The only Real Change Agent
“Can the leopard change its spots” (Jer. 13:23)? Can an evil man become kind and loving? Can a deceiver become honest and trustworthy by reforming himself? No. Then how did John Newton, committed slave trader, become a preacher of freedom? How did Chuck Colson, Nixon’s hatchet man, become such a humble agent of truth and the gospel? How does a Hell’s Angel biker or a drug dealer, or a womanizer become a godly follower of Jesus? Through saving grace.
We’ve been considering the astounding attributes of God in this series of blogs. God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable. He is all wise, all powerful, and omnipresent. Although he is far beyond our comprehension, yet he has revealed himself as one who can relate to us as a Father. He is good in at least five ways.
His universal kindness—he is good to all,His mercy and compassion,His long-suffering—slow to anger,His love,His grace.
Grace is the goodness of God expressed towards guilty sinners. Grace is why God is moved to forgive repentant sinners. It is what triggers the Holy Spirit to create within the sinner a new heart as predicted in Ezekiel. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26. See also Jer. 31:33, John 3:3, Hebrews 8:10). Without that new heart within we cannot change. Yoga will not do it. Counselling will not change us from the inside out.
The instantaneous and dramatic change in Saul from being one who hated and imprisoned Christians to the Apostle Paul who preached the gospel throughout the Roman Empire is because of grace. His conversion is one of the great proofs of the truth and power of the Risen Christ. From his sudden conversion on, Paul celebrated salvation by grace rather than through works of the law as prescribed by his Pharisaical training.
“The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works,…for we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Eph. 2:8-10).
God gives good gifts, not because we earn them, but by grace—his undeserved favour. His greatest gift is seen in the 
birth, teaching, death and resurrection of His Son. “But you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).
If we try to earn our salvation by going to church, trying to be good, or keeping sacraments or anything else, we deny and vilify the GRACE of God. Everything a saved sinner has is a gift of undeserved grace; forgiveness of sins, the new birth (regeneration), justification, sanctification, and ultimately glorification. Receive it. Rejoice in it. Give thanks a hundred times a day.
The Puritan had it right when he prayed; I know that that Thou art the author and finisher of faith, that the whole work of redemption is thine alone, that every good work or thought found in me is the effect of Thy power and grace, that their sole motive in working in me to will and to do is for thy good pleasure. O God, it is amazing that we can talk so much about man’s creaturely power and goodness, when, if thou didst not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate. This, by bitter experience, thou hast taught me concerning myself. (The Valley of Vision; Banner of Truth.. quoted in a Sept. 2002 Steve Brown letter.)
Do you want real change? Character change? Come to Jesus Christ and he will change you from the inside out.
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