I only know it happened . . .

When I was a brand-new Christian, a neighbor told me that salvation happens in an instant but, “You will spend the rest of your life trying to figure out what happened.”

Maybe. I remember later sharing my conversion story with a woman in Alaska, she said, “Oh, you just changed yourself.” I knew that was not true, but I could not explain why.

Today’s devotional says that some Christians try to find a natural and reasonable explanation for what God did by His Spirit. This cannot be done. Only God can transform people, taking us from the darkness of this world and bringing us into the kingdom of His Son. How it happens remains mysterious.

But it does happen, and everything changes. I once thought of Jesus as a nice guy. I once thought I could change myself if I tried hard enough. I once thought I could change others if I could perfectly frame my argument. Not a hope. Only God can do those things.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:16–21)

These verses tell a little of what happened. They say that God put my sin on Jesus and His righteousness in me. This was His way of reconciling me to Him and making me His child, even His ambassador. None of this has a logical or scientific explanation. Oddly enough, I don’t need one. He says what He did; I know it happened and am content with that.

If I need more, it is not so much in what happened, but what is supposed to happen because of it. Every Christian is called to live an impossible moral and spiritual life. God can give us an intense desire and a pure heart to live for Him, to glorify Him and tell others about Him but we cannot do it without Him.

Even the desire to live such a life did not come from me; it is a God-thing, motivated by the King of Kings and empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is so incredible. Doing anything in the power of the Holy Spirit is so ‘not me’ that when someone notices and gives comment, I often cannot see what they saw. I only know my own helplessness and dependency on God.

Of course, that flesh or old nature would have me think otherwise, that I can do this myself, boast about it and take the credit. I’m beginning to realize when that happens I was likely doing whatever I was doing in my own strength anyway. That is, when others praise me, they are seeing my personal effort and not the work of God — or they would be praising Him. At any rate, when God does it, I am so aware of my weakness and need for Him that I don’t even realize that He is doing anything through me and am puzzled by the praise.

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I am loving the freedom of believing in You without any need to figure out what You are doing, the how or the why of it. You are totally trustworthy. When I obey, I want You to be praised. I’m not able to do anything without You and am fine with that . . . and I know that even that attitude is Your doing and not mine.

Dismiss God’s wrath and the vileness of sin — and what else goes with it?

The depth of our sin and the wrath of God against sin is not popular teaching. Some say God is only love, and that love does not get angry at sin or that Jesus died so we could be forgiven and just get on with loving God and serving others. His death had nothing to do with appeasing God’s wrath or with being a substitute for sinners who should die because of sin.

However, if the wrath of God against sin is taken out of the Gospel, then there is no need for reconciliation. God can just ignore our sin as if it does not matter, leaving us with no model to show us how to deal with our disputes against each other.  

Without God’s wrath against sin, we do not need to be made new creatures. We can stay as we are and even cut out these verses from the Bible: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

Our sin remains in our ledger, and we have no message to give others that will clear their sin and change their lives. Instead of being ambassadors for Christ through which God makes His appeal, we are left with watered-down statements of what Christ has done. We cannot implore anyone on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. Nor can we say, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:16–21)

Besides the wrath of God, justification by faith is also being excluded from the gospel message. This too is an important part of it, even the core of God’s good news. He says, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

If I cannot be justified by faith, then I default to a constant striving to ignore God or please Him. This fills me with pride and self-righteousness, or with hopeless despair. Striving and despair are not in the Gospel. Justification by faith is the good news, the good news rediscovered in the Reformation, and the good news that produces rejoicing and hope.

Not only that, this reality enables me to “rejoice in (my) sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put (me) to shame, because God’s love has been poured into (my) heart through the Holy Spirit who has been given to me.” Outrageous, but good news – life changes because God changes me.

Further, Christ died in my place. The idea of substitutionary death cannot be removed from the gospel either. Without it, there is no salvation: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:1–10, some personalized)

Without reconciliation by His death, He cannot present me “holy and blameless and above reproach before Him” (Colossians 1:22) nor give me “the ministry of reconciliation.” That means, just as in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, He entrusts me with the same message. I and all who are justified are “ambassadors for Christ” and He is “making his appeal through us.” We are God’s workmanship and His workers. Life is eternally meaningful!

Without the depth of sin, the wrath of God, the substitutionary death of Christ and the reality of justification by faith, I cannot implore anyone on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18–20) or invite them into abundant and eternal life.

Without the full truth of the Gospel, Christians cannot settle their differences by being willing to follow the same pattern of loving sacrifice. This is extremely important. Jesus said we are to love one another because it marks us as His people, as those who are a new creation: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)