Thank goodness for squishy hearts
We’re still on the topic of how our nature – our spirit, the part that makes us, well, us, and that will live forever – changes from darkness to light when we’re saved. We’ve already got the qualifications; Neil says we just have to learn to walk in harmony with our new nature. Great word picture.
And the significance of this fact is pretty amazing. It’s that we don’t have to try to act like Jesus; we can be like Jesus. That’s huge!
Probably we all know that we don’t have to earn our way to salvation, although I’m told that if you were raised in the Catholic church, that’s a tough one to break. The Pharisees were the spiritual guys back in Jesus’ day, and they were all about earning their way. It didn’t work out so well for them. They got rebuked a lot.
When the day comes that God looks at the heart of every person, He will take the measuring stick of Jesus and hold it up to see how we all did. For those who rejected Him, that measure will condemn them. But for those who love Him, He will look to the new nature because of what Jesus did, and His measure (His grace) will already be in us – no need to get out the big stick. Very cool.
So… Why all the talk about our identity?
Let’s imagine that instead of being born in the United States (or fill in your native country here), you were born in an obscure country far away. Your citizenship is there, and that’s what is written on your birth certificate and passport. You live here now (we’ll say you moved here as a young child), but at a specified time in the future, you will move back there.
Would you spend as much time as you could reveling in the excesses of the American culture? Or would you spend time researching your homeland? You’d probably want to know the customs, what the food’s like, maybe even learn the language. You live here, but your identity is there. That’s going to have an impact on how you live.
Well, I think I’ve oversimplified it enough, but here’s the bottom line… God’s Spirit brings His word to life as we learn it, so that it goes beyond knowledge and changes the way we live. Who we are determines what we do.
And if you’re still looking for an explanation of the squishy heart, it was a phrase from yesterday’s comments that was too good to go unrepeated.
Glad to be helpful with the squishy heart. Now I know what ya like I can squish it up!
ReplyDelete(Hand raised, oh oh pick me!) I was one of those kids who was raised Catholic and it was a hard one to break. There is a lot more pressure to earn you way. The basic premise is the same, you accept Jesus into your heart and you love Him, there is just so much guilt that you are doing something wrong, and you should do more, be better…
Now I have a personal relationship with Jesus and if there is guilt it comes more as a conviction to my heart that I should have done something better, rather than an overlaying feeling of not measuring up.
But back to the subject, I am glad to be a citizen of Heaven and only a visitor here on earth. I am also very thankful to have God measuring me with His ruler that includes His Grace because otherwise I would not measure up by any means.