|
WHAT CAUSES THE CHANGE?
When does a person really become a Christian? What do you have to
do to be a Christian?
We all know the customary requirements. Each church has a set of
minimum standards. For membership in most churches you go through
a prescribed instruction period and learn basic information about
the church and its teachings. At last you stand at the front of
the con-gregation and make a public confession of your faith in
Jesus Christ. Then you're baptized or perhaps confirmed.
Truly these outward forms can be quite meaningful if they reflect
an inward reality. But how often it seems like just so much ecclesiastical
red tape you have to go through in order to join the "religious
outfit" of your choice. How often one has the disturbing feeling
that for all the ceremony, nothing is happening within the heart.
If you haven't already become a Christian in your heart, the ceremony
will never make you one. Confirmation is meant to confirm a fact
which already stands. And even baptism, basic as it is to the life
of the child of God, is really something which is meant only for
the believer ... the Christian. Without the word of God and the
faith of Christ already living in the heart, all the baptisms in
the world will never transform anybody into a Christian.
Then there are those who reject all the arbitrary requirements of
the churches and set out on their own to simply try to "be
Christians." They're going to abide by "Christian principles."
They're going to practice honesty, compassion, patience, courage
and generosity in daily life.
One has to admire these people. No doubt God blesses them as they
sincerely try to do what's right and good. But if they're honest,
they will soon find that they too are on a dead-end street. You
may make a dramatic decision to henceforth live like a Christian,
and you may be utterly sincere, but when you get out into the world
and have to face hard realities of existence, you'll see your good
intentions quickly battered to pieces like a fragile kite smashed
in a hurricane. You want to be honest, but sometimes it seems as
though you just can't. You truly desire to show mercy, but there
are times when you may have to excuse yourself by saying, "After
all, I have to make a living." Christianity is not something
you can attain by trying hard. No matter how hard you try, your
good intentions will never materialize as Christianity.
Christianity is a life which is completely the handiwork of God.
It's like a house that God has already built for you. All you have
to do is enter it. It is a highway that has been rolled out to you
from heaven itself. All you have to do is get on it. But to enter
this house ... to get on this highway ... you must pass through
a narrow door, a door which is so narrow that you can take nothing
with you, but just you.
You cannot take that ridiculous mask you wear every day before the
eyes of other men ... you cannot take that high horse of pride on
which you ride all your waking hours ... you cannot take all those
loves and fears and dreams and grudges or attachments you call your
life. All these things must be left behind.
Take off your mask... dismount your horse... lay aside your possessions,
real and imaginary... bend down and pass through that narrow door
into a new world, an unbelievable world... a world where the air
you breathe is the very Spirit of God, and the light for your path
is from the face of the heavenly Father, and your companion on the
way to the shining city in the distance is the man whose hands still
bear the marks of the nails.
The act of passing through the narrow door is called faith. But
the effect of going through the narrow door is better known by those
who have done it as death.
It's true when people say, "All you have to do to become a
Christian is exercise faith ... believe in Jesus Christ with all
your heart." Sure, but what does it mean to believe in Jesus
Christ? There are people who claim to believe in Jesus Christ ...
they believe "real hard." They be-lieve that he was born
of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
dead and buried, etc. And yet this faith in Jesus Christ has no
influence on the way they treat their wives, or raise their children,
or do their work, or handle their money. In the decisions of daily
life they are governed by what they call "common sense."
Jesus Christ may be saying, "Forgive… show mercy"...
but common sense is saying, "They're taking advantage of you
... you're being a door mat." Which voice do they heed? Common
sense of course. Jesus Christ may be saying, "Give that man
ten dollars," but common sense says, "Hold on to your
money, you may need it yourself some day." Again common sense
wins.
These people believe certain things about Jesus from the top layer
of their brains. Yes indeed, they believe that Jesus is the Son
of God. But do they believe in him? Have they put faith in Jesus?
To have faith in Jesus is something quite different from believing
certain things about him. To have faith in Jesus is to become related
to Jesus in a personal way... and to enter this personal relationship
with Jesus you have to pass through that narrow door.
Notice that whenever scripture talks about having faith in Jesus
Christ it involves a death of some kind. When Paul talks about living
by faith in Christ, he talks about being crucified with Christ.
