Change: How Should We Respond
Imagine you are a first-century Jew living peaceably in your small village, content with the traditions and customs which have defined your people for thousands of years. You make your daily trek to the well, while your husband, sons, father, and brothers go to Synagogue to study the Torah. You enjoy a shabbat meal with your extended family every week. Passover is the highlight of the year, when you all remember together how God saved your people out of Egypt and rescued your ancestors’ sons, while the firstborn Egyptian boys were killed in their beds.
And then, one day, a relatively unknown teacher shows up, claiming to be the Messiah.
Everything you have ever known or been taught is suddenly questioned. Haven’t you - and your entire nation - looked for the Messiah for hundreds of years? Could this be true?
But there is much at stake, and your doubts are strong. It is not just your religion that Jesus is challenging. It is your entire way of life: your culture, your history, your traditions, your families, and even your future. Everything.
If I had been a Jew living in the time of Christ, would I have accepted Jesus as the Messiah? Would I have recognized the Holy One, God Himself, in the flesh? Or would I have clung to my pride, the Law, and the ancient ways? Would you?
I’m afraid I would have been blind to God Himself in the flesh and trusted only in what I had already known and experienced.
The notes on 2 Corinthians in the Scofield Study Bible say this:
“It is evident that the really dangerous sect in Corinth was that which…rejected the new revelation through Paul of the doctrines of grace…seemingly oblivious that a new dispensation had been introduced by Christ’s death.”
In other words, the most dangerous sect in Corinth - and there were many - was the one which did not recognize (or accept) that God had brought about a change - a new dispensation or way of doing things - by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
They missed the most important event in human history, while it was right in front of their eyes. Why? They pridefully refused to accept change - even from the hand of God.
I am a fearful human being. I do not like change. So, how can I recognize change that is brought about by God’s will and direction, as opposed to worldly influences or the deceitfulness of my own heart?
I believe the answer lies in this fundamental truth: God never changes. How can we reconcile this with the fact that He did seem to change the way He dealt with mankind?
Since the Fall, God has promised to bring about a way to restore our fellowship with Him. The entire Old Testament was a picture, an object lesson of that Way - the only true Way - back to Him. And although we no longer need to observe the sacrifices or the Levitical law, He used that system to prepare us for the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
God did not change in this; rather, He faithfully fulfilled His initial plan. The Old
Testament is another evidence of God’s grace in helping us frail humans understand what Christ has completely, ultimately accomplished on the cross.
“Now when these things (the tabernacle and its tools) were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present…
“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:6-9a, 11-14)
Yes, God always has dealt with mankind on the basis of His grace and man’s faith (enabled by His grace) in Him. But the object of faith is now sight: Jesus. The Father’s plan has been fulfilled, and sinners are given the choice to accept it - to accept Him - or to endure eternal separation from God.
God has always loved the world, God has always wanted to restore the lost to Himself, and God has always been working to accomplish that in every life. God has not changed.
The second way to recognize change that comes from God is to know His Word. Learn of His character and nature. Study His ways of dealing with mankind. What does He love? What does He hate? How does He expect His children to live? What sets Him apart from mankind? How can we imitate Him?
Scripture tells us that when we have the Holy Spirit living within us - which all Christians do - we will know the mind of Christ (I Cor. 2:16), we will be conformed to His image (II Cor. 3:18), and we will know and do the Father’s will (John 14:15, 21). Each of these will require us to change in some way.
John gives us a few more clues to recognizing the hand of God at work. The Father promises to answer our prayers concerning those changes (John 14:13 and 15:10), and He promises that as we do His will, we will have peace (John 14:27) and joy (John 15:10-11).
The changes that He ordains may not be to your liking. You may not understand the reasons why. He may even ask you to endure something unpleasant or difficult. But nothing that God brings into your life will contradict with His will or His Word. It’s really that simple.