The greatest challenge I have experienced my seventy-plus years has been my own bad character. For a considerable time in my life I was dominated by covetousness, passion and anger. It is so difficult to change such characteristics that many people give up on themselves and others thinking “the leopard cannot change its spots.” Many in my family gave up on seeing any positive change in me. Not that they cut off any relationship or love. They tolerated my behavior and speech because they loved me, even when I was unlovable to many. I thank God that in my senior years I still have a family, a wife and children and all is intact, for the most part. The Apostle Paul wrote about people who were dominated by sinful passions and behavior saying that such people “have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven.[i]” He had a whole list of sinful behaviors worthy of condemnation that he presented to the people of Corinth. Then he wrote,
“Some of you were just like that. But you have been washed; you have been sanctified; you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11
This is where people can find hope to change— “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” Paul was confident in writing such a fantastic statement because he was a man who had been changed in that same manner by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. He knew that if God could change him, anyone could find the same power for transformation. It is real change from the inside out, resulting in a drastic transformation for the better in our conduct toward God and others.
Our world and our culture need such hope. Tyrants and ordinary politicians of democracies use covetousness, passion, and anger to manipulate and control the masses. Only in Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God will we find that culture of truly free people who love God and love their neighbor enough to do unto them as they would have done to themselves. We who follow Jesus Christ confess our sins before all but also testify to the transforming grace of God. It is the only hope of change for the better among humans.
Where do I start? How do I experience a new birth? It begins with humbling ourselves before God, admitting that we have sinned against God and others. We confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that He died to pay the penalty for our sin; that He rose from the grave; and have faith in His power to change us. Multiplied millions of people from every corner of Christianity are witnesses to the personal change that comes about with a new birth. My testimony is the same as Paul’s, “Have hope! If God can change me, He can change you.”
George Cargill
[i] 1 Corinthians 6:9-10