“A Christian is a person whose sinful and rebellious heart has been changed by a miraculous act of the Holy Spirit of God, and upon hearing the message of what Jesus Christ did on his behalf, placed whole-hearted faith in Him, and in sincere sorrow, confessed his sins to a Holy God, and turned away from all of his sins in genuine repentance.”
Welcome again to Powerful God – Practical Faith. We are continuing our series, Bringing Clarity to the Term Christian, and are about to approach, what I hope will be a very spiritually introspective portion of our series. If you have been reading through this series with us thus far, we have been emphasizing the activity of the Triune God in bringing about our redemption. We have learned of God the Father’s plan from eternity past to call a people out of sin to himself, and God the Son’s activity as a means of carrying out this redemptive plan. We learned that all of what God has done and is doing for us is a result of his sovereign will and his sole choice to love on us apart from any merit of our own. But, as we shall see now, the Triune God of the Bible still provides more to us. This amazing God we have come to know during our time together not only completes his work of redemption “for” us, but also “in” us.
This leads us to Statement 8 in our series which says:
“A Christian is a person whose sinful and rebellious heart has been changed by a miraculous act of the Holy Spirit of God, and upon hearing the message of what Jesus Christ did on his behalf, placed whole-hearted faith in Him, and in sincere sorrow, confessed his sins to a Holy God, and turned away from all of his sins in genuine repentance.”
As we begin to dissect this statement, I want us to be reminded again of what we were apart from God. If I were to summarize my condition apart from God’s saving work, it would go something like this:
I was a willfully sinful, self-righteous person, with no real desire for God, who, although often restrained by God’s power and providence, had the capacity to perform all kinds of evil against Him, in defiance of His holiness.
This is the condemning testimony of all of us apart from Christ.
So, the question becomes then, how can the sinful heart change? What can be done to a heart that does not want to know God? The answer, yet again, is God Himself. However, this time, God the Holy Spirit does the work.
To understand the Holy Spirit’s work in the human heart, it is important for us
to first go back to a familiar dialogue in the Gospel of John between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. In their discussion, Jesus describes the Holy Spirit’s operation in the salvation of the Christian. Listen to what Jesus says here……
Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
St. John 3:3-8 (NASB)
Now we want to consider this description that Jesus gives Nicodemus of the Holy Spirit’s activity. Jesus first says that the wind blows where it wishes. What does this mean with respect to the Holy Spirit? Well, it is again, as we have been learning throughout this series, a picture of God’s sovereignty. When we think about the wind, we know that it cannot be harnessed or controlled. The wind comes and goes randomly, sometimes as a mild breeze and other times as a catastrophic hurricane. No matter how it is demonstrated in nature, all we can do is respond to it, either by enjoying its refreshing comfort or taking shelter from its fierce strength. The wind has a sovereign presence in nature. So, it is with God the Holy Spirit. He intervenes in whomever human soul he wishes. God is sovereign over the hearts of men.
Jesus then says that you can hear the sound of the wind, but you cannot tell where it is coming from or where it is going. So, what is Jesus saying here? Well, I believe what Jesus is trying to convey to Nicodemus is that those born of the Holy Spirit will respond to His work in their hearts. As the “sound” of the wind is an indication of the wind’s activity, a repentant and obedient heart toward God is an indication of, and a response to, the activity of the Holy Spirit.
The analogy of the wind here is such a perfect example when describing those who come to know Christ because of how erratic and arbitrary it appears on the surface. God is so absolutely sovereign that His choice of His elect people is very unpredictable from a human standpoint ……just like the wind.
Let me explain. How many times have you saw or heard of individuals who were absolutely horrible people suddenly go through an incredible spiritual transformation? They may have murdered someone, cheated people out of their livelihood, been completely dishonest in their business dealings, been constantly unfaithful to a wife or husband, were terrible fathers or mothers, etc. Then, by some miracle, their hearts were changed and the people they are now are totally unrecognizable. You see them making restitution for those they have wronged, committing themselves to be better husbands or wives, parents, and friends. You see them, with genuine humility, confessing to everyone how much of a terrible person they were, and how by the grace of God they are new people in Christ. Seeing this, you would say to yourself, “There is just no way that happened to this person. They were too far gone. It does not make any sense that he is all of a sudden “that different”!
In contrast, you may also see people with those same horrible qualities, just continue in them until death and never coming to a change of heart.
In addition, you have people who are “on the surface” very nice, loyal, law abiding and family-oriented people, who totally reject God and the means of salvation through Jesus Christ, while others with those same surface level attributes, come to a realization of their own sinfulness and unworthiness before God and come to Him in true repentance.
Why do human hearts, whom we have understood through God’s Word, to “all” be in rebellion against God, even from birth, respond to God so differently? Well, there can only be one reason. It is by the wind of God’s sovereignty! God saves whom he wills, and that means He will save those whom you would, and would not, expect him to. He has chosen an elect people whose number He alone knows, “before the foundation of the world”, it says in Ephesians 1:4. And, only the changed life of a person who has been born of the Holy Spirit of God informs us of God’s choice.
This is why I believe Jesus uses this metaphor of the wind. It is as if God just comes and goes, with no rhyme or reason, touching the hearts of varieties of people, in all walks of life, and with all degrees of human moral degeneracy, but all with the same spiritual degeneracy, and gives them brand new life. To us it seems arbitrary, but to God, it is very selective and purposeful. I praise God for being gracious in choosing, saving and changing me, a sinner!
Now the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God’s elect people always work in tandem with a particular message. In order to be saved the Holy Spirit must open the heart of a man to believe this message. This message is what we learned in our earlier blogs about Jesus Christ, more commonly called, the Gospel. It is faith in the Gospel that brings about salvation and new birth in Christ. There are many passages in the Scriptures that confirm that the Gospel is “the” message that saves:
Mark 1:14-15 NASB
Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Romans 1: 16-17 NASB
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.”
I Corinthians 15:1-4 NASB
Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
Ephesians 1:13
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise
It is amazing what happens to the Christian when he receives this message of the Gospel. When the Christian has explained to him that he is an enemy of God because of his sin, and that God’s wrath, condemnation, and judgment is on him. The Holy Spirit brings a conviction to his heart that cannot be ignored. He believes this condition about himself. Then, when he hears the Good News that there is a remedy for his sin, and that Jesus Christ has come to take on God’s wrath in death for him to satisfy his sin debt, and that Jesus Christ also defeated death through His resurrection to secure the Christian’s salvation and eternal right standing with God, the Holy Spirit of God who has given this Christian godly conviction over his sin also opens his heart in faith and gratitude to the provision Christ has freely given him. From a changed heart activated upon by the Holy Spirit, the Christian turns to God in repentance and faith. This is the miracle working power of our sovereign Triune God!
And what is so profound about this is that we can share this message of God’s salvation to any, and everyone, with full confidence in the Holy Spirit’s sovereign work that those who “truly” repent and believe the Gospel message, will be saved.
Listen to these Words in Ezekiel 36 and St. John 10…..
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV
Everything that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I certainly will not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of everything that He has given Me I will lose nothing, but will raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
St John 10: 37-40 NASB
The more I understand about God’s saving work in my life, the more I am humbled by God’s love and his decision to graciously save me for His own Glory.
Thank you for joining us again and please return as we continue to bring yet more clarity to the term… Christian.
God Bless.
English