CHANGE

Change

 If you were an old house, what do you think could be done with you? Should you be condemned as unsafe? Or could you be renovated to become a home fit for royalty? In terms of the Bible, all mankind is standing like rows of condemned houses. We are like derelict and dilapidated buildings with broken windows and leaky roofs. We stand covered in grime and soot awaiting the wrecker’s ball. But God has decided to spare some of us. He has decided to renovate us! He has purchased us and He is forming us into a new community.

A change God makes when He converts you is that He removes certain walls. The solid brick wall between you and God was demolished when you were converted. Adam built the wall that separates each of us from God. His design was passed down from generation to generation. Therefore you live in a house with a wall separating you from God. However, when God moved into you (i.e., the Christian’s) house, the wall of the carnal mind which is enmity against God was torn down. Romans 8:7 says, ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God.’ ‘Enmity’ is something that separates, a barrier, a wall. God levels that wall in you first off. Then He begins to patiently clear away the dust and rubble.

The other wall that needs to be torn down is the wall between you and your brother and sister in Christ. Scripture says, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ Galatians 3:28. There may be racism, social distinction, sexism in the world outside, but there is to be none of it in Christ’s church. Each of us has our different roles to play in the church and in society, but we are not to despise others because of their station in life. However, the wall between you and your non-Christian neighbour stays in place. If you’ve ever renovated a house, you’ll know about ‘supporting’ walls. These cannot be removed unless you want the house to fall down. The wall between the Christian and the world has to remain or Christianity crumbles. Christians need to be aware that it’s not a flimsy plasterboard partition. It is a load-bearing wall.

You wouldn’t renovate an old house without rewiring it. If you’re going to think the thoughts God wants you to, you’ll need a new electrical system. Scripture says, ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God’ Romans 12:2. You used to be wired according to the system of this world. But now you’ve been rewired to accommodate a power way stronger than the power in the world. Before your regeneration and subsequent conversion your sins had tripped the breaker, blown the fuse. Sin had broken your connection with God. But now God has come into your house and is busy rewiring.

An old building wouldn’t be an old building without its grime-covered windows smashed. The Lord is repairing your windows. Windows are for letting in air and light, and seeing out of. However, they also let out light. When the Lord turns on the power in the Christian’s house the lights come on. If Christ the Light of the world comes, by His Spirit, to live in your home it stands to reason that the lights will come on.

Thank God for changing your life. ‘He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ’ Philippians 1:6.