I was chatting to a man yesterday who claimed to believe the Bible, but he admitted he was not saved, that is, he had never been delivered from the danger his sins had brought him into. Naturally I wanted to know why!
The first thing Derek said was that he was a good person who did his best. I asked him was he always a good person who always did his best. He quickly and honestly admitted he wasn't and didn't. I told him that this left him without a leg to stand on before God, because God demands that we always be good and do our best, and he had just admitted that he failed to meet the standard, and was guilty of deliberately breaking God's law. This is why he needs Christ - God's provision for our sins. So, the question remained, indeed, it was now crying out for an answer - why did Derek not turn to Christ for salvation?! The answer he gave me was this, he couldn't see himself going to church and living the Christian life - it really wasn't his thing.
I told him this was a prime example of putting the cart before the horse! It's like me saying, "I would never make a good bird. I can't fly, I couldn't sit on an overhead power line, and there's no way I could ever eat worms! Nope, being a bird is definitely not for me!" But of course I could never see myself living like a bird - I'm not a bird! I don't have the nature of a bird, and so the thought of living like one is not attractive to me. I don't have the abilities of a bird, so the thought of living like one is impossible to me.
If I were to have the nature and abilities of a bird I would need a new birth, I would need to be born again as a bird, I would need to become a new creature with a new nature! So it is with Christianity. You may as well try and live like a bird as try and live like a Christian - you'd probably stick living like a bird longer! The Christian life seems unattractive and impossible to people because they aren't Christians! They need to be born again, they need to become new creatures, and once that happens they will have a new nature, a nature that loves God, His Son, His Word, and His people, and longs for fellowship with God and His people.
So what happens is that we recognise our need of God's grace and forgiveness, we see our only hope is in the sacrifice of Christ for our sins, and we bow before the Lord in repentance, trusting Him to save us. Upon believing, He gives us His life, and we discover that the things we thought we would and could never want and the very things we long for, and the things we thought we couldn't live without are things we don't want anymore! This is the reality of conversion, and I pray you will experience it today.
