Do we have to do more?

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. (Colossians 2:13-15)

We might use a phrase such as, "I am dead to this world", at the end of a busy day. We have hurried here and there, stood way longer than we anticipated, waited longer than we wanted, got involved in tasks we did not plan, and we are bordering on sheer exhaustion. To 'be dead to this world' has a different meaning in a spiritual sense, though. It means we actually take on 'new life'. The first way of thinking says we are about to get some rest for our weary bodies, while the second one anticipates a 'rest' of a whole different kind!

Paul is speaking with the church at Colosse about circumcision, and other religious pursuits that some were saying 'had to be done' in order to be a follower of God. He wanted them to know that there was an 'exchange' of character that occurred the moment they said 'yes' to Jesus. He uses the 'ritual' of baptism to indicate this 'exchange' has occurred - the 'putting to death' of our old nature and giving way to the new nature within. Nothing speaks of a 'parting of the ways' from the old to the new like death. Death to the old self and life to the new nature that is birthed within us in saying 'yes' to Jesus.

Truth be told, we are all dead because of our sins, and we deal with this crazy sinful nature that needs a good 'excision' in order to be rid of it. The good news is that this is not our work, but God's. If I had to do this all on my own, I'd be a mess! The 'charges' that our sinful nature brings against us are innumerable, but they are done away with at the cross. I am delighted to know that the 'spiritual rulers and authorities' that want to make us feel like we need to 'do more' to be right with God are disarmed - they have no weapons that they can actually use against us!

They might try to make us think we need 'more' than our simple faith in the finished work of the cross, but God won't let them pull the wool over our eyes on that one. He has taking painstaking care to lay out the truth of our 'freedom from sin' and our 'sinful nature' in scripture so we don't get misled by those 'crafty devils' who want to entrap us in religious philosophies. We just need to trust the finished work of Christ to make us whole and free - this 'exchange' isn't physical as much as it is 'spiritual'. We might see the physical change because as our inward nature changes it is only natural that our outward appearance and outward actions will change right along with it! Just sayin!

Need a transplant?

Some of the Psalms of David are filled with all kinds of things which seem to be said not once, but multiple times in the same psalm - kind of like a chorus or refrain in a song.  Maybe this is because so many of his psalms were indeed set to music!  As he begins this particular psalm, he lays out the "words of the refrain" - "God, the one and only—I’ll wait as long as he says.
Everything I need comes from him, so why not?  He’s solid rock under my feet,    breathing room for my soul, an impregnable castle:  I’m set for life."  (vs 1-3 MSG)  This refrain, or the crux of it, is repeated not less than three times in as little as twelve total verses!  So, it must be important, right?  Here's what is sandwiched right in the middle of these refrains:

My help and glory are in God—granite-strength and safe-harbor-God—so trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him.  God is a safe place to be.  (Psalms 62:7-8 MSG)

David had such a personal relationship with God.  He was always "My God" to David.  He wasn't just the God of his Fathers, but he was up-close and personal with God.  He had developed an intimacy with God, sharing freely of his own heart, and in turn, I believe God shared his heart with him.  He points us to the "granite-strength" of God in many of his psalms.  He also refers to consider the safety of God's protection and covering.  These are not foreign concepts as taught and understood by David, but how did he come to know God as his "granite-strength" and "safe-harbor"?  

I think David faced some tough stuff in life which exposed him to the inadequacies of his own strength as much as he experienced the need to "run for shelter" into the arms of one who could comfort like no other.  We'd do well to take a lesson or two from this man - the man God honors with the words, "A man after my own heart".  Maybe he was a man who actually wanted to live life with a "transplanted" heart!  You know - the exchange of his own hardened heart with the heart beating afresh with the love and grace of God himself.  

There is much to be said about being at the point in life where you need a heart transplant.  In fact, it is a most desperate condition.  When the heart is not functioning well, nothing else in our body seems to function at capacity either.  Without the constant and steady pumping of blood throughout our bodies, we have no life for our cells, no energy source for our brain, and no carrying capacity to transport toxins to the organs which will assist in their removal.  The circulatory system is really like an intricate system of highways and byways - each carrying either life to or "garbage" away!  When these don't function well, it is worse than the traffic jams on a busy highway in rush-hour traffic!

Transplant recipients will tell you what the "exchanged" organ means to them.  There are expressions of gratefulness - for what was once very close to death is now infused with new life.  There is renewed energy and capacity - often allowing actions once only dreamed of as possible.  The same is true when we exchange our hardened and damaged "spiritual hearts" for the "vitality" of God's heart!  We who were so used to producing nothing but what appeared to be death are infused with a newness of life.  There is a vitality which gives us capacity beyond our imagining.  Pretty awesome, huh?

