In the Old Testament God has a passage where He tells us how “Christianity” will work when Christ arrives. It’s a prophecy in Ezekiel 36, where God tells us how He will re-constitute us, change our interior make-up, and re-fabricate us for living in kingdom relationship with Him.
He says in Ezek 36:25-27 that He will surgically take out our old heart, and give us a new heart. You’ve probably read Jeremiah 17:9 that says the heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick; who can understand it? Well, THAT is the heart God has removed from us as believers. In its place Yahweh, the personal God we worship, imputed into us a new heart. My interpretation is that this Old Heart/New Heart in Ezekiel is the same as the Old Man/New Man in Paul’s writings. Our sinful nature (i.e, our old spirit inherited from Adam) is crucified with Christ (see last week’s blog), and our spirit is then born-again in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Eph 4:24).
Next Ezekiel says that Yahweh will impart in us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Then it says that Yahweh-God will cause us to obey Him. Plain as day: GOD WILL CAUSE US TO WALK IN OBEDIENCE.
Haha! I’m just kidding. It doesn’t really say that.
Most of you were thinking, “Oh, wow, that’s weird. For a second there, Carter, I thought that you were serious, but you are just being funny, huh?”
NO.
I’m not kidding. (I’m kidding about the kidding.) God really did say that. Go look it up for yourself. Ezekiel 36:27 states absolutely that God will put His Holy Spirit in us to work with our new heart, and He will cause us, or move us, to obey Him. Yahweh is so committed to our success that He assigns our obedience to His job description. Not ours.
Now that really is weird, huh? Are you curious about this? Want to know how this works?
If God takes on the assignment to cause you to obey Him, then what would be your responsibility? Simply, all you have to focus on is showing up. Christianity is a receiving system, and your job description is to show up, receive grace, and let grace train you in obedience (Titus 2:12). You start walking and He starts working. As you read the truth in Scripture, and start walking in what you are reading, God works into you what He wants out of you. Just show up.
The word for “just show up” in the New Testament is the word present, and this takes us back to Romans 6:12-13. Paul tells us to present our bodies to God. Stop presenting your body as an instrument of unrighteousness. But start presenting your body to God as an instrument for righteousness. We are alive in our spirits with the righteous life of Christ. So now, we present our body to that righteous life, and that life will make our body an instrument for righteousness. Let Him reign in us and through us, using our body as His substitute body, manifesting His righteousness through us.
Receive. Show up. Present yourself, and receive more Grace. This grace will transform you. It will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Grace will train you (Titus 2:12) to abandon your behavior that bears fruit for death (Rom 7:5), and He will train you in righteousness.
So, how does Christianity “work?” It works when you don’t work. Give up working for God. You walk, and Grace works. Grace will train you to live righteous, godly and sensible in today’s world (Titus 2:12). Grace will train you to obey Him.
For Grace is a person. The Lord Jesus Christ.
Here’s how you can do it. As you wake up on your pillow, or as you stand watching your coffee drip, or as you pull up in the parking lot at work, or as you pull out your calendar to plan your day, simply pray something like this,
Dear Lord Jesus, Thank You for being my grace today.
I present myself to Your life and the Holy Spirit in me.
So live in me today that You cause me to obey Our Father.
So live through me today that Your righteousness is on display.
Since You are my life, I yield to You. I’m showing up . . .
And He will change you at the level of Identity.
-Carter