Day 2834 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

2 Corinthians 5:16 NIV

We thought He was just a man. We thought His story would end with the cross. We thought that stone sealed not only His tomb but also His fate. We thought that we could just go back to doing as we pleased without this random stranger always warning us to change our ways. We thought that it was all just another flash in history that would be forgotten.

We thought wrong.

You see, God's never been persuaded by our arrogance. He has never rewritten His plans in order to appease our fallen sense of pride. He has never bent, never wavered, never stopped, never relented upon that which He has ordained from the very beginning of time. And He never will. His will will be done and the Gospel paints the most vivid reminder of that fact. There is nothing we can do to stop, alter, or avoid what God has planned to fulfill His purposes. All we can and should do is realize that it's all meant to change our perspective.

Perspective is a very important thing in life. It defines our outlook, determines our priorities, literally underwrites all we are and therefore all we do in and with this time that we've been so graciously allotted. But sadly, our point of view has always been one based almost entirely upon the common opinions of those around us. We've looked to the world to tell us who to be, how to live, what's important, and basically everything in between all the above.

And when we look to a fallen world to teach us how to live, then we'll find ourselves living in much the same way as the rest of this society in which we're currently residing. Sadly, that's exactly what's happened in us. That's what's happened to us. We've learned to see things as the world sees them, and unfortunately, this wayward world just doesn't take many highly important things into account. And therefore, this wayward world doesn't actually have the ability, let alone the right, to determine much of anything.

In a place where truth isn't welcome as lies are much preferred, righteousness is an afterthought falling behind our depraved desires, and selfishness is considered a virtue while humility is equated to weakness, we've adopted all those same beliefs and in turn lost all of who God made us to be. We lost the ability to see beyond what others tell us is there, and that's largely one of the main reasons we both fail to see and choose to ignore the truth and reality of the Gospel.

We've been discussing the harsher realities of the Gospel over the last several days, and how they tend to be largely overshadowed by the lighthearted aspects that we all find far more enjoyable and comforting. We don't look at the cross as a reminder of Christ's death but as a beacon of hope that echoes a promise still coming. We don't care to remember the pain of His torture as we're more interested in the happy parts that lie within the joy of His victory.

We sadly allow ourselves to focus only on what we want to focus on, and as we've been taught by a foolish world, we focus only on what makes us feel good. And as much as the Gospel is a feel-good story, it's also a story of just how far we've fallen and what we did