I LOVE to watch Yahweh transform the life of an adult through regeneration, baptism, and discipleship. It is a truly fantastic thing to behold. Their lifelong worldview and daily practice get turned upside down…or right-side up, if you will. The way they think and process is transformed – made new. The way they behave. The way they treat others and talk about others. The way they treat who they are and what they have been given.
But not only actions are changed…the reason/mission/purpose behind their actions change. What they value is transformed. Everything is affected by their repentance (turning the opposite direction from their sin) and their regeneration (being brought from death into life by the indwelling Spirit of God).
It’s not always easy. There are some strongholds in their lives…secular worldviews or generational sins that are deeply rooted and engrained by their family of origin or their secular education that they struggle to let go of. This is why we believe it is essential to teach and to train our children from a Biblical worldview from a very early age. But “OH!” the transformation when it happens. It is radical and victorious and the LIGHT of the gospel that shines brightly as a testimony of Who Yahweh is and what He has done.
This is something sooooooooo different from the act of “becoming a Christian” or “converting to Christianity.”
When people attempt to add the church to their life as a loving, accepting community;
When they add Jesus as a “safety net for heaven” to their already broad collection of gods that they worship (self, image, wealth, entertainment, pleasure, success, career, family, church, etc.); When they don’t repent of offending the person and the character of Yahweh by their sin; When they don’t submit to the Lordship of Jesus; — there is no regeneration…there is no transformation. All the “change” that happens in their lives is sheer self-initiative by self-power motivated by self-glorification. It doesn’t last. It never fulfills. It eventually fades, disenchants, and departs, and the individual eventually walks away from their version of “christianity”, blaming God for not performing for them or being there for them, the church for not caring for them, the bible for being antiquated and irrelevant, and the list goes on.
New life in Christ is UNMISTAKABLE. It is upside down/right-side up transforming. It is redeeming. It is restoring. It is lasting. It is eternal. It is holy. It frustrates those who are not of the Spirit. It infuriates its opponents.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. – 2 Corinthians 5:17
Minimizing me...making much of Jesus 