|
When I first became
a Christian, I struggled with guilt from my
past sins to the point where I was living a
powerless and defeated Christian life. When
I looked at the early church in the book of
Acts, I was immediately struck by the power
that the first Christians demonstrated on a
daily basis. The transformation they went
through was obvious to all and it defied
any human explanation. Love was the ruling
factor in their lives and they were truly
holy to the point where sin was no longer
controlling their lives.
This was
like nothing the world had ever seen before.
A people totally committed to their God!
They had an excitement about God that was
seen and felt by their friends, neighbors
and even the legalistic Pharisees who
believed you had to work for your salvation.
They were so filled with love for their Lord
that only a few weeks after Jesus had died
on the cross, they fearlessly went out into
the streets proclaiming a risen savior who
loved them beyond anything they could have
ever possibly imagined.
I want to
experience that kind of transformation in my
life too. I want to be so filled with God’s
love that the world will notice. I pray for
a day where the Church of Christ is so
filled with the power of God that the world
will have to stand up and take notice that,
we “have been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
So, what is the mystery? Why do so many
Christians today live powerless and defeated
lives? I have found that when I ask God to
change me, He is faithful and gives me the power to
grow and become more like Him. But we have
to realize something first, we have to ask
God to transform our thoughts and behaviors.
We have to be willing to submit our will to God on a
moment-by-moment basis to experience that
kind of change.
First, we need to understand what it
means to be born again.
Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, we are all
born spiritually dead (Gen. 3). Cut off
from God and with no hope of salvation in
ourselves. It is only through God’s divine
act of grace that we can be saved from our
spiritual condition. God is willing to
forgive us all our sins and give us new
life. This is called the new birth, or
regeneration, and it is entirely the work of
God, the Spirit within us. Our regeneration
takes place when we submit ourselves humbly
to Jesus Christ and trust in him for
forgiveness, salvation, and new life (John 1:12-13; 3:3-6;
Eph. 2:1, 5; Titus 3:5).
When we are
born from above we are regenerated and spiritually re-created.
This work is entirely of God alone (John 1:13; 3:5; Titus 3:3-7;
Eph. 2:8-10;
James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23; Ps. 51:10;
Ezek. 11:19). Our spiritual birth cleanses us
from sin and brings about a transformation from the inside out (John 3:5-6). Through it a person becomes a child
of God and enters into God’s kingdom by
faith in what Christ has already done for
them (John 1:12-13; 3:3-5). When God redeems
us, He gifts us with Christ’s righteousness
(Gen. 15:6; Rom. 1:17; 3:22; 2 Cor. 5:21). When God looks at us, all
he sees is Christ’s perfect righteousness,
purchased for us through Jesus’ life, death and
resurrection. God sees us through
Christ-colored glasses. Even more than that,
he sees us as having the exact same
righteousness as that of Jesus.
In
Christ, the redeemed undergo a
transformation that results in an entirely
new being (2 Cor. 5:17; 1 Pet. 2:2;
Gal. 6:15). Our lives are changed as
our minds are made new so that we are able
to discern what God’s will is for the first
time (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23-24;
Ezek. 36:26-27; Jer. 31:33). The
born-again believer is characterized by
love, a hatred of sin, and victory over the
temptations of the world (Col. 3:10-13;
1 Jn. 2:29; 4:7; 5:4, 18;
1 Cor. 5:7-8).
Second,
we have to understand that our security
comes from Jesus Christ alone.
John 10:27-29 says, “My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they will
never perish, and no one will snatch them
out of my hand. My Father, who has given
them to me, is greater than all, and no one
is able to snatch them out of the Father’s
hand.”
John 5:24 says, “Truly, truly,
I say to you, whoever hears my word and
believes him who sent me has eternal life.
He does not come into judgment, but has
passed from death to life.”
John 3:16
says, “For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only Son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal
life.”
And Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am
sure that neither death nor life, nor angels
nor rulers, nor things present nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able
to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The
Bible makes it clear that our works cannot
save us.
Ephesians 2:8-10
says, “For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God, not a result
of works, so that no one may boast. For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Good works cannot save us. Being
baptized can’t save us either. Trying to keep the
Ten Commandments, or going to church on a
certain
day of the week can never merit our salvation. No matter
how good we are, we will never measure up to
God’s holy standards (Rom. 3:23; Matthew 19:17; Isaiah 64:6). There is no way we
could ever be saved if salvation depended on
our works. If we stumble in keeping just one
part of God’s righteous law, we are just as
guilty as if we had broken all of it (James 2:10).
That’s why faith in Jesus Christ alone is God’s
only condition for our salvation (John 1:12;
Acts 16:31; Rom. 3:28; 4:5). When we are
born-again, God motivates us to do good
because we are already saved. Our desires
are changed and we will want to do good because
of what Christ has already accomplished for
us.
When we surrender
ourselves to Christ, our lives will be
empowered by the Holy Spirit to change.
Titus 3:5-7 says, “he saved us, not
because of works done by us in
righteousness, but according to his own
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured
out on us richly through Jesus Christ our
Savior, so that being justified by his grace
we might become heirs according to the hope
of eternal life.”
Notice that we
experience a “renewal by the Holy Spirit”.
We are born again and then God’s Spirit
begins to renew our minds. Our part in this
process is to continually ask God for that
renewal. When we enter into a relationship
with the Holy Spirit he doesn’t simply wave
His magic wand over us and we become sinless
overnight. We have to continually surrender our thoughts
and minds to Him and then ask Him to bring
change to our lives.
