OUT OF THIS WORLD

                                                                    Out of This World

        Stop the World - I Want to Get Off is a 1961 musical. The title conjures up a picture of life’s journey being akin to travelling on a bus. Christians can be like this when faced with hardship. Another way of saying, ‘Stop the world!’ is ‘Come Lord Jesus!’ Instead of walking through ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ (Psa. 23:4) with the Lord, they want the Lord to ‘rapture’ them. However, Jesus prayed to His Father, ‘I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one’ (John 17:14-15).

Though neither Jesus nor His followers are of this world, we ought not to seek to stop the world so that we can get off just because the world hates us. Rather, with the Lord’s protection, we are to be about the business of redeeming it. This is also known as spreading the gospel of the kingdom.

The gospel, properly understood, is truly ‘out of this word!’ It doesn’t follow this world’s pattern ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will’ (Rom. 12:2). Mind renewal comes with a proper understanding of the gospel as the Holy Spirit works with the Word in our hearts. Jesus says of us, ‘They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth’ (John 17:16-17). Therefore, neither we nor our message is of this world. Therefore, we don’t need to stop the world so that we can get off. We’ve already been taken out of the world! We now walk around with the power of God. ‘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’ (1 Cor. 1:18).

Why is it so impossible for non-Christians to understand the Christian message? It’s because it is not of this world. This world is fallen. Sin has blinded us. Whether we admit it or not, we are in cahoots with Christ’s greatest enemy who uses us as slaves. ‘The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’ (2 Cor. 4:4). When we talk apples to those of this world they are thinking oranges. Nicodemus was conforming to the pattern of this world when Jesus said to Him, ‘I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?’ (John 3:12).

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We ask, ‘“Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”’ (Matt. 19:25b-26). It’s as Jesus said to Nicodemus, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying, ‘You must be born again.’ (John 3:5-7).

To be born again is to have the Spirit work with the Word in your heart savingly. The first indication that you’re born again is when you realise that Jesus is the eternal Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Then, like Thomas, you declare that the resurrected Jesus is truly God, and like him say to Jesus, ‘My Lord and my God!’ (John 20:28).

The gospel is ‘out of this world.’ You can be taken out of this world too, ‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved’ (Rom. 10:9).