Change No Change! Part 1

Scripture is very clear and firms up the thought that when you give your life to Jesus a change is going to take place. Why the change? First of all, the Holy Spirit is now in your life, and at your core, you are a new person. Paul wrote this to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! Verse 16 sets up this thought when it says 16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! When we get our "human point of view" in the mix everything gets sideways and we water down what the Bible is saying.

What is a human point of view? I have written about Humanism in past blogs and it is amazing I would right about it. Early in my Christian walk, I had a Godly man speak to me about the poison of Humanism and I was too young and too dumb to listen and take note of a very real problem that was coming "down the road!" Humanism *def) - an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to humans rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems. When you read in the Word of God where it says we are in a spiritual battle that battle begins when that thought about "the faith" hits the very real problem of humanism.

If you don't believe that we are in a spiritual battle you are probably like many of the audience of the Apostle Paul's teachings. Paul knew firsthand that the Law or religion was not going to change a person at their core and his continued growth in his walk secured that he would never move toward religion again. When we allow religion to control our thinking we always have a tainted belief that has some of the Lord and some of our own beliefs intertwined together. The end result of this thinking is a very weak and powerless faith that is really no faith at all. Our own human impressions can never trump what the Word of God says, so our source has to be the Bible. Not just hearing others preach or teach it, but our own study of it as led by the Holy Spirit. Don't get yourself deep into a teaching by someone more than what God is wanting to show you through the Holy Spirit who gives you the spiritual insight to deepen your relationship with Jesus. I like the ministry of Wild at Heart, which is led by John Eldredge, but I don't let his teaching, as good as it is, be the final thought for me. God shows ME what to believe through His Word and that keeps me from getting my beliefs through a "human filter."

What causes us to have wholesale beliefs in what a trendy teacher is teaching? Many times it is laziness and not wanting to put forth the effort ourselves. Sometimes it is that draw toward humanism and religion that is a very "strong" force. I remember some dialogue in the movie Cowboys vs. Aliens where Jake was going into the alien's lair to rescue some humans they had captured and the aliens had them with their heads up to make them look into a light that was controlling them. So as Jake is getting ready to go save the humans, he gets mesmerized by the light that is controlling the ones that are captured by the light, and the following lines are said in the movie. Ella: I told you not to look at the light. Jake Lonergan: Yeah, right.

I may be beating a drum here that nobody wants to hear, but I will beat the drum anyway. Religion will leave you drifting, following the wrong path, or just basically following a powerless life. Relationship will plug you into the true power of God through the Holy Spirit and you will receive living truth that has a deeper faith as its result. If we try to put any of our thinking and human reasoning into our faith we are compromising the life Jesus wants us to live. I know some people who have immersed themselves in trying to be "good" and they think that being good will make them more righteous. Guess what. We can never be good enough! When we give our life to Jesus and we are born-again we enter a spiritual way of living that is powered by the Holy Spirit who takes up residence in our life and the result is a righteousness that is God's alone. The Law will not save us and Paul wrote this in Romans 3 about the Law. Romans 3:20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Our righteousness is considered "filthy rags" and our only hope is through the blood of Jesus. Paul continued on in chapter 3 where he writes. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

The Pilgrimage Continues.

David Warren