“For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly”
Mark 7:21-22
Jesus understands why we are so messed up without Him. It is a heart problem. Just look at the problems Jesus connected to the heart. Heart problems are the symptom of a need for heart holiness. God wants to deal with our actions (sins) and our attitudes (sinful nature). This is the reason Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He sent the Holy Spirit to perform the kind of heart surger that only the Divine Physician can perform.
Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. We normally evaluate people against a human standard. We grade intelligence, appearance, and success as better or worse than another person. In verse 16, Paul suggested that being in a relationship with Jesus Christ changes the criteria by which we evaluate people. The new criteria is Jesus Christ.
“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
We get it way wrong when we say that we invited Jesus Christ into our lives. This suggests that He took up residence in the area that we assigned Him. That sounds like we are some cosmic innkeeper or run a boarding house. We think we can just let him move in to the empty room to the left at the top of the stairs.
That isn’t real salvation! We don’t invite Jesus into our lives; He invites us into His life. When we understand this little difference, we are ready to experience a radical change of heart and life.
When we enter into this kind of relationship with God where He is not just a resident, but the owner, we must leave behind the things that are contrary to His nature. Verse 18 says that “now all things are of God.”
Romans 3:23 reminds us that this sin problem is universal and plagues us all. That may seem like bad news, but it sets the stage for a remarkable truth. There is also Romans 6:22 and 23. Most of us know verse 23, but we may not be as famiar with verse 22 and it’s context.
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:22-23
The good news is that God can empower us to live a life that is worthy of the calling in our lives. God, through the Holy Spirit, can live that life through us, if we allow Him to inhabit every area of our life. Rather than claim Christ as a resident of our compartmentalized life, let’s turn over the entirety of our lives to Him. Only when we totally surrender to God will we be prepared to experience life the way God wants it to be — holy, full, abundant, rewarding.
And here is the good news. The heart transplant includes a complete “life overhaul” at no extra charge. Jesus Christ took our sin on Himself so that we can stand before God without fear of eternity in hell. But salvation is more than “fire insurance” as is taught by many churches; it is the only way to experience the life of holiness.
Are you living life with a new heart? Are you living a life of holiness? If so, you can testify about God’s power to change a person‘s life. If not, you have yet to accept Jesus‘s invitation to live out His plan and purpose for our lives. You are not yet “in Christ.” But you can be!
This is not some goofy game show where you try to guess the answer and hope you are not wrong. If you are right you get a new washer and drier. And if you are wrong, no big deal. You just don‘t get the new washer and drier. This has eternal implications. It also will impact how you live out this life right now.
Test drive a new heart. And try out that new life that comes along with it!
July 7, 2008 at 9:20 am
One of the thoughts I had during yesterdays class was that we need to be careful with the statement by Mr. Lucado.
“that if you are having these thoughts, then Christ is not in you”. Which does essentially say if you are having a thought that is wrong, Christ is not in you.
Do I believe we are to live holy lives? Yes. Do I believe He has provided the power, avenue and ability for us to do this? Yes. Do I believe it happens right away? No.
The issue I have with the statement and one thing I see common in the theologies that go against the OSAS/POS doctrines is that they end up making what is an Individual and nation building relationship between God and His people, look like a bouncy ball act back and forth over the savlitic net. (please don’t take this as to what I think you have said, just something I think we need to be cautious of and I have seen in my short walk)
When a relationship with Christ first happens, it happens between a superior being (God) and a being that brings nothing to the table but brokeness (us). Through the power of the Spirit our brokeness starts to be mended, but it doesn’t all become mended at once. We have layers of brokeness from years of fallenness without our saviour.
Our language may be a quick fix for Christ, it might have been glass that was lightly shattered and an easy fix for the saviour to work in us. However, trust, acceptance of His love, lust, lies etc. may all be deeper and larger fractures to mend. They may have had years of pounding on them to cause all those fractures and it will take more time for those to become mended. They have years of being what some know as “normal” and it can take much “purging” from Christ to get these fractures out of our hearts.
I just think the statement Max used, can be used to all to often describe something that we at the human level think we understand, when God at the infinite level is working on and in control of and is something we may not have a clue on with our “expert” detective work.