When he talks about being baptized into Christ, he explains that
it means to be "baptized into his death." Whenever Jesus
teaches about disciple-ship, he connects it with bearing a cross...
losing your life. There is nothing morbid about this at all. It
is the most liberating truth in the world. Don't be afraid of it.
To pass through the narrow door into life ... into a living relationship
with Jesus ... involves a triple death.
First, you have to die to all pretenses. This is the only way you
will ever become small enough to fit the narrow door. We talk much
about the importance of being honest. We usually consider ourselves
to be rather honest.... but are we? .... really?
We read in the newspaper about a man who pretended to be a medical
doctor with astonishing success. He got on the staff of a large
hospital, performed operations, earned a good reputation, without
ever seeing the inside of a medical school. Then one day he gives
himself up and admits that he's a fraud. This makes interesting
reading because we know what that poor chap was going through. Always
wondering, "What if I get caught? What if they find out what
I really am?"
When a man finally stands before Jesus and wants to enter into the
kingdom, this is exactly what happens. In order to get through the
narrow door he gives up the phony game. He confesses that he's nothing
but a pretense ... he comes down to size.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The Bible calls this repentance. Repentance is not just feeling
sorry... repentance is to turn around, to quit the false game, to
give up the fraud, to die to the whole business and present yourself
as the trembling sinner you really are before the Son of God.
Now you'll fit the doorway. The next thing is to step into it. To
do this you have to die a second time. Die by faith ... die by reckoning
yourself dead with Jesus. You see Jesus hanging from the cross and
you assert, "There I am ... I'm in him ... this old sinner
which is the real me died when he died."
The place where you have to begin to exercise faith in Jesus is
at the cross. Identify with him ... see yourself in him. See your
sins crucified, your pride crucified, your vanity crucified, your
slothful-ness crucified. "I am crucified with Christ,"
says Paul ... not "I hope some day to be crucified and delivered
from these sins." I am.... it happened when Jesus died. It
is no longer I who live; I died on the cross in the body of my Lord.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin...
One more death remains. To pass through the door into the kingdom
you must die a third time by abandoning yourself to Jesus. When
you abandon yourself to Jesus you don't ask where he's taking you
or what is going to happen to you ... you just go.
When Andrew and his friend asked Jesus where he was staying, Jesus
did not give them a list of instructions or hand them a map showing
the risks involved in getting there. He said, "Come and see."
Never mind how far it is ... never mind how difficult it may be
... never mind how long it takes .... just come.
Peter's wife had dinner on the table for him one day. She knew Peter
had been up all night fishing and would soon be in, very tired and
hungry. It was a lovely meal, but Peter didn't come. After a while
she left her kitchen and went down to the sea. There was the boat
drawn up to the land but no Peter.
"Have you seen my husband?", she asked an old man sitting
in the sun.
"Yes, he went off with Jesus of Nazareth."
"When will he be back?"
"Who knows?"
When you abandon yourself to Jesus you have no idea when you'll
be "back" or where he will lead you. You have no control
over your future. Every-thing's unknown. It's like death. It is
death. Are you willing to abandon yourself to Jesus? ... to go out
with Jesus wherever he leads you? ... no matter what happens or
what strange deserts he may take you through.
When you have died this third death, your life.... life as you always
planned it and hoped for it and desired it to be, is gone, and another
life, a life from above, falls like fire from heaven upon the altar
of your heart. Now you're a Christian ... you have Christ in you
the hope of glory. The narrow door is behind you and you are on
the highway of the kingdom. And every step you take (even the steps
through the dark valleys) brings you closer to the glory that awaits
those who persevere faithfully to the end.
This is how you become a Christian...not by means of an ecclesiastical
ceremony...not through giving mental assent to certain Biblical
doctrines... not by the sincere intention to live an upright, moral
life. Salvation is God's gift from heaven, a gift received through
faith.
But remember that faith in Jesus ... genuine, saving faith ... always
has certain effects. Faith and its effects are inseparable, like
the two sides of a coin...you can't have the one without the other.
A living relationship with Jesus will be accompanied by three deaths:
a dying to all pretense, a dying of the old self (that "body
of sin" which sent Jesus to the cross), and a dying of your
self-planned life. But the overall result of this triple death is
life ... for Christ will dwell within you with all his resurrection
power. Even as the death of Jesus was followed by his glorious resurrection
and ascension, so your death by faith in Jesus will result in newness
of life. And at the end of the highway beyond this narrow door is
heaven Itself… the city of the living God.
|
