Jesus Transforms Your Life

So, one day a man with leprosy comes up to Jesus. Now, we need to understand, this would be a little bit like someone with an active case of COVID coming up to you in March or April 2020. It would have probably been really concerning. For 1st century people, leprosy was the same. Those who had leprosy were supposed to stay away from society, outside of cities. It was a scary disease. Anyway, this man comes up to Jesus, falls to his knees and says to Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Now, at this moment anyone else who experienced this would probably be so scared of this man’s disease they would have run away. But Jesus doesn’t do that. Instead, He has compassion on this man and says “I am willing, be clean.” Just like that, this radical healing takes place. The man is made whole, immediately. Can you imagine, going from someone who had this horrible disease that estranged you from society, and in one moment with Jesus, everything changes? How amazing! If you want to add a bit more content, you can talk about how leprosy was a skin disease that caused the person to lose feeling to the point where an animal could bite you and you wouldn’t feel it or clean it, so it would get infected and body parts would eventually rot off, leaving these people as essentially zombies. Yummy.

This week we are talking about salvation. We’re continuing our series called “foundations” looking at what we believe and why we believe it. And we’re working together on understand our Statement of Essential Truths (SOET). This is a small document that helps sum up our core beliefs. We have these beliefs not because this document says so, but founded on the Word of God. So we have been making it our practice as we explore each point in the SOET to go to Scripture and see if the SOET lines up with Scripture. We’re going to continue today on this path, continuing to explore the topic of salvation.

Pray

So, why do I bring this story from Mark 4 about the man with leprosy? Because among other things, it demonstrates an experience with the healing power of God, and a tangible experience of what it means for Jesus Christ to radically change your life.

Giving your life to Jesus transforms your life.

Last week we talked a bit about the idea of transformation, focusing on how our status with God is changed. We are liberated from the chains of sin and darkness and have a new master - Jesus Christ. We have hope! We are now right with God.

However, this radical transformation encompasses more than a status change. We experience the effects of this liberation, and experience empowerment through the Holy Spirit, in the here and now. This is where we will spend the majority of our time today - focusing on how when you give your life to Jesus, He radically transforms your life from that moment on.

Liberation

What does it mean to experience the effects of liberation right here and right now?

Colossians 1:13–14 ESV

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

This gives us a picture of how liberation works. We are transferred to the kingdom of Jesus Christ

Now, with that understanding let’s look at this point of the SOET:

From the SOET: Salvation means to receive the Spirit, to be forgiven, reconciled with God and others, born again, and liberated from sin and darkness, transferring the believer into God’s kingdom.

Ok, part of liberation is justification. We explored the effects of this in depth last week: free of our bondage to sin, a status change, a clean record, etc. We have a change of legal standing. You are pronounced “not guilty.” Being forgiven, reconciled with God, transferred to God’s kingdom; This is justification and it is entirely God’s work. Another part of that liberation is called sanctification - this is the concept of how our hearts and lives are continually transformed as we become more and more like Christ.

A big part of liberation that we need to focus on is how the Holy Spirit now indwells us. This is where life-change comes from! He indwells someone when they get saved. Certainly we see this happening at multiple points throughout the NT. Pentecost, the healing of Paul’s eyes in Acts 9, and other places. And the Spirit does this work of growing us in Christ - sanctification. This is a process that starts at conversion, continues throughout life, and finally ends at death. We will never be fully perfect here on earth, but the longer we walk with God, in theory the more we should be growing in living in ways that are pleasing to Him. So liberation has long terms effects for our present life as well.

What I would really like to focus on as we consider the liberation Christ has given us is this part:

From the SOET: Our experience of liberation includes healing —whether spiritual, physical, emotional, or mental — as a foretaste of our future, complete restoration.

Healing. We know that when Jesus comes back He will set everything right. Revelation 21 4 assures us of the great and total restoration that will take place.

Revelation 21:4 ESV

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

But could it be that there is indeed healing for the present too, be it spirit, emotional, physical, relational, or mental? This requires us to go back to Scripture to understand these things.

Isaiah 53:4–5 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Similarly 1 Peter 2:24 tells us:

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

By His wounds we have been healed. Wounds here most likely encompasses not just Christ’s beating but His death. In this case, what is in view here is forgiveness of sins. Think about what we read from Isaiah as well: Christ was pierced for our sins and crushed for what we had done wrong. So in this case there is a spiritual healing that takes place. But does Christ’s atoning work pave the way for physical, emotional, and mental healing?

