Last week, Tuesday/Valentine’s Day, was my six year anniversary of my kidney transplant. Also last week in the Sunday school lessons the writer was comparing being born again, being converted, being transferred from ‘in Adam’ to ‘in Christ Jesus’ to having a heart transplant.
Conceived in sin, we are conceived ‘in Adam’, born with dead hearts of stone. God had warned Adam and Eve, ‘you will surely die’, and they surely died. Not in the sense that we assume, physically, but spiritually. Here we have the first example of why we need listen to God and not engage with satan. Do not be earthly/fleshly/physically-minded…but be spiritually-minded/focused; especially as we seek to understand and obey the Word of God, and His promises of blessings and curses. (Psalm 51:5; Genesis 2:17; 3:7; Colossians 3:2; Matthew 16:23; Romans 8:5-8)
We are all children of Adam, inheriting dead hearts of stone due to the fall. We are all conceived with dead hearts, dead spirits, utterly unable to hear the LORD's voice, or to choose to obey Him. Only those who are born again are reborn with living hearts, hearts of flesh, with the Living Spirit dwelling in them and enabling them to hear the LORD's voice.
Once a transplant takes place, that is not the end of the story. That is the beginning of the story. The beginning of a new life. The beginning of being free to take personal responsibility.
I think this is where most professing Christians struggle individually, and in obeying the great commission.
We stop after we think a heart transplant has happened. We stop after baptism. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)
We reassure ourselves and others of the heart transplant, of salvation, stating truths like salvation cannot be lost, that Jesus will never leave you or forsake you, that they are now going to get into heaven, and that they are safe from hell.
When we ask for people’s testimonies or even share our own, it’s often about one moment, one decision, one act, one time and one memory. What should be the very beginning of the testimony of God's work in us, ends up being the whole entire story itself.
We expect babies to grow when they are born. We strive to teach them and encourage growth in every way. If a baby isn’t hitting certain markers in weight gain, strength, movement, coordination, and speech, we are alarmed that something is wrong, and we seek to know what’s hindering their growth and development.
Yet when people are claiming to be born again, we rejoice and move on. We do not look for growth or development. We do not look for a change in their desires, affections, wills. We do not strive to teach them, nor do we encourage them to grow in grace, to grow in the knowledge of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We leave out the next part of Jesus's great commission: “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:20) The Reformation Study Bible by Ligonier Ministries comments, ‘Disciples are not just taught what to believe, but how to obey. Jesus taught practical holiness.’
Once a heart transplant happens, the new heart needs to be trained, cultivated, nurtured in how to function properly. How to use it's new freedom from slavery to sin to observe all that Jesus commands as our Lord.
There’s so much more after baptism. There's so much more after birth. There's so much more after a transplant.
Just as I was passive in receiving my kidney transplant, we are passive in receiving our new hearts of flesh. But after both transplants, we cannot remain passive, but must become active in keeping and guarding our new organs. We are active alongside our physicians, our Great Physician, in keeping and guarding our organs functioning properly. We work together.
For the first week after my kidney transplant I had my blood tested every day to check my immunosuppressant levels weren’t too high or too low, and to make sure my kidneys were functioning. I had to measure everything I drank and everything I peed. Once I left the hospital I had to get blood labs drawn three times a week, weigh myself every morning, take my blood pressure and my blood sugar levels. I had to go into the transplant clinic once a week.
After the transplant I also had to dramatically change what I was eating. Before the transplant I had to have low protein and no dairy. After I had to switch to high protein and dairy. For three months I was not allowed around children or in public due to risk of infection because of my extreme susceptibility.
These are only some of the measures taken after the transplant to make it a success, to get the transplanted organ to keep, and not to be rejected. There were months of preparation before even getting on the transplant list. I also attended classes and was given ‘the transplant bible’ (a large binder) to read and go over multiple times before the transplant, and then again in the hospital before I could go home.
If such extreme measures are taken to keep and guard my kidney, which on average will last ten years, why are we so neglectful of hearts/souls that will last for eternity?! If we are so diligent in monitoring children’s growth and development so that we can address the problem before it gets too far along, why are we so reluctant and embarrassed to address sin that hardens our new soft hearts?!
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day…that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:12-13
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23
John Bunyan writes about the various access points to our hearts that we need to be watching carefully. He refers to them as gates: ear-gate, eye-gate, mouth-gate, nose-gate, feel-gate. (The Holy War)
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It very well could be the beginning of an intentionally set apart period of time to refocus, to return to the LORD with all our hearts; with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, rending our hearts, for a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart are acceptable and pleasing sacrifices to God; to remember from where we have fallen; to repent, and do the works we did at first; to remove our detestable things from the LORD’s presence; to cast off every weight, every hindrance, every sin that is distracting us and taking our eyes off of Jesus and the kingdom of God. (Joel 2:12-13; Psalm 51:17; Revelations 2:5; Jeremiah 4:1; Hebrews 12:1-2)
Every Ash Wednesday I think of one of the girls at Gordon that truly understood the reason for Lent, for fasting. As every one else was giving up things that would help them look good on spring break, she gave up any type of movie, book, etc. that sparked longing for a romantic relationship. The desire for a boyfriend, for a fiancé, for a husband was hindering her from desiring God, from delighting in God, from longing for an increasingly intimate relationship with the LORD.
She had identified the dangers at her various gates to her heart, and she was taking fervent action against them. She had found that growth in her love for the LORD had been hindered, and the cause of the hindrance. She had found that she was not cultivating her heart to grow in grace and knowledge of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and so she was purging out the distractions taking up her precious affection.
There are no commands in Scripture for us to set these specific forty weekdays apart for fasting, mourning, prayer and devotion; but there is something special, supernatural in knowing that many saints around the world will be gathering together in the Spirit during this time doing just that for the sake of the kingdom. We are commanded to fast, to test and examine ourselves. So why not now, and why not together? (II Corinthians 13:5; II Peter 1:10; Philippians 2:12-13)
We are encountering spiritual attacks individually, in our local church bodies, and as the universal Church Body, and so I intend on taking advantage of this opportunity to better know the unity of the Body, to work towards functioning in a more orderly manner as a member of this Body, and to be reminded that Jesus is building His Church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against us. (Matthew 16:18)
-Soli Deo gloria
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