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Purity - now there's a great concept. Everybody loves purity. From the junkie buying heroin on the street, to the savvy investor buying gold on the open market. Turns out, we all want … purity.
This week on the program, we're chatting about the Miracle Makeover that God has planned for you … and for me. Because God is a miracle-working God. He has the power and the desire to make an amazing difference in your life.
Mostly we go to God and pray – God, can you change this, can you deal with this obstacle, can you help me in this circumstance, can you please provide this money, make this happen …. We're always asking God to do something, to fix something, to provide something out there.
The problem, in our mind, is always out there with other people or with the situation or with the circumstances. Come on, let's be honest here. Rarely if ever do we take responsibility before God and ask Him to change us, to work on us, to help us overcome our blind spots and our failings and our wrong attitudes and our selfishness and ….
We know the score. At least half of our problems in life – at least half, probably more – are all to do with our attitudes, our mistakes, and our perspective. How often do we take responsibility for those before God?
That's why we're in the middle of this series of ten messages called God's Miracle Makeover for You. Because He is that miracle-working God who wants to help us become all He's made us to be. And that to me is such an awesome message.
Theologians will talk about repentance, and sanctification. Good oh. Me, I prefer to think of myself as someone who needs help – like a physio in rehabilitation – to restore the full function of all I've been given. And, try as I might, there are plenty of times when I can't help myself.
And often, it's because I don't even see the mistakes I'm making. Often I'm completely clueless that I'm blundering in somewhere, and it's not until I'm reading God's Word and the Holy Spirit touches me deep inside somewhere that I realise. This is the miracle of transformation in Christ – it's the radical change that God wants to bring into our lives.
And today we're chatting about purity, because it's one of those areas where we have a great propensity to be blind to our failings. Now, purity is a great concept and whether we realise it or not, it's something that we value extremely highly. Hmm. Well … sort of. It turns out that you and I can be very selective about purity.
Let's just have a think about when it is that we really value purity. I used the example earlier of the addict buying heroin. They're spending money; they want to make sure they get what they're paying for – as terrible as that purchase is.
Buying gold is the same thing. If I'm paying a huge amount of money for just a single ounce of gold, I want to make sure that it's 99.99% pure, otherwise I'm being ripped off.
Buying a drink at a bar – do you want the drink to be watered down, or do you want it to be … pure? When you're dealing with someone in business, do you want them to have hidden, ulterior motives, or … pure motives? When you're choosing your life–long soul mate do you want them to be promiscuous, or … pure?
In each one of those instances the answer is blindingly, glimpsingly obvious. We want purity. In fact, when we're on the receiving end of the transaction or the relationship, we always want purity in the other party. Makes sense.
But what about when we're on the giving end? How highly do we value purity then? You're in a business transaction, and you want to close the deal on your terms. Do you bend the truth a little bit? Do you exaggerate slightly the advantages, play down the disadvantages? Sure, why not? It's business.
When you're filling out your tax return. Do you drop in a few low value deductions for which you don't have receipts because you never incurred the expenditure in the first place? Do you conveniently forget to declare some income that the tax department, really, is unlikely ever to find? Sure – why not, reduce your tax payment as much as you can?
It seems that when we're on the receiving end, we demand purity, but when the shoe's on the other foot, well – then we're prone to let ourselves off the hook rather easily. In fact most people will compromise on purity, if they think they can get away with it. That's the reality.
To God, purity is really, really important. Because He's pure. Everything about Him is pure. His love for us is pure. His intentions are pure. His passion for us to become more and more like Him … is pure. And should we ever doubt that, we need only gaze upon the Cross of Christ and what He suffered so that we might live. Never, ever will we see love purer than the love that we have from God through Jesus His son.
Have a listen to what God has to say about purity to you and me today – 1 John 3:1–10:
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God's seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
He starts off by telling us about His amazing love – just in case we should forget that His love means that we are His children. And just as children grow up and mature, you and I are on a journey toward maturity – and it's a journey from impurity to purity. Have another listen: And all who have this hope in him, purify themselves, just as he is pure.
And through John, God does on here and gives us a sobering slap in the face about sin. Just in case you were planning on compromising, just a little bit on your purity, He makes it really clear. You can't have a foot in both camps people. You can't be a child of the devil and a child of God. It's either one or the other. You're either on a path towards purity, or you're not. So which one is it?
And just when you and I are starting to feel totally down because we know, don't we, that there's sin in our lives, just when we're about to throw our hands up in despair as we read this passage that says: if you're sinning you're in effect living out your life as a child of the devil – holy moly that's strong, that's not mincing words, that's cutting right to the quick – just at that moment, He gives us the answer, the only answer that there is to our dilemma of impurity:
The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
My friend Jesus is the answer. The only way to travel from impurity to purity, from sin to righteousness, from being a child of the devil to a child of the living God … is Jesus. He has the power. The power of the cross to forgive you. The power of His Spirit in every man, woman and child who believes in Him, the power for a new life through the empty tomb, the power to destroy the works of the devil.
If purity is something that you want to value as highly as God values it in you – the answer, the only answer – is to walk the walk, with …. Jesus.
