This weekend, I watched some gifted teenage students step into roles for a stage production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Nick, who is a kind and grounded young man, transformed into the selfish and cruel archdeacon of Notre Dame. Other students convincingly became soldiers, gargoyles, and street people. Rachel brought Esmeralda to life, singing “God Help the Outcasts” with such heartfelt emotion that real tears rolled down my cheeks.
But when the curtain fell, the costumes came off, and the characters faded—the students returned to being themselves.
Let me ask you this: how do you understand what it means to be a Christian? Is it something you put on—like a role you play on Sundays or around certain people? Or is it who you truly are?
How wonderful to know that people who are the children of the Heavenly Father. do not just act like a Christian. In Christ, that is who we are.
Jesus met a man hungry for spiritual reality, a religious
leader who apparently felt a disconnect between how he acted and who he truly
was. Knowing his need Jesus told Nicodemus – “I tell you the truth, unless
you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an
old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3)
What a revelation! We are born into God’s family, becoming children of God, not by human heritage or religious effort, but through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit Who is accepted by faith. This makes a whole new way of living possible.
Paul teaches us that “this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) This way of life emerges from the inside out. We gain a new identity through Jesus and it changes the ways in which we think and act. It is never just a role we learn, it is a way of life.
A person who has not come to Christ in faith and received the gift of the Spirit will only find himself frustrated by trying harder to ‘act like a Christian’ through determination. With concentration and effort he can control the natural impulses but in a time of stress, fatigue, or excitement his true nature will break through the act.
Having experienced the new birth and entered the life of the Spirit, we can take up Paul’s direction “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)
In this new life in the Spirit, every day is shaped by
Christ in us.
Love replaces hate.
Peace replaces fear.
Hope replaces futility.
Life overcomes death.
Eternity envelopes time.
I want to end this thought today with excerpts from one of
the most magnificent passages in the Scripture, the 8th chapter of
the book of Romans. Those inspired words are full of meaning, describing the
new life of the Believer.
Meditate on this word from the Word and then go be that person that God made
you to be.
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And
because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed
you from the power of sin that leads to death…
Letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. …
You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8)
Thank God, we are alive in Him, a new creation. Let’s live
that way!
Amen
