Transformation, Part 154

The Cross should change everything, but sometimes Christians find surprising little changed in their lives. The cross should spell the end of the world as we knew it, so why does it sometimes not show in our lives? We come to faith in Christ & our sins are forgiven; but we still sin. We often hinder God’s process by choices we make. We sabotage God’s work for fear that He may use us in some big way that we aren’t capable of. We buy an untrue version of the Gospel that costs little and demands even less. We are irritable, picky, short fused, angry, unforgiving because we live with a sense of entitlement rather than brokenness before God. Our reception is sometimes off. Like an antenna that’s broken or a satellite dish that is pointed in the wrong direction. We can’t get the signals God is sending out.

We often find it hard to forgive other believers. Andree Seu writes, "we file away offenses, we bring to mind the thing we have against that person and remember to act chilly toward him. We keep a bookmark where we left off, expending mental energy to remember our grievance, rather than the far simpler course of starting each encounter with a clean page. If we only understood that the Christian who insulted us last week is a constantly changing and progressively sanctifying person. The Holy Spirit has rolled up His sleeves and started cleaning out his fixer-upper of a heart, and you just happened to get in the way of some garbage being hauled out. The person you are still nursing resentment toward is in the middle of his story, and is not yet what he will be. Come to think of it, the same goes for you."

The truth: in Christ our identity is changed, we are set apart, we are being made holy, being sanctified progressively by God. We have been saved, justified; we are being saved, sanctified; we will one day be saved from the presence of sin, glorified. The process is ongoing. Assured by the promise and purpose of God; guaranteed by His character. But we are in the midst of the struggle Paul spoke of in Rom. 7 – I want to do right, but I do wrong. It feels like "take 54" or 154 or 1,054. Why can't we get it right? Maybe we are trying too hard.

Take comfort, you who are too hard on yourselves. Rest in the finished work of Christ and allow Him to live His life through you. Be wary, you who are too easy on yourselves, make sure you are in the faith. I love Phil. 2:12-13. 2:13 says God is at work in us & 2:12 says we are to work out (not work for - that was bought at the cross) our salvation with fear and trembling. So much of the Christian life boils down to cooperating with God, doesn't it? And what is Jesus doing? Praying for believers. Isaiah 53:12 "...yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors". (See Heb. 7:25) Christ is praying for believers right now. The thought can only humble us.

If you are not a Christian you need Jesus. You are responsible before God for what you have heard about Jesus. As Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:20, I implore you (I urge you, ask you, invite you) on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. The outcome of His death is joy; He is in process of gathering His family together, the authority to do so is all His (All authority on heaven and earth Matt. 28:18).

Only God knows where each person is at so we preach Christ crucified and leave the outcome to God.