God Is Not Finished with You Yet

 August 16, 2024

Friday

Many Christians do not believe in the power of the gospel. The gospel not only changes your eternal habitation, it changes who you are. I know a lot of people want to tell Christians who they are in Christ by the names the Bible designates for them.  That's wonderful, but it isn't what I am talking about. When a person comes to know Christ, the Holy Spirit inhabits him. His spirit communicates with the Spirit of God. He is motivated toward a closer and ever closer walk with the Lord. This changes who he is from the inside out. Yet, many people do not believe in the transforming power of the gospel.

To be fair, the Apostle Paul did not believe in this power at one time. John Mark abandoned him once. Paul would not take him on a subsequent missionary journey. The dispute was so great between him and Barnabas that they went their separate ways. Barnabas took John Mark and Paul took Silas. It is extremely interesting that the early church was very wary of Paul when he came forward professing Christ. Barnabas believed in the power of the gospel and stood up for Paul. No one should have needed to explain to Paul how the gospel changes people. He was a product of a changed man by the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, years later Paul would ask that John Mark would be sent to assist him because he was valuable to Paul.

People have learned that past performance predicts future performance. They simply have a difficult time in believing that people will change. Most of the time they are right. However, people do change by the power of the Holy Spirit living within them. 

Too many times I deal with people who believe that being baptized will be their final act of sealing their ticket to heaven. They have no intention of being changed. They just want to go to heaven. I, personally, do not believe these people will be changed. They have not received the Spirit. They have performed a work that they believe will earn their place in heaven. Unfortunately, their destination hasn't changed and more than they have.

Too many other times I deal with people who come to church but have no manifest relationship with the Lord. They, too, never change. They endure the music and the sermons. They certainly are not engaged in them. I, personally, do not believe that they know the Lord either. How could the Spirit live in them without a change in them?

Then, I have people who have known someone who has sinned and may even have done so enough times that he is no longer trusted. These people reject the possibility that this untrusted person could ever become trusted. They seem to believe that a person instantly becomes all that they will be at the moment of salvation. Thus, there can be no change even if the person knows the Lord. This same sentiment makes Christians condemn themselves when they sin. They wonder how they could call Jesus Lord and act they way they do. They are correct in realizing that they are not acting under the lordship of Jesus. They are wrong in thinking that they achieved perfection.

Christian maturity is not an on/off switch. The person receiving Christ grows in that relationship. The person is changed in that relationship. Unfortunately, our testimonies don't reflect this. We tell of coming to Jesus and loving everything Jesus loves right away. We skip the parts that tell of failure.

Sometimes people come to me completely broken over their sin. They don't think they have changed a bit. They can't realize that the change that has already occurred and caused their brokenness over sin. They will be stronger because of this brokenness. They will continue to change.

So, you will be patient with people when you believe in the power of the gospel. You will forgive them as they have been forgiven by the Lord. You will be someone who lifts them up, encourages them and even may need to point out their sins. All of this is done to work with the Holy Spirit in bringing maturity in their lives.

Praise God! He is not finished with any of us yet!

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV) ⁹  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.