How Jesus Changes Us

Whatever is inside us will come out. Nothing stays hidden forever. I remember years ago an upscale restaurant in Pittsburgh, Poli’s, was getting ready for a grand reopening. The Mt. Washington restaurant had everything – a great chef, fine décor, a magnificent view of the downtown skyline, and a pricey menu to makes lots of money. But Poli’s had one other thing, a thing it didn’t want – a little bit of a rat problem. They were aware of the rodent infestation, but they did little about it. They hoped it would go away. The day of the opening came and the place was packed, people enjoying their cuisine, everything going along just as planned, until the ceiling crashed in, literally, from the weight of all the rats running around up there.

“Waiter, there’s a rat in my soup!” Check please!

Sin is like that. You can cover it up, but like so many rats, it will find its way out. We spend sizeable amounts of time and energy on trying to cover up our sin – Sin Management if you will. But Sin won’t be managed. It doesn’t really obey us. We end up becoming its slaves.

I was watching Oliver Stone’s Vietnam movie, Platoon, the other night and the ending monologue by the main character goes something like, “I see now that we were not fighting the enemy, we were fighting ourselves, for the possession of our souls. . .”

The enemy is within. St. Paul describes this battle so accurately in Romans 7:

“When I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. . .I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” Romans 7.21-23

Sin lies close at hand. In fact, we have been trained in sin. Sin comes naturally to us. Its in our nature. No amount of will power on our own will change this. Remember the lesson of the Pharisees!

Look at the disciples at Gethsemane with Jesus. He asks them to watch and pray with him. Now, if there ever is a time when you want to stay focused and give prayer your best effort, this is the time. You are in the presence of Jesus! You are praying to the Heavenly Father in a prayer circle with His Son!

And they fell asleep.

“So you could not stay awake with me one hour? The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
Matthew 26.41

Even the disciples couldn’t do it by their own efforts. The flesh is too weak. We can’t even do the obvious right thing.

Our goal is not conformity of our outward behavior – that’s little more than sin management. Our goal is complete transformation of character and that comes from learning how to act in concert with Jesus Christ.

Dallas Willard writes, “Often when we do the right thing we have already done the wrong thing, because that is what was sitting in our body “at the ready.” Intention alone cannot suffice in most situations. . .we must be ‘in shape’. If not, trying will normally be too late or totally absent.”

This is important stuff. If I am a habitually angry person, anger is my default position. I am always at the ready to be angry. And there are countless opportunities in the course of a single day (driving in traffic anyone?) for me to feed my anger. If I am a habitually lustful person, then I have been trained in lust and my flesh will find opportunity to feed my lust.

Sin is always at the ready. But here is the Good News – Heaven is ready to help!

“Jesus came preaching, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” Matthew 4.17

Heaven is not just or even primarily a distant location. Heaven is the kingdom of God’s power and rule. All His resources become available to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus has brought it all close to us and makes his power ready through the Holy Spirit.

When we repent of our sin and decide to follow Jesus then we are born again. We are given the life of Christ as our own life. We are given the keys to the kingdom that we may enter in. We are given the spiritual power that comes with regeneration.

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Romans 8.14

Spiritual growth is simply the process of training in Christ’s power and character. It is the process whereby the old Rich dies and Jesus in Rich grows.

“If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. . .set your minds on things that are above, not on earthly things. . .put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed.. . .these are the ways you once followed when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of such things – anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practice.” Colossians 3.1-9

St. Paul describes the first steps of spiritual transformation like taking off old dirty clothes and putting on fresh, clean clothes. Strip off the old and put on the new!

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. . . and above all clothe yourselves with love. . .” Colossians 3.12, 14

Remember, this is not just trying harder. The difference is the entering into and living in the power of the readily available Kingdom of God. And the difference is in this consistent living and training in said power. In the Spirit’s power I learn how to be patient and kind instead of angry and irritable. In the Spirit’s power my very members are train to be content and giving instead of greedy and self-serving. This is how Jesus changes us, this is how His character is formed in us.

“Until Christ is formed in you,” Paul wrote the Galatians (chapter 4, verse 19)

I cannot stress enough that this does not naturally happen even after we say the sinner’s prayer. Time alone won’t make me kinder, more generous, or more loving. Time alone won’t even make me wiser. I need the grace, power, and truth that Jesus gives to his consistent students. We must walk the road with Jesus. We must engage the practices and work of a disciple. Next week we will specifically look at some of this work and these practices.

When I became pastor of my first parish, I had no secretary and the church office was in the basement of the parsonage. The office was equipped with a desk and phone, a typewriter and an old Gestetner machine. I didn’t know what a Gestetner was. It was a machine for making copies. You put the master carbon sheet of whatever you had typed on the big drum and put your paper in over here, and there was a big crank handle and you cranked the handle and that pushed the paper through and against your master carbon sheet. When it worked well, you literally cranked out the copes one at a time. When it didn’t work well, which was often, you could spend hours trying to copy the Sunday morning bulletins.

I stared in wide eyed wonder at this machine and my instructor. I was sure I had seen this thing in the Smithsonian Institution one time. And then I glanced in the other corner of the small office. There sat what looked to be a brand new Xerox copier. I asked my instructor,

“Does that work?” Yes, of course.

“Why don’t we just use that, wouldn’t that be much better?”

“We’re saving it for later,” was the answer I got. They found they could “get by” with the old one, though it was troublesome and time-consuming and produced poor quality.

That’s about as much sense as it makes for us to invite Jesus to forgive our sins and then fail to learn how to follow him as Lord and Master of our lives. He gives us keys to the kingdom of life. He teaches us a better way, a more powerful way. Why keep putting in time and effort in a broken down machine when there is a new one waiting to be used?