RADICALLY CHANGED
There has to be a difference. Clearly, none of us is instantly perfect at the moment we receive the New Birth, but there must still be something radically different about us--I mean, people should know that something happened. We should be different. Consider that when we are reborn we (come not only in contact with, but) we actually receive a new and divine nature--God comes in and takes residence in us. That has to create an amazing metamorphosis in otherwise mere mortals. Songs say, "I looked at my hands (feet) and they looked new"--well, no, not really; but if we could see our souls at that moment, imagine the darkest soul changed into the glory of purity--at once. I remember the movie, The Color Purple when Celie arrived at her new--and unkempt home, plastered with filth. As she began to clean, with hard work under the filth was revealed light walls with floral patterns--that just before were coated with thick, black muck--and no hint of that beauty. I guess that's what our souls are like--there isn't a hint of the potential beneath the wretchedness, until the blood of Jesus (and the "hard work" of Calvary) is applied to the filth scrubbing away the old man and making us new creatures.
It has always been a radical impression that the Word of God wanted to impart to us. Paul expressed it in his epistles, but even before Paul, as the first apostles were establishing the church in those first days after Pentecost, if you look closely that radical nature is clearly evident. It isn't simply in the cloven tongues of fire, or the way they had all things common. It was how they embraced grace and rejected the legalism that had always governed their lives--in fact, it had been all they knew, until Pentecost. It stood out vividly to me in the behavior of those present at the deception of Ananias and his wife Sapphira.
Ananias, I suppose, wanting to have an appearance of giving all--and caught up in hypocrisy (Matthew 6:1-4) sold all of his land and pretended to give all of the proceeds of that sale to the apostles for the care of those in the new church, but instead he actually withheld part of the proceeds of the sale. The sin wasn't even in keeping the money--he could have kept it all, or all of the land, it might have been selfish, but no one would have taken issue with him, for that. The sin was in the deception--pretending to give all of the money from the sale of his property. For that sin, he was immediately punished--with instant death, as was his wife Sapphira, because she agreed with the deception. The thing that is radical in this, was the way that those who stood by behaved when they (Ananias and Sapphira) fell dead.
In the Mosaic Law, it was absolutely forbidden to touch anyone or anything that was dead. Anyone who did, was considered unclean and had to perform several ceremonial rituals before he could be considered clean again, by the priest--and only by the priest. While unclean, whenever he was in the presence of others, he had to announce himself, "UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN! to make others aware, so that they would not unwittingly come in contact with him and become unclean also. It was taken so seriously, that tombs were whitewashed so that if someone accidentally touched one as they passed by, they would not become unclean. Those who were unclean due to illness had to live separate from others as long as they remained in that state--consider the woman with the issue of blood. For twelve years, isolated from everyone; yet, when she knew that Jesus was in the midst she pushed into a crowd of people (going against the Law) to touch the hem of His garment. She risked her life to gain her life. Those who carried Ananias and Sapphira out, had to have embraced grace and recognized that clean and unclean is not in what we touch physically--it's not the "outside of the cup and platter" that count, but what is within--in the heart, that makes us unclean.
Not long before this time, Jesus had walked among these people teaching them truths about the heart--and grace. The things He told them had to seem almost, if not entirely, heretical in light of the Mosaic Law--and its interpretation by the scribes and Pharisees. It had been severely adulterated to fit the comfort level of the elite Pharisees and creating extra burdens for God's people that He never intended. Jesus came to live, teach and then die for our grace. He came to make us righteous--without the Law. If the Law could have made men righteous--then He never would have come to die. It couldn't and so, He came. Grace came. And, these early Christ-ians recognized it and grasped it for all it was worth. They began to waver as the more legalistic Jews tried to force them back under the previous schoolmaster of the Law; but even then, Paul reminded them that they must not be "bewitched" or deceived to except any other Gospel other than the grace which had been preached to them, and received, making them free. They remembered nothing else had been capable of freeing them in the midst of the Roman occupation and persecution (or years of prior captivity due to sin and idolatry). Nothing else enabled them to face, even death, with joy, and hope for the prize of a greater tomorrow, in Glory. That's what got them back on track--what shook them back into reality, and should do the same for us.
