Saved and Changed, By Jesus

"But we all, with unveiled face, 

beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,

 are being transformed into the same image 

from glory to glory, just as from the Lord,

the Spirit."  2 Corinthians 3:18

The Bible tells us that Satan has authority over the kingdoms of this earth, but he is under God's sovereign control.  The Bible tells us that the heart is desperately wicked, and needs to be changed, but just like a leopard cannot change his own spots, we can't change our own, wicked hearts.  With Satan ruling and the wickedness of the heart - this is why we see the evil that occurs all around us.  We are all born with the capacity to do very evil things.  I’ve never murdered anyone, but I’ve been angry and have said hurtful, mean things.  Jesus said that anger is just the same as murder.  None of us can say we’ve never done anything wrong.  We’ve lied, we’ve stolen, we’ve been unkind - we have all done something sinful and sin deserves punishment and the Bible tells us sin’s punishment is God’s anger, death, and separation from God. 

Here's the good news - Jesus saves people from God’s anger.  Jesus saves people from the death that separates us from God.  Jesus not only saves us - Jesus changes sinful people!  He is changing me!  Jesus can change you, too. 

So how are we saved and changed by Jesus?  It's not by following a set of rules.  It’s by admitting to God that we are sinful, that we do not meet up to His glory and perfection.  We confess our sinful hearts to Him.  We repent of our sin.  This means we turn away from our sin and we turn to Jesus and the perfect righteousness of Jesus.  Jesus is righteous and perfect.  Jesus, being God, has never sinned.  It wasn’t found in Him, at all.  At His first coming, two thousand years ago, Jesus died on the cross.  He allowed Roman soldiers to nail Him to the cross.  The Bible tells us that while He hung on the cross, He became sin.  He exchanged identities with us.  He became the sinner and God poured out His anger and wrath on Jesus, paying the price for sin.  God the Father turned His back on Jesus and separated Himself from Jesus - this was His greatest suffering.  It wasn’t the nails or the crown of thorns that hurt the most – it was the relational break from the Father when the Father turned His back on Jesus, because He’d become sin, and sin cannot be in the presence of holy God.  Jesus had always been in perfect relationship with the Father, but while on the cross, the perfect relationship was severed.  It had to be, to make the payment for sin.  When the payment for sin was made, Jesus said, “It is finished.”  After that, Jesus gave up His spirit and His body died.  But three days later He joined back with His body and the Father raised His body from the dead, because the Father was pleased with the sacrifice He made on our behalf!

If we believe that Jesus did this for us, if we accept His paying the price for us, if we believe He became sin for us, and that God the Father poured His anger for our sin out on Jesus, if we believe Jesus rose from the grave, conquering sin and death, we are then given His righteousness, and God the Father then looks at us and sees the righteousness of Jesus.  We are saved from death, and we are changed from sinner to saint!  God no longer views us as a sinner - He sees only the righteousness of Jesus.  The wonderful thing is that our hearts are changed.  We have new desires, we want to do what honors and pleases the Lord, when before, we lived to only please ourselves.   

You’ve probably noticed that Christians still sin.  At salvation, we begin a transformation process, where we become more and more like Jesus, in practice.  The word for this in the Bible is sanctification.  At salvation, at the moment we believe the good news message, our position and standing before God changes. We are no longer under His judgment and condemnation.  Our standing before God is forgiven, cleansed from sin, pure, holy, righteous.  We are a new creation.  The transformation process is becoming what we are in position, perfect.  We never hit perfection in our practice, until we die and shed our bodies, but we grow in the likeness of Jesus and His perfect character.  The Bible tells us what we will begin to see produced in our lives.  Before, it was anger, bitterness, jealousy, drunkenness, immorality, envy.  The list is ugly, isn’t it?  After we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us and then we will see love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness begin to be produced in our lives.  The Bible calls this the fruit of the Spirit.  As Jesus disciple, or follower, after we are saved, we are called and commanded to study the Bible – to spend time learning more and more about Him.  As we study His Word, we learn what Jesus is like and what He wants us to be doing.  Our knowledge of Jesus increases, our obedience grows, and we become more and more like Him.   We are transformed more and more into His likeness.  We are being changed.

One day, Jesus is returning, as judge, ruler, and King of the earth. He is going to bring all the evil to an end, and righteousness is going to fill the earth.  He is going to throw Satan into hell where he can no longer influence and deceive mankind.  The question is, will Jesus return as your judge, or as your Savior, as the One who stepped into your place, bearing God’s anger, and then giving you His righteousness, and changing you? 

If we die, never having repented, we will pay the price for our own sin, and the Bible tells us our suffering will be forever.  Jesus suffering was great.  Truly great.  How great was it?  Think about it – in paying the price for your sin and my sin, and for the sin of anyone who trusts in Him, what Jesus suffered in six hours on the cross was an eternities worth of suffering.  He experienced an eternities worth of separation from the Father.  

Jesus loves you and wants to be your Savior.  The Bible tells us He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked - in the death of those who don’t want to be changed.  Can you think of any good reason why you wouldn’t want His love, and salvation?  Can you think of any good reason why you wouldn’t want to be changed, and given His righteousness and peace?

I sure can’t.