Day 2: When Salvation is Worthless...
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 11:55PM ;)
2. If the Christian salvation does not change our behavior, it is worthless to God and to man.
Picture Heaven for a moment; what do you see? Perhaps incredible beauty, fascinating architecture, waterfalls, gardens, places of gathering, etc. Now picture that same Heaven peopled with sinners who have been forgiven, and that is all. Sinners saved by grace. Sinners who still wrestle with sin — or even those who have yet to begin to wrestle, being taught (from pulpits) that they were only supposed to accept the finished work of Christ by faith, and that any attempt to live righteously is just filthy works.
You may not realize it, but when you think of Heaven, you think of transformed people. I don’t think you would enjoy yourself in a paradisiacal environment with people that don’t behave any differently than they do now.
Romans 8:29: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
There are several good passages in the Bible that sum up what God is after in this world of pain. What is it all about? Well, contrary to popular opinion, His focus is not on bringing unchanged, forgiven sinners into heaven, there to bask forever in undeserved blessing. As you can see from the above-quoted verse in Romans, we are predestined for change — to be transformed into the image of Jesus Himself.
Image does not mean solely the outward appearance.
One understanding of the image of God is that it refers to qualities or attributes present in the person…Others believe the image is something present when the person is in a relationship to God, and in fact, is that relationship. The image is present like a reflection in a mirror, rather than like a photo…still others believe the image is something a person does. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, CD ROM version)
We are destined to be recreated in every aspect, inside and out, resulting in an image consistent with that of Jesus Himself. Once this is clearly understood as the goal of Christianity, rather than simply moving from earth to heaven, the Bible and the gospel both begin to make much more sense.
What remains now is to identify how one goes about changing…
Reader Comments (1)
Sometimes I think the process of sanctification could be different, in that when we professed Christ we could be instantly changed and customized to fit the New Man traits. But then I think about how we would miss out on the lessons and the dependency on Him, and I know that He knows best. Still, it would be nice if we were not so fickle and susceptible to worldly influences...