Grace should radically change everything about us--our sight, our speech, our desires, our hopes, our dreams--our lives; all that we are. Grace will empower and embolden us to get close and touch what we were once afraid to touch, and go where we were afraid to go--for the cause of the Gospel. You know, He never told us to bring them in, He told us to GO "into all the world". If we don't take the Gospel, many will never hear it; radically-changed people don't just go to church and expect the world to come with them; they go to the world, propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and many will hear the Word and believe. (Acts 4:4) Radical!
It has always been a radical impression that the Word of God wanted to impart to us. Paul expressed it in his epistles, but even before Paul, as the first apostles were establishing the church in those first days after Pentecost, if you look closely that radical nature is clearly evident. It isn't simply in the cloven tongues of fire, or the way they had all things common. It was how they embraced grace and rejected the legalism that had always governed their lives--in fact, it had been all they knew, until Pentecost. It stood out vividly to me in the behavior of those present at the deception of Ananias and his wife Sapphira.
Ananias, I suppose, wanting to have an appearance of giving all--and caught up in hypocrisy (Matthew 6:1-4) sold all of his land and pretended to give all of the proceeds of that sale to the apostles for the care of those in the new church, but instead he actually withheld part of the proceeds of the sale. The sin wasn't even in keeping the money--he could have kept it all, or all of the land, it might have been selfish, but no one would have taken issue with him, for that. The sin was in the deception--pretending to give all of the money from the sale of his property. For that sin, he was immediately punished--with instant death, as was his wife Sapphira, because she agreed with the deception. The thing that is radical in this, was the way that those who stood by behaved when they (Ananias and Sapphira) fell dead.
In the Mosaic Law, it was absolutely forbidden to touch anyone or anything that was dead. Anyone who did, was considered unclean and had to perform several ceremonial rituals before he could be considered clean again, by the priest--and only by the priest. While unclean, whenever he was in the presence of others, he had to announce himself, "UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN! to make others aware, so that they would not unwittingly come in contact with him and become unclean also. It was taken so seriously, that tombs were whitewashed so that if someone accidentally touched one as they passed by, they would not become unclean. Those who were unclean due to illness had to live separate from others as long as they remained in that state--consider the woman with the issue of blood. For twelve years, isolated from everyone; yet, when she knew that Jesus was in the midst she pushed into a crowd of people (going against the Law) to touch the hem of His garment. She risked her life to gain her life. Those who carried Ananias and Sapphira out, had to have embraced grace and recognized that clean and unclean is not in what we touch physically--it's not the "outside of the cup and platter" that count, but what is within--in the heart, that makes us unclean.
Not long before this time, Jesus had walked among these people teaching them truths about the heart--and grace. The things He told them had to seem almost, if not entirely, heretical in light of the Mosaic Law--and its interpretation by the scribes and Pharisees. It had been severely adulterated to fit the comfort level of the elite Pharisees and creating extra burdens for God's people that He never intended. Jesus came to live, teach and then die for our grace. He came to make us righteous--without the Law. If the Law could have made men righteous--then He never would have come to die. It couldn't and so, He came. Grace came. And, these early Christ-ians recognized it and grasped it for all it was worth. They began to waver as the more legalistic Jews tried to force them back under the previous schoolmaster of the Law; but even then, Paul reminded them that they must not be "bewitched" or deceived to except any other Gospel other than the grace which had been preached to them, and received, making them free. They remembered nothing else had been capable of freeing them in the midst of the Roman occupation and persecution (or years of prior captivity due to sin and idolatry). Nothing else enabled them to face, even death, with joy, and hope for the prize of a greater tomorrow, in Glory. That's what got them back on track--what shook them back into reality, and should do the same for us.
Grace should radically change everything about us--our sight, our speech, our desires, our hopes, our dreams--our lives; all that we are. Grace will empower and embolden us to get close and touch what we were once afraid to touch, and go where we were afraid to go--for the cause of the Gospel. You know, He never told us to bring them in, He told us to GO "into all the world". If we don't take the Gospel, many will never hear it; radically-changed people don't just go to church and expect the world to come with them; they go to the world, propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and many will hear the Word and believe. (Acts 4:4) Radical!
Comments
Post a Comment