Witness Protection Program Part Two
by Grant Gaines
Last week in “Witness Protection Program – Part One”, we discussed the intra-personal implications of 2 Corinthians 5:17 – a new life found in Christ. This week we will dive further into 2 Corinthians 5:17 to see the inter-personal implications of this verse.
Before Saint Augustine was Saint Augustine, one of the most influential Christian theologians of his time, he was anything but a saint. As a teenager, Augustine abandoned Christianity in favor of a hedonistic (“self-gratifying”) religion which encouraged its followers to partake in as many sexual exploits as possible. For the hormone-crazed, teenage Augustine, obeying this religious duty was no problem at all.
However, after becoming a Christian and a “new creation” in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17), Augustine rejected his former sinful ways. But not everyone recognized Augustine as a new creation.
When visiting his hometown shortly after his conversion to Christianity, one of Augustine’s former girlfriends repeatedly called to him, “Augustine, Augustine, it is I!” You see, she assumed that this was the same old Augustine who cared only about gratifying his sensual desires and she was more than willing to help him reach this goal. After she had chased him around for the majority of the day echoing the same statement, Augustine finally turned to her and said, “Yes, but it is not I.”
The problem Augustine’s former girlfriend ran into was that she failed to recognize Augustine as a completely new creation. He was no longer the hedonistic, prodigal teenager he once was. Augustine was now a dedicated Christian, a, “…saint…belonging to God…” (1 Peter 2:9, NIV), and most importantly, he was living for a greater purpose than his own selfish desires.
But just as Saint Augustine’s ex-girlfriend had him pegged as a sinner rather than seeing Augustine as a transformed being, don’t we do the same to others as well? I believe one of the biggest sins we can commit is to accept grace from God for ourselves but refuse to extend it to others. When someone judges us based on who we used to be, we get defensive because we have grown and matured by the power of God. But how often do we do the very same thing to others? We allow a first impression of someone or how they acted in their adolescent years to define who they are 10, 15, 20 years down the road.
Do you see how big of a problem it is for Christians to have that mindset? As Christians, we should be in a continual state of positive change, always “…growing in every way [to become] more in more like Christ” (Eph. 4:15, NIV) because the Holy Spirit is always doing “surgery” on our hearts. As Christians, we should wear a sign around our necks that say, “Caution, under construction” because we are always growing. So when we hold onto the first impression of who someone is when we first meet them, we are failing to take into account the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
Consider the implications of this notion. This means that the person you think is furthest from the Gospel, the person who you believe was the most deeply entrenched in sin, and the person who is more likely to use the name of Jesus in a swear word than in a prayer all have the same opportunity as you to be transformed into entirely new creations by God’s grace.
A perfect example of this is the life of Paul, which we looked at last week, and saw how he was transformed from a Christian-killer to a church-planter all because of the promise found in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) which says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” But the sailing wasn’t always smooth for Paul. In fact, “When [Paul] came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple” (Acts 9:26, NIV). Just as Saint Augustine’s ex-girlfriend didn’t see Augustine as a transformed person, the disciples failed to see Paul as a new creation.
However, fortunately for Paul, there was a man named Barnabas who saw him as the new creation he truly was. Barnabas understood that while Paul had once been the number one enemy of the Church, because of the transformation that had taken place in his life through Jesus Christ, he was now, “…[God’s] chosen instrument to carry [His] Name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.” (Acts 9:15, NIV).
And thank God for all the “Barnabas’s” in our lives! Those people who don’t hold our past against us but accept us as changed brothers and sisters in Christ. But like I said earlier, are you accepting this grace for yourself but refusing to extend it to others?
If that’s the case, then make it your prayer today to no longer take a one-time “snap shot” of who a Christian brother or sister is, but trust that the God who declared, “…Behold, I am making all things new…” (Revelation 21:5, ESV) is in the process of making them new and transformed person.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
{ 2 comments }
I enjoy your articles. Continue to grow in the Lord and be mightily used by Him!
Another good one!