Chestnut Hill Baptist Church

Titus 3:3-8 (English Standard Version)

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.  But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that  being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

I love the emphasis on the total life transformation in this passage. Because that’s what it’s really all about folks: Life Transformation. What is it to be a Christian? Well, it isn’t about being a good person, meaning that we simply modify behavior. It isn’t about having a reason to get up early on Sunday mornings. It isn’t about allocating 10% of one’s wealth to giving. It isn’t about joining a Sunday School class. It isn’t about a new dress code. It isn’t about committees. It isn’t about getting dunked in an indoor tub in front of people or sprinkled (for our Reformed brethren out there). It isn’t about stained glass. It isn’t about gaining a sudden appreciation of the pipe organ. It isn’t about pews or robes. It isn’t about joining a youth group (but we’re getting warmer…just kidding). It isn’t about calling other guys with whom you have no blood relation “brother”. It isn’t about hymns or handbells or loud “Hallelujahs”! It isn’t about building projects, service projects, mission projects, or any other projects. Have I missed anything?

Please don’t misunderstand me. None of the above is bad, per se. And while these things may be outward expressions of a Christian life, they do not define what it is to be a Christian. Simply put: A Christian is someone who has been completely internally and externally changed by Jesus Christ. Jessus didn’t die for something so petty as mere behavior alteration, but total life change. New life. New love. New song. New mission. New family. New God. Anything less is relisions forgery and not worth giving attention to. Perhaps Ravi Zacharias said it best, “Jesus did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead people live!”