Him, giving courage to face what is real in ourselves and the world.
  • Death with Christ as the Way In: Walking in peace requires understanding what it means to be “dead with Christ.” This death breaks from the world’s motivations and turns decisively toward God, freeing us from enslaving illusions.
  • Peace Is Not a Feeling: Peace is not about calm emotions or avoiding trouble. It is the wholeness of shalom—inner harmony where all the forces of life work together under God’s rule.
  • The Servant’s Way to Peace: Peace is not found in control but in servanthood. Joyful submission to Christ brings peace through trust and surrender rather than mastery.
  • Peace as a Gift You Can Share: Peace can be extended to others. Entering a room with God’s peace makes it possible to bring stillness and presence into conflict and turmoil.
  • Seeking the Things That Make for Peace: Peace cannot be pursued directly but arises from seeking what cultivates it. Keeping the Lord always before us allows His presence to shape thoughts, habits, and actions until peace becomes a natural way of life.

The Witness

Highlights: 

  • More Than Ethics: While ethical systems aim to guide human life, they are powerless to produce the kind of life they describe. Jesus didn’t just teach what is good—He gives the life required to live it.
  • The Surprising Form of Government in the Kingdom: Jesus’ response to His disciples’ desire for power was to promise the power of the Holy Spirit for witness, not control. In God’s Kingdom, governance is exercised through witness, not domination.
  • Witness Begins with Experience: To witness is not first to speak, but to have truly seen and known. The strength of our witness depends on our personal, lived experience of Christ.
  • Showing the World How to Live: The Church, like Israel before it, is called to demonstrate to the world how to live in harmony with God’s love and justice. Old Testament laws reveal God’s tender and practical desire for justice and mercy in society.
  • Witness vs. Soul-Winning: Witnessing is not coercion or manipulation. Genuine witness flows from a life so full of Christ that others are moved to ask, “What must we do?”
  • The Quiet Power of a Life in Christ: True witness doesn't need to be advertised—it cannot be hidden. When we live in the life of Christ, it flows out of us naturally, like rivers of living water, quietly reshaping the world around us.