"…All my springs are in you." —Psalm 87:7
“Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “…put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. […] We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. […] …depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them[…] No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.”
I was watching a documentary of sorts on PBS the other evening. It was about people going back to the country of their ancestors. They wanted to recapture the culture and the religious practices of that country. To restore what was lost through the generations that lived in the United States. In other words, wanting to cling to the “seed of Adam” as if somehow that would make them right with the world and satisfy a void in their life. Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and philosopher wrote “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus” Along the same vein, C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Finally, to quote a famous "poet of our time" - Mick Jagger - "I can't get no satisfaction!"
"Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." - 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
If we are “in Christ” – redeemed – save – reborn by the Spirit – we are new, the old has passed away and all things are becoming new – we are living a new, sanctified life. Sanctified – set apart – consecrated for a holy purpose. The people in the documentary were/are struggling to satisfy the yearning that God has put in each of us. The natural man turns to natural things … possession .. cultural heritage … ethnicity ... national identity, but never finds satisfaction. That is because only God can satisfy that desire through Jesus Christ. The other solutions seem reasonable … but then God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts …
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” - 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
My encouragement to you is to keep this truth fresh in your mind. To have a spiritual perspective on what is going on around you. Knowing that your natural inclination is to try to find satisfaction in your life through the things of this world … but your true self - your supernatural life can only find satisfaction in Jesus. And if it doesn’t, well – Houston we have a problem! As we hopefully move away from the turmoil of the COVID pandemic and wars and rumors of wars, perhaps it is a good time to spiritually recalibrate your heart and mind. To shake off the old and fully embrace the new. It requires discipline and the pursuing the things of God through His Word, prayer and worship. That is my hope for you in 2022. But then again, that has always been my hope.
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