Is your life in
need of repair? Are you trying to ‘fix’
the things that are broken with minimal cost to yourself? Jesus offers each of us a whole new life! He will, if invited, transform us from the
inside out. He won’t just patch us up. He will not just tinker a little with
this attitude and that habit so we can cope. He does radical surgery – giving us a new
heart, a new mind. Sounds great, right? We
need to know that the process disrupts everything. Here’s how He put it. "Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor,
but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance.” … He told them this
parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If
he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not
match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the
new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be
ruined." (Luke 5:31-37, NIV)
The Gospel is not
given to us as an easy fix, a patch on our present way of life. God’s good news is about a new way of life that completely replaces the old one. The result is something beautiful –
eternal life, deep and authentic love,
hope that overcomes every trial. So why
don’t more people receive Christ and His message in the fullness? Jesus finished the passage about new wine in
new skins with this rueful statement: "But
no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just
fine,’ they say.” (Luke 5:39, NLT) Change is so hard that many choose the
inferior old ways just because of their familiarity.
The story of a
young wealthy nobleman found in Luke’s Gospel is particularly appropriate for
us at this time. The man came to Jesus
wondering how he could find eternal life. He was sincere and he was a good man,
morally upright and religiously devout.
But, he had a heart problem! He loved
his stuff – his status, his wealth, the security he found in his familiar way
of life. Jesus did not meet him half-way
or ask him to change a little. “Then
there’s only one thing left to do: Sell everything you own and give it away to
the poor. You will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me.” This was the last thing the official expected to
hear. He was very rich and became terribly sad. He was holding on tight to a
lot of things and not about to let them go." (Luke 18:22-23, The
Message) The Gospel is only good news to
those willing to become disciples.
Disciples are
followers directed by another. Self surrenders. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me. For whoever wants
to save his life a will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will
find it. What good will it be for a man
if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26, NIV)
Jesus did not leave the Father’s glory,
become a Man acquainted with grief, and die on the Cross just so He could give
us a little better quality of life. He
came to defeat the power of sin and to open up the door to the Kingdom of
Heaven.
So what are you seeking
from Christ? Are you asking only for a
little remodeling, some help in coping with life? Do you want to be patched up or made wholly new?
Are you ready for a real change?
Here’s the word
from the Word - "Then Peter said to
him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?” Jesus
replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits
upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up
houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for
my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit
eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then,
and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then."
(Matthew 19:27-30, NLT)
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