There’s a children’s book called “A Porcupine Named Fluffy.”
After several unfortunate events, he became suspicious that he wasn’t fluffy at
all. But he wanted to be fluffy, so he tried to be fluffy. He imagined he was a
cloud, but he couldn’t stay up in the sky. He tried to be a pillow, but when his mom sat on him she
didn’t like that too much. He tried soaking in a tub for a long time. He ate
lots of fluffy marshmallows. He covered himself in shaving cream and feathers. But for
all his effort… no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make himself fluffy.
And it seems to me that we sinful human beings are a lot like Fluffy. We want to be good. We want to be righteous. I think there’s something inside
every one of us that knows we must be righteous in order to please God. And
we’re not. Some pretend that everything is fine… that they’re not sinners. They think if they think positively about it or ignore it, then it will go away. Others make a long list of dos and don’ts and
try really hard to keep them. Some religious people might immerse themselves in
church activity. They think the more they do for God, the better they will be.
Sometimes we make this a strategy for our kids… keep them busy, and they won’t
get into trouble. And while that may work for a time, it doesn’t deal with the
deeper issue. We are sinners and we cannot change.
Just as the leopard cannot change his spots, so we who are used to doing evil cannot do good (Jer. 13:23). But the answer is not ignoring the problem, trying harder, or doing more, but by
realizing just how helpless we are and how much we need someone else... outside of us, to save us.
We read of the answer in Ezekiel 36:24-27. Listen to the
promise God makes there: “I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you
from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle
clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your
impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart
of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and
be careful to keep my laws.”
We are cleansed by our sinfulness only by the blood of Jesus.
He is the righteous one. And he is the only one who can present us as righteous
before our holy God. If you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus, who
died on the cross to save sinners, then he will forgive you. He will cleanse you
from all your impurities and from all your idols. And he will give you a new
heart and a new spirit. He will remove from you your sinful heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh. And he will put his Spirit in you and move you
to follow his decrees and make you careful to obey his laws.
Oh, friends, does that resonate with your heart! Does your
heart shout, Yes!? I want to know his word! Yes! I want to obey him! That’s
happened to me! Oh friends, I pray so. Because this is the heart he has given
to his people. He has saved us and he has made us willing to walk in his ways.
In Part 2, we will consider how God makes us more righteous. In other words, now that you're a Christian how does God make you more like his Son Jesus Christ?