Colossians 2:15 ESV

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Here we see that Christ overcomes all evil by triumphing over them through His death and resurrection.

If we consider the ministry of Jesus Christ, we see that he proclaimed the kingdom of God in part by performing miraculous healings, raising people from the dead, and even exercising authority over the elements. Passages like Mark 4:35-5:43 - the calming of the storm, the raising of Lazarus from the dead in John 11, the deliverance of the demon possessed man in Mark 5, are examples during Jesus’ earthly ministry where He exercised authority over sickness, demon possession, and death. If you would turn with me to Matthew 9:21-22, I’d like to look at these verses together:

Matthew 9:21–22 ESV

for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

Notice the word Jesus uses at the end. He says that the woman’s faith has made her well. This word translated “well “ in Greek sozo means “save” or “deliver.” It communicates a restoration and wholeness that clearly extends to spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical healing.

But lest we think this is limited to Jesus, we see Him tell his disciples in John 14:12

John 14:12 ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

The book of Acts records miraculous healings - like the lame man made to walk in Acts 4, Paul’s demonstration of God’s power in the raising of the boy who fell out of the window in Acts 20:9, or the healing of Aeneas, a man paralyzed for 8 years, in Acts 9.

So what do we take from this? A few things:

Firstly, it is the Spirit of God who affects all of these amazing and miraculous experiences of liberation. Luke 24:49 - the words of Jesus at the end of the gospel - tell us that the disciples were in fact supposed to stay in Jerusalem until the clothing of power of the Holy Spirit had come. It was at the advent of the Spirit’s coming that we then see the church begin to explode.

Luke 24:49 ESV

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Second, healing is assured in the atonement of Christ. But we leave the where, the how, and the when, up to God.

Just after the turn of the last century, there was this saying going around in Pentecostalism: “No Doctors, no drugs.” In essense, they believed that if they just prayed enough, God would heal them.

Here’s the problem, sometimes the healing we want and expect isn’t what happens. We can pray for a miraculous healing that takes place instantaneously, yet God chooses instead to use the wisdom of doctors over the course of time to bring that healing. Sometimes we pray for healing here on earth, and yet God in His sovereign wisdom chooses to complete that healing work at home in heaven. That is part of our currently reality: we have a foretaste of the glory to come as Romans 8 23 tells us

Romans 8:23 ESV

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

So do we just give up, because we don’t know the outcome of our prayers for healing in totality? No way! We continue to pray earnestly, and trust God. The beauty in living life in Jesus is that we have hope, and we get to experience this amazing foretaste of the kingdom to come in fullness! And what a foretaste it is! How many people even here have testimonies of God’s healing work in their life? I know I’ve got a testimony of my own with this! So when Jesus died on that cross and rose again, He liberated us, giving us spiritual restoration, physical, mental, emotional, and even relational healing. And yes, here on this earth sometimes we don’t see full healing in the ways we’d like it - not always - but we walk with hope and assurance of total restoration, walking in empowerment here on this earth even now.

This is the first evidence of how the Gospel changes everything - we see the works of liberation played out in our own lives. The power of sin and death is broken!

Now we turn to a second aspect of how the gospel changes our lives:

Hope

Living with hope is something we need to focus on, because it is an important and foundational characteristic of the Christian faith. So let’s look again briefly at our SOET:

From the SOET: Those who remain in Christ and do not turn away are assured of salvation on judgement day by the indwelling Holy Spirit, who sanctifies and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

There’s this age-old question here that I’m sure has kept many a devout believer up at night: “Can I lose my salvation?” Some Christians say most definitely not! Once you’ve been saved that’s it. Once saved always saved. I have a joke you could use here, haha! Others would not lean totally in that direction. Unfortunately from other perspectives Christians end up coming up to the altar time and time again so that they might “really be saved” this time. Either extreme is not the ideal perspective to have. So how do we balance this?

Our SOET uses language that suggests that perhaps someone could lose their faith, but if that is true how does this work? We need to be careful in how we handle this. And I’ll say this, I do not claim to have all the answers, but what I’m sharing with you as we look at Scripture I pray will help bring hope into your heart for the future.

