Monthly Archives: March 2020

Weekly Devotional 3-16-20 A Changed Person

Weekly Devotional 3-16-20 A Changed Person

Are we who claim to be Christian, changed persons? A Christian is a person who has been given the Spirit of God as an indweller and He does not allow the Christian to live as he or she did before regeneration. So, if there is no evident change there probably was no regeneration. Being changed is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit but certainly there must be a perceivable change. The Holy Spirit, being God, cannot fail and He is in the process of conforming the Christian into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-30) who was sinless. Of course, even though the Christian is led by the Holy Spirit he will at times sin. The apostle John testified of that truth in his first letter to scattered Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor of his day. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us….10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1st John 1:8…10). So, the conforming is an ongoing process.

John writes that there are several things however that characterizes the life of a person who is being conformed.  We find those characterizations throughout the letter.

Characterization # 1:  Belief in the deity of Christ

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God” (1 John 4:15).

Characterization # 2: Obedience to God’s commandments

“Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him” (1 John 3:24a).

Characterization # 3:  Rejection of the world

“Do not love the world or the things of the world; if anyone loves the world; the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15)

Characterization # 4:  Repentance from sin

“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9).

Characterization # 5:  Love for others

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).

Characterization # 6: Rejection of false teachings

“They (False Teachers) are from the world; therefore, they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. And whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this, we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:5-6)

If a person is not characterized by these changes then it is  pro-bable that there really has been no change. Alas, if that be true, he or she is still in their sins and are accountable for them.  Consider that accountability recorded in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 20.11-15: “11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

This need not be. If you are being conformed to the image of the sinless Jesus Christ, you will escape this judgment. If you are not being conformed, what is holding you back? Jesus Himself said:

My Father so loves you that He gives me in sacrifice that you need not perish but have everlasting life. For God, My Father did not send Me into the world to condemn you, but that you through Me might be saved. (I have taken the liberty of personalizing John 3:15-20 for impact—For an exact reading, please read that passage)

Jesus is the way, the only way, to a changed life. 

Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man

Impacting Lives for God

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