Thank you to Pat for this week’s MWB
Holy Spirit in Renewal and salvation
There always seems to be programmes on the TV about transforming things – an old banger into a gleaming vintage car, an overgrown garden into a peaceful patio, a cluttered house into a minimalistic home, a bunch of ingredients into a delicious meal and amazing makeovers of tired clothes and sometimes tired faces and bodies!!! We may all long for some practical transformations in our lives but should also recognise and desire the spiritual transformation Paul speaks of here in Titus 3: 3 – 7.
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life
This makeover is not just skin deep, or until the weeds grow again, but is a totally radical spiritual transformation with an eternal consequence, which must start from the inside and radiate out each and every day.
We all begin life in a state of sinfulness, ‘we’re foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures and live in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another’. Does that sound like your life at any time?
God offers us an alternative, a different kind of life, he offers us salvation. He offers us his love and mercy and to be clothed with his righteousness through what Jesus did on the cross for us. This transformation comes through the gift of the Holy Spirit which washes and renews, making us new creations. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) As Jesus says to Nicodemus – ‘you must be born again’. John 3: 7, this transformation really is a ‘start again’ moment, a total renewal of values and our motivation in life.
We cannot make this change ourselves, following a plan or recipe, or buying what’s required, because it’s a free gift, born out of God’s generosity to humanity – obtained only by receiving Jesus as Saviour and Lord and being washed and renewed from the inside out through the work of the Holy Spirit.
This spiritual transformation makes us heirs of God promise of eternal life giving us hope and the sure knowledge that we are justified by faith in Jesus.
Spend some time considering if there are any areas of your life which need more of the Holy Spirits transformative power to renew thoughts, behaviour or attitudes.
Give thanks for God’s generous love and pray to receive more of the Holy Spirit’s power to grow in faith and love for God and others.