The good news of the day: God not only can mend all those fractures no matter how deep, how wide, how many and how long they have been there, but more importantly in my mind, He Desires too.
blessings
July 7, 2008 at 9:48 am
Excellent comment. And thanks for clarifying. You are right. I was not tossing people out of the “saved” pool. Rather, I was indicating that a consistent pattern of habitual sin is incongruent with a life “in Christ”.
But you open up a whole discussion on crisis and process …
Either / or — Both / and
July 7, 2008 at 11:32 am
For sake of me and maybe anyone reading Kevin, could you maybe define that a little bit more?
blessings
July 7, 2008 at 5:37 pm
It was a poor attempt at humor regarding the debate in evangelical circles regarding whether or not Entire Sanctification occurs as a crisis moment of sanctification or whether it occurs over time as part of the sanctification experience.
I probably should choose my attempts at humor more carefully. ;>)
And the last line of my comment was a response from a former pastor of mine years ago that said it doesn’t have to be either – or. Instead it can be BOTH – AND. That way, everything and everybody can be included.
have I sufficiently muddied the water?
July 8, 2008 at 6:15 am
It’s as clear as Lake Houston, lol
July 8, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Great comments, Scott. The clarity of Lake Houston wouldn’t be hurt with a little more mud, so let me throw in my comments.
I really like the analogy of not “throwing people out of the salvation pool”. Since God is always seeking a relationship with us it is far more likely that our not working hard enough on a relationship with him (Philippians 2:11-13) is what most perceive as being tossed out. Relationships are two-way streets.
To talk about kjkb2tx’s “BOTH – AND” I need to start at the beginning to get the whole process. The best I have been able to do to un-muddy the water is to think about the salvation/sanctification process in three steps.
Step 1 is when I realize that God wants a relationship with me and there is no room for him in my life. I am in control, so much that that my thoughts and actions are self-centered. So I “invite God into my life.” I know kjkb2tx prefers to think of us joining God, and that is certainly a great way of thinking of it, but hang on to that for a moment.
When God “comes into my life” there are problems; most of which I am not aware of at the time. Sure, I have been accepted into his kingdom (joining God – how cool is that!) but there are, as you have pointed out, so many fractures in the vessel (me) he needs to fill with his spirit so that I may become holy because he commands me to be holy. (Leviticus 19:2, Ephesians 1:4)
At some point I realize that that God and I really need to fix some things. At that moment I ask God to help me begin fixing these things I start down the path of building relationship and becoming what he wants me to be (holy.) I see two end members to this process; just wandering along and fixing things as I become aware of them, or realizing that God has an incredible plan for me and intentionally jumping at the chance to dive into the relationship with as much gusto as I can put into it. Step 2 is that moment when I make the decision to sell out to his plan for me. The old-speak for that is a “crisis” – a point in time when something occurs.
That is the beginning point for sanctification, or becoming set apart, or becoming holy.
The rest is Step 3, the process. In my human form I am very incapable of being perfect (sometimes sanctification is called Christian Perfection) and I am sure God knows that because he created me. So he starts working on the cracks in the vessel I am. When enough of them are fixed my life starts displaying the evidence of God’s spirit living in me.
Some cracks take longer than others to fix. You identified a few that are common in today’s society. New cracks may appear as my vessel gets kicked around or new light is shown on the vessel. As long as I intentionally seek guidance as provided by God’s spirit (John 14:16-26) God can mend these cracks. And then I grow more like him, more holy every day, and in some sense achieve Christian Perfection. (Remember, even Paul said he didn’t obtain but kept on striving. But at any giving moment we can be living crack-free with the light God has provided thus far.)
In every day life that is really tough. But God (through Jesus) promised us it would work. (John 14:23) That, in my opinion is kjkb2tx’s “joining God”, after we are willing to join him.
Can the vessel get shattered again? Yep. But the amazing thing is God so desperately wants a relationship with us that he is right there to start the process all over again.
Hope this lets light into Lake Houston. And unto other parts……
July 8, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Great post Steve and welcome to the conversation!
July 8, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Yes, thanks for joining the conversation, Steve.