The Holy Spirit will guide and shape our
thoughts and behaviors as we meditate on
God’s Word. Our new life in the Holy
Spirit is not just a ritualistic activity
but the total involvement of our heart,
mind, soul, and strength. Believers are told
to present their bodies as a living
sacrifice to serve and obey the living God
(Rom. 6:13). Instead of being molded by
the values of this world, the believer
should be transformed by the renewing of
their mind (Rom. 12:1-2). Spiritual transformation starts
with a mind that is dedicated to God’s
truth, which enables them to resist the
temptations of the culture as they ask God
to bring change.
Nothing can
ever sever God’s children from the love He
has for us in Christ Jesus. We can have the
full assurance that we will be with Christ
for eternity!
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old
has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
You can experience the transformation
God promises today! You can put on a new set
of clothes, given from God above (Eph. 4:24). It is His free gift to those who
believe and follow Him. When we come to
Christ with the right attitude, we can claim
His word and be renewed by His Spirit. Our
part is to trust in Christ alone for
our salvation and to give up on ourselves
and surrender our lives into His care.
Matthew 16:25 says, “For whoever would
save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Real discipleship implies real commitment,
committing everything to his service. If we
try to save ourselves from pain, discomfort
and even death, we may risk everything
eternal life has to offer. It is only when
we freely give our life in service to Christ
that we can discover our real purpose for
living.
1 John 5:4 says, “For
everyone who has been born of God overcomes
the world. And this is the victory that has
overcome the world — our faith.”
God is the potter; we are the clay.
We can change our behavior but we cannot
make ourselves new again.
There is nothing that we could ever possibly
do to earn our salvation. Every other
religion on earth believes you have to do
something to earn eternal life. Christianity
says it’s already done! We cannot save ourselves.
Christ came to die on the cross to redeem us
and change us into the kinds of people He
wants us to be. He is the One who puts us in
a right relationship with the Father through His
death on the cross. When we put our faith in
Him, and are born again, we die to our old
self and take Christ’s righteousness upon
ourselves in its place. We have to put our
trust in Christ completely and stop thinking
we can do anything to earn our salvation.
There are a lot of people who think they
have been born again because they believed
the gospel and came under conviction. Then
the law raises its angry hand and says,
“hold on, you have to DO this or DO that to
be saved” and the true message that we are
“saved by grace through faith in Jesus
Christ alone” gets lost in their desire to
perform good deeds. They fall into the trap
of works-righteousness which is the opposite
of what God means when He says we must be
born from above. Their focus is on
themselves and what they MUST do to be saved
(or keep saved), and not on what God, the
source of the change, has already
accomplished for
us.
There is a whole group of people
who will one day stand before God thinking
they should be saved but find out too late
they have been trusting in the good things
they did in life to earn their salvation.
Matthew 7:21-23 says, “Not everyone who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the
kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven. On that
day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy in your name, and cast out
demons in your name, and do many mighty
works in your name?’ And then will I declare
to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me,
you workers of lawlessness.’” (cf.
Matt. 25:1-13; 25:41; Titus 1:16; Rom. 2:13).
Don't fall into the same trap of
works-righteousness that these people fell
into.
“False disciples may
exercise power in Jesus’ name but their
activities are meaningless because they
deceive themselves and other believers,
desiring attention for their own spectacular
displays. Mighty works are not proof of the
Father’s will since they can come from
sources other than God, including demons and
human contrivance (cf. Acts 19:13-16; 2
Thess. 2:9-12; Rev. 13:13-14).”
[1]
It is God who makes us
righteous. It is God who changes us from the
inside out. Our thoughts and attitudes need
to be molded by His Spirit living inside of
us. It’s not about guarding the ends of the
Sabbath, giving up coffee, or helping out at
the soup kitchen. If we want to be free from
sin we have to die to our old way of living
and keep our minds focused on Him. Romans 6:6-7
says, “We know that our old self was
crucified with him in order that the body of
sin might be brought to nothing, so that we
would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one
who has died has been set free from sin.”
Our old way of living before we put our
faith in Christ needs to be left behind. We should dispose of it like an
old set of torn and worn-out clothes. Colossians 3:9-10
says, “Do not lie to one another,
seeing that you have put off the old self
with its practices and have put on the new
self, which is being renewed in knowledge
after the image of its creator.”
What should a Christian do who feels
guilt about their past?
Have
you given your heart to Christ for the
forgiveness for your sins? If so, remember
what the apostle Peter said, “Humble
yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty
hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he
cares for you.” (1 Pet. 5:6-7).
Compare the misery you feel from false guilt
to the beneficial nature of healthy guilt,
or what is often called godly sorrow. It’s
that sense of sadness you experience as a
result of the sins you have committed. True
sorrow for sins leads to a change of mind
and a turning to God. Since repentance means
turning to God, who is the Savior,
repentance results in spiritual deliverance,
or salvation (see 2 Cor. 6:2).
[2]
When we are in Christ, our sins are
forgiven so we shouldn’t
have any regrets about our past. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11
says, “Godly sorrow
brings repentance that leads to salvation
and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow
brings death. See what this godly sorrow has
produced in you: what earnestness, what
eagerness to clear yourselves, what
indignation, what alarm, what longing, what
concern, what readiness to see justice done.
At every point you have proved yourselves to
be innocent in this matter.” (NIV)
Repentance and salvation are the
fruit of godly sorrow over our sins. This is
the kind of grief that leaves no regret.
Our
old self was driven by impulse and desire.
We have to believe God’s Word, put on the new nature and head in a
whole new direction. Christ has forgiven us
and wants to set us free
from our past and make us into a new person.
To do that, we have to let the Holy
Spirit transform us and give us a new way of thinking.
And finally, we have to accept the promise
of Christ’s total forgiveness for our past,
present, and future sins.
Remember, “if the Son sets you
free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
References:
1. see: The ESV
Study Bible: Matthew 7:22.
2. see: The Nelson’s
NKJV Study Bible: 2 Corinthians 7:10.
|
