” Jesus Christ not only changes what you do; He changes what you want to do.” Ravi Zacharias
Although we seem to be living in the beginning of the Great Falling Away prophesized in the Book of Revelation, there has been no decrease in the interest in spirituality. What is it that drives man to the spiritual?
Since the Garden of Eden, man has been incomplete. He was created to be in relationship with God. That relationship was broken by his sinful state. Most sane men recognize something is missing. They know that they are not all that they were meant to be. Though they may attempt to fill that emptiness with material things, the failure of those things to ultimately satisfy leaves them hungry for something else and guilty for their foolish attempts to find that something in the wrong places.
In almost all of its forms, spirituality seeks to fill that emptiness. Some are attempts to climb up to God. Others are attempts to find God inside. Still others seek to make Man into God. Of all these forms of spirituality, only Christianity works. The modern new spirituality teaches that there are many ways to God. That’s just wrong.
Christianity is different because it is what man is missing: relationship with God. That relationship is possible not because we change God into something we can deal with; but because He changes us into something He can be in relationship with.
Only Jesus changes what we do and what we want to do. Other forms of spirituality may make us happier with what we are by deceit. They may provide us with a set of rules which if we could live by would make us better men. But with Jesus, we are new men. Not just forgiven for what we have been, but empowered to be what we were created to be: holy creatures acceptable by God.
If this is true, why the great falling away? Why have so many not found Christianity to be the answer? I love G. K. Chesterton because he was a huge guy. He was also a great Christian. He said: “The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried & found wanting but that it has not been tried.” We have generally failed to understand and to make others understand the wonder of grace. It’s wonderful forgiveness for our past stumblings and for the stumblings we continue to make. But it’s the power not to stumble. All other forms of spirituality are weak imitations.
To a world mired in fruitless spirituality, we need to live out Jesus and boldly present Him as the only answer.
Be blessed.
Nick
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