So, we start with passages like this one from John 10:27-30

John 10:27–30 ESV

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

So according to this verse, not only do Jesus’ followers know His voice and follow it, but no one can snatch them out of Jesus’ hand. This could be argued to suggest that one cannot lose their salvation. Similarly, Eph 1 13-14 states:

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

So could it be that these verses are saying that once you’re saved you’re always saved. That’s that? Yet we have verses like Matt 10:22

Matthew 10:22 ESV

and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Romans 11:20–22 ESV

That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

Last year, we discussed Heb 6:5-6 in our series on Hebrews

Hebrews 6:5–6 ESV

and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Now we know that the Bible can’t be saying two things at once. You can’t be “once saved always saved” and yet not, so how then are we to understand these verses? First, we have assurance of faith. As we discussed previously, those who are saved have the Spirit of God living and active in them. He seals us - as Ephesians tells us - as the guarantee of the promised hope of our full inheritance. However, the reality is that we also need to persevere in our faith. This we see clearly in passages like Matthew 10 and Romans 11. Hebrews 6:5-6 functions as a particular warning to those who maliciously reject the free gift of salvation and the inner working of the Spirit, even after having truly experienced what it means to live in faith. The road back for these people is at the very least, not clearly marked. Perhaps even nonexistent.

Yet we live with the hope that Jesus keeps us from stumbling, as Jude 1 24 tells us.

Jude 24 ESV

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

The conclusion come to in review is that we don’t need to come up to the altar every Sunday to get re-saved. We are saved by Jesus Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit, kept in Jesus until He returns. At the same time, the onus is on us as well to persevere in Christ, even as He keeps us from stumbling. This is not a one-sided thing. We need to have a living and active faith - as James tells us in James 2. We are told in John 15 that the Father prunes those vines that produce fruit, but for those who produce nothing He cuts them off. So our job is not to worry necessarily if we’re saved, but to firmly be planted in our faith in Jesus that compels us to live changed, transformed lives. Lives that demonstrate the hope of the gospel. And this hope is both for eternity, but even for the right now, and we experience the effects of liberation from sin and darkness in our day-to-day lives.

This is where the last part of the statement comes in: “the indwelling Holy Spirit, who sanctifies and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.” Again, we experience liberation, and through the Holy Spirit we see the effects of liberation and empowerment right now! The comforter has come, that we might be empowered for Christ-like living, walking in the example of our Lord, and that we might serve Him. It might be helpful to read the whole SOET section at the beginning so that it is more familiar when you come back to specific points in it.

The Gospel changes everything in your life because the hope Christ gives in the assurance of your faith means that no matter what you face, even now you can walk with joy and excitement for what is to come.

Conclusion

Giving your life to Jesus transforms your life

We have seen this in two distinct ways: Through liberation, the effects of which we in the here and now begin to see! Certainly we are still waiting Jesus’ return. But even in this time the Spirit moves and is active, and makes our salvation real to us. Healing in particular is a large part of our experience of liberation, be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit as part of our salvation.

We have also seen this through our experience of our hope. We have assurance of salvation as we persevere in Jesus. He keeps us from stumbling, and seals us with the Holy Spirit.

Faith in Jesus transforms your life. There’s 101 religions out there right now telling us that we should do this, or that, or be this, or pray 5 times a day. But there is only one faith that actually transforms you from the inside out. There is only one way in which you receive true hope and real, lasting new life. Jesus Christ is the only way.

If there is anyone here who has not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, there is an invitation extended to you right now. Giving your life to Jesus will radically transform your life. You have the opportunity to be set free and live a life filled with the hope Jesus brings. The hope that brings healing. You have the opportunity right now to accept the free gift of salvation Jesus offers you. So I want to encourage you not to wait.

Our experience of liberation - our realization of hope starts here, right now. In the next few weeks we will be moving to discuss more in depth the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and His empowerment. This week, I’d like to challenge you to intentionally spend time with God getting your heart ready for these next weeks. Focus on how our hope in Christ, and our experience of liberation bring healing spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Then, ask God’s Spirit to help you be receptive to how He wants to use the gifts He has given you. Finally, ask Jesus - when you are ready - to pour out more of the Spirit upon you. Prepare your hearts in this week for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Pray.