IF YOU’RE NOT CHANGED

(Post by: Michelle Hobbs)

At a conference we attended last summer, one of the speakers repeated the phrase, “If you’re not changed, you are probably not saved.” Our family and Sunday School class have ruminated on that phrase for quite some time. In fact, it just came up again last night in our small group.

Early on, our Sunday School class decided that the word “probably” needed to be struck from the phrase, making it, “If you’re not changed, you’re not saved.” After all, scripture tells us that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17)

I want to ask you, friends, do you believe that phrase; that scripture? More importantly, are you a living example of that phrase? I pray the answer is, “YES!”

I am careful to check myself on this lately. Most of the time, I catch myself just being a nicer version of my old self. You know, I can hold my tongue when a co-worker is rude to me, or I can let the person in the grocery store line behind me go ahead of me because she has one item and I have a cart full.

Sure, these are kind things to do, but are they Christian behaviors? Are they things that I could not, would not, do if I was not saved? No, I can easily do these things in my own power. I can do these things if I am practicing any other religion.

Praise the Lord, I have had some beautiful examples of what being truly changed by Jesus looks like. There are two young men, both in their early twenties, that Scott is discipling, and who have spent a lot of time with our family lately, that have embraced the simple gospel and are radically living it out.

Now, I remember what a challenging stage in life the early twenties can be. You are caught between your teen years and adulthood, trying to fit in and start a life in whatever career path you have chosen. Being different, let alone radically different, is hard to do in your own power.

Dear readers, that is how you know that these young men are living out their salvation! My heart just swells with admiration and pride when I hear them talk about praying with co-workers, saying no to going to parties where there will be drinking, apologizing to those they have offended in their B.C. (before Christ) days.

My daughters lead a Bible Study for young women in their late teens. They are also seeing the Spirit move in their midst. The girls have been digging deep in the Word, confessing sins to one another, spurring one another on to share the gospel at school and work.

Oh, don’t you long for that for yourself? I do!

I heard a great line in a television show last night. (I will paraphrase from my memory.)

“I was one way, and now I am a completely different way, and the thing that happened in between was Jesus.”

I absolutely desire to be able to say that for myself. I want to live up to the scripture that tells me I am supposed to be a new creation; not just a nicer version of myself, not just a church-goer.

I have been thinking a lot about the Pharisees and Sadducees as we enter the Easter season. They, to me, are a perfect example of the modern Christian; of myself at times. They started off with the correct intention. They wanted to follow the Law, but they let that get out of hand, and rather than relying on a changed heart to guide their behavior, they created over 600 man-made rules about their religion to be their guide.

The typical American church-goer can behave in much the same way. Rather than truly allowing our salvation and our relationship with Jesus to make us a new creation, we rely on a ninety-minute service on Sunday to be the sum total of our Christianity. Some of us even go above and beyond and attend a Wednesday night service or a small group. We are the truly devout group!

How many of us, even those of us in the truly devout group, will Jesus look at and say, “I never knew you; depart from me”?

That thought strikes fear in my very core. In Matthew 7: 21-23 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

He is speaking to those who attended synagogue (church), those who practiced their religion as perfectly as possible; those who were the religious leaders and preachers.

He wants to have a personal relationship with you and me. He wants us to know Him, not just know about Him.

Friends, we must do this on His terms. We cannot dictate the terms of our salvation. We cannot accept some things and not others. It is not enough to just go to church; to do good deeds.

Our salvation must look like, “I was one way, and now I am a completely different way, and the thing that happened in between was Jesus.”

I can tell you, and this new generation of Christians in our lives, can tell you from first-hand experience that living this way, hand in hand with Jesus, is the most joy you can possibly find this side of heaven.

I pray that you will join me in chasing hard after the reality of the phrase, “If you’re not changed, you’re not saved.”

SO, WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= Have you allowed Jesus to change you completely, or have you kept some of yourself from Him?

= What are you going to do differently?