Inside Out part 2
As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Everything real comes from deep within. That's why Proverbs 4:23 tells us to, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." It's all about love, which means it's all about the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests! That's why external things never satisfy. That's why behavior modification, from an external law, cannot produce real change. Our key passage for this Rant series is Romans 12:1-2 in the Message Bible. With the key being, "You'll be changed from the inside out." Well, today I want to focus on what (WHO) we are changed INTO from the inside out. And we find that answer in 1 Peter 3:4, "But let it be the hidden man of the heart..." And who is the hidden man of the heart? Jesus, of course! Hidden underneath all of the external, surface stuff. But always there. And when we see Him... we be Him. When we look into the mirror (of the Word) with an unveiled face, we see the glory of God (in ourselves) and we are changed into that same image FROM glory TO glory! What's inside comes out... when we know and believe that it's in there. Not when we try to be someone we're not. Not when we try to fit in, or conform to this world. Not when we try to obey an external law that was never given to us in the first place, and couldn't even be obeyed by the mediator of that Old Covenant! Here's the true purpose of that external law: "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24). Did you catch that? The law didn't justify us according to whether or not we could keep it. Because if that was the case we'd never be justified. Because none of us could keep it. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, right? So while the external law demanded perfection without being able to produce it, what it really did was bring us unto Christ. The One who COULD fulfill the law. The One who did it... because we couldn't do it. And since He had drawn us into Himself when He did it, we got all the benefits of it. All of the blessings. And since Jesus gave us THE measure of faith--by being the truth that we can believe in--we are justified... by Him. Not by what we did, or could do, but by what HE did on the cross. His obedience to the Father was our obedience to the Father. His death was our death. His resurrection was our resurrection! What I'm trying to say is the hidden man of the heart isn't hidden anymore. The mystery has been revealed: Christ in you the hope of glory! And now we have been equipped and empowered to live Jesus' abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life by submitting our bodies as a living sacrifice. By letting HIM live His own life in us, and through us, and as us! We're changed from the inside out because of what's inside us. Because of what--WHO--is in our hearts. In a Word, it's LOVE. And it's always been there, but until the Holy Spirit--the love receptor--took up abode in us we didn't know it. God loving us seemed too good to be true. But now we know it's so good it must be true! Now we know we don't need to follow a bunch of laws in order to earn something. Because the only thing we ever needed (again, LOVE) has been freely given to us. It's in there. And when we fill ourselves with the fulness of Christ--fill ourselves to overflowing--that's when it comes out. Naturally!