Significance

I grew up with this lithograph of Jesus situated in my Grandmother's living room above her favorite chair.  It was a picture which brought such comfort to me looking at the relief in the eyes of those surrounding Jesus. They were clinging to Jesus with such hope and astonishment at His words, yet He was still very approachable.

It is true we are very significant to God.  Not that we are perfect or holy in ourselves, far from it!  We are trapped in fallible human bodies, but even with these limitations we are called to be His followers.  Jesus died to demonstrate the depth of His love so that when He died, He could go away and bring the comforter (or spirit of truth) to return and make His home in us, this way we would be empowered by the very nature of God.

It isn’t that we would be or do anything that would make us acceptable to God, it is that God has desired to accept us through the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ.

John 16:7 (VOICE)

⁷ But the truth is that My departure will be a gift that will serve you well, because if I don’t leave, the great Helper will not come to your aid. When I leave, I will send Him to you.

There are many scholars who agree that this is in reference to the Holy Spirit, in which John referenced repeatedly.

It is truly impossible to live out the Christian life left to our own devices.  We can do good works, plant churches and literally change the world, but if the Holy Spirit is not living in us forming and changing us daily to become more like Jesus, we run the risk of being rejected when we eventually stand before Jesus.

Matthew 7:21-23 (VOICE)

²¹ Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Simply calling Me “Lord” will not be enough. Only those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven will join Me in heaven. ²² At the end of time, on that day of judgment, many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not drive demons out of the possessed in Your name? Did we not perform miracles in Your name?” ²³ But I will say to them, “I never knew you. And now, you must get away from Me, you evildoers!”

So what is the true measure of being a Christian, what is the “True Significance” that defines us?  I believe the answer is found in the book of Galatians.  First let's take a look at the Negative and then the Positive:

Galatians 5:19-25 (VOICE)

¹⁹ It’s clear that our flesh entices us into practicing some of its most heinous acts: participating in corrupt sexual relationships, impurity, unbridled lust, ²⁰ idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, arguing, jealousy, anger, selfishness, contentiousness, division, ²¹ envy of others’ good fortune, drunkenness, drunken revelry, and other shameful vices that plague humankind. I told you this clearly before, and I only tell you again so there is no room for confusion: those who give in to these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. You won’t find any law opposed to fruit like this. ²⁴ Those of us who belong to Jesus have crucified our old lives and put to death the flesh and all the lusts and desires that plague us.

²⁵ Now since we have chosen to walk with the Spirit, let’s keep each step in perfect sync with God’s Spirit.

Paul spells it out: we are done with the demands of the law; now we are free to live in the Spirit and to be truly right with God. As free people, the Spirit forms in us the characteristics of Jesus; we, too, can freely love in joy and peace. We can have patience along with kindness and faithfulness that can only come from the Father. We can reflect the goodness of God while being gentle in operating with self-control. For those who follow Him and live in the Spirit, these characteristics or fruits are gifts which are formed from relationship with God. As we grow in the faith, we find that we belong to God and can walk daily in the Spirit.

I love the fact that Jesus compares our Christian walk to a branch connected to a vine.

John 15 1-4 (VOICE)

¹ I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. ² My Father examines every branch in Me and cuts away those who do not bear fruit. He leaves those bearing fruit and carefully prunes them so that they will bear more fruit; ³ already you are clean because you have heard My voice. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. A branch cannot bear fruit if it is disconnected from the vine, and neither will you if you are not connected to Me.

There is the utmost need to grow in daily relationship with Jesus, He desires to know us intimately by placing the Holy Spirit inside us to form us, and change us by working on our behavior.  Not just our behavior with others which is of utmost importance, but also our behavior with Him.  In our freedom to escape from a traditional organized religion or denominationalism we have a natural tendency (out of our own self preservation) to throw out the old practices such as kneeling, raising our hands in worship or even dancing.  We have a tendency to become so restrictive with our freedom that we fail to see the forest through the trees.  Freedom is without restriction, but our freedom must not become a stumbling block.  We have freedom to do these things, not out of obligation, but out of our devotion to Jesus.

True significance is realizing that the gift that Jesus gave us is freedom to become the men and women of God.  That is our purpose and our calling, anything else we do is secondary.  Want proof?  Take a look at Christian Ministries in the news recently.  God will allow a Christian ministry to fail because of a character flaw of the leader. Why?  Not because He wants to hurt the followers, or it’s leaders, but because he wants to bring healing and restoration to the 'one lost sheep'.  God’s desire is not for quantity, but quality.  He desires full transparency in our lives so that there are no dark corners for the enemy to inhabit and exploit. True transparency should come out of an abiding relationship with Jesus as we relate to Him and to others, not out of a self-deprecating attempt to expose our sin to gain the empathy of others.  God desires to impart the Holy Spirit into our lives to empower and transform us thereby making us more like Him. 

Take a look in the mirror, what do you really look like?  This question was raised on the TED Talk website recently.  One response that truly impressed me was this one from a man named Wayne on Mar 6 2014, “Physically, a mirror or picture will show you one perspective. The actual vision of what we look like, we must be able to see ourselves through the eyes of others.”  This is a true statement if we were only looking to define ourselves by ourselves, but as Christians we have been already defined by God’s word.  We must be able to see ourselves through the eyes of Jesus. God truly has forgiven us of ALL of our trespasses and sins and has adopted us as His own dear sons and daughters. That is the love of God at work demonstrating His mercy.

It is a wonderful thing to extend God’s mercy to others, it is something quite different for us to receive God’s mercy for ourselves and perpetually live in that reality.

That’s who we are, recipients of God’s undeserved mercy.  And it is that which makes us truly significant.

                                    ↓ Click Here to listen to the song

Break Our Hearts

(Kevin Prosch)

Teach us, oh Lord, what it really means

To rend our hearts instead of outer things

Teach us, oh God, what we do not see

About our hearts and of our ways

And Father, deal with our carnal desires

To move in your power but not live the life

And to love our neighbor with all that we have

And keep our tongues from saying things we have not seen

Oh, break our hearts with the things that break yours

If we sow in tears, we will reap in joy

That we might pass through your refining fire

Where brokenness awaits on the other side

Where brokenness awaits on the other side

Raise up an army like Joel saw

Your church that is stronger than ever before

They do not break ranks when they plunge through defences

But the fear of the Lord will be their wisdom

That they might weep as Jesus wept

A fountain of tears for the wounded and lost

Who ever heard of an army of God

That conquered the earth by weeping and mourning and brokenness?

But there will be a day when the nations will bow

And our Lord will be King over all the earth

And he will be the only one

And also his name will be the only one

Notes:

See Joel 2:12-14

Copyright © 1991 Mercy Publishing. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.
The music above is copyrighted by the respective artists, and is demonstrated here for educational purposes only