David reminds us "God is a safe place to be".  I cannot improve upon this thought!  Yet, we often choose "places" outside of his protection and care.  We choose to live with "damaged hearts" instead of coming into his watchful care.  Where the heart goes, so does all of activity.  If the heart is burdened and hurting - the activity we reflect will reveal the intensity of hurt and the crushing weight of the burden, will it not?  Here is the rub - we want new hearts, but we fear the transplant!  We hold onto what barely works when offered newness and vitality.  Silly us!  

In a spiritual sense, the heart is made up of our emotions and is closely tied to our will.  If we are used to dealing with our damaged emotions, the "highways" of "good emotions" are often so blocked by the highways of our bad emotions so as to not allow anything to "pass through" to the side of "good" very often.  We see only the traffic jam of the "bad" and not the wide open spaces of the "good".  

David reminds us God is "granite-solid".  Granite is one of the most durable of stones.  It is also widely used due to the durability and impenetrability of the stone itself.  I don't know about you, but when I need to make an exchange of this hardened heart for a new one, I want to be able to "stand" on the integrity of the one making the exchange possible.  I want to know what I am receiving is "solid" and will stand the test of time!  God has proven to be "rock solid" - time tested and true.  When we really "get" this, we don't hesitate to "lay our lives on the line".  Isn't that what a transplant recipient does?  They lay their lives on the line - knowing one "sort of working heart" will removed before there is any "space" created for another "working heart".  To receive the new, they have to be willing to part with the old. 

To stand upon the solidness of God's grace, we need to be willing to lay our lives down.  Just sayin!

Salvation 101 - Part II - Exchanged nature

 ^5-6Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit."

(John 3:5-6)

Yesterday we began to look at the question, "Is a person saved once and then always eternally secure?" (better known as Once Saved, Always Saved).  Today, we will develop a better understanding of what happens once you have accepted the Lord as your personal Savior.  We have a whole lot of terms for this action - inviting Jesus into your heart, making him Lord of your life, being saved, etc.  We looked at the fact that our "salvation experience" is a one-time experience that involves an "exchange" of our sinfully selfish nature for the holy nature of Christ. This happens both instantly and it takes time!  Nope, I didn't just talk out of both sides of my face!  Our exchanged life is instant when we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sin - our exchanged life is also something that is worked out in our lives each and every day.

Our life is supposed to change once we accept that awesome gift of Christ's death on the cross on behalf of us.  We call that one time experience "rebirth".  It is where we get the term "born again".  The passage above gives us a little insight into what happens at that moment in time - the person who takes shape within us is formed by something we cannot see or touch - we become alive within our spirit-realm.  Don't miss the fact that this verse states clearly that it is by no action of our own that our spirit is reborn - it is by the work of the Holy Spirit within us.  When we have a mindset change - believing that Jesus is the provision for the forgiveness of our sins - God does the rest!  The exchanged life begins.

The exchanged life is really the changing of desires.  Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we develop a desire to love God.  We don't possess that naturally. In fact, we don't possess the desire to love unconditionally at all!  That is a learned thing - the closer we get to God, the more we understand love without strings attached.  The Holy Spirit is also responsible for helping us to serve God with our whole being - body, soul, and spirit.  It is that "help" that actually makes us act and appear "different" than we were prior to that rebirth.  

^7-10Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

(Ephesians 2:7-10)

Wow!  Look at those verses again.  God has us where he wants us - right next to his bosom - close to his heart.  That is the direct result of the salvation experience.  In that position, he is able to shower upon us his graces - all through the Son, Jesus.  Then, don't miss the next sentence:  SAVING is all his idea, and all his work.  That means that we don't even desire to have an exchanged life until he places that desire there within us.  It also means that we do absolutely nothing from start to finish to accomplish that exchange!  

If you have ever wondered who is more powerful - God or Satan - that passage should settle it!  God is supreme - he is sovereign.  Satan operates ONLY within the boundaries God allows for him.  Sometimes we don't understand why God allows for Satan to have any "reign" at all - but we have to trust God's design in even that fact.  It is important to recognize that God will not allow Satan to do anything at all that could alter our position in Christ.  It is impossible for Satan to "take us away" from God!  We are his!  He watches over us and he cares for us - each one in an intimate way.  

That should give us enough to think about today.  We do NOTHING to gain our salvation - it is a gift of God, plain and simple.  We cannot be "stolen away" from God by a crafty act of Satan.  We are secure in his care - although we may be a target of Satan's attacks, we are not subject to his winning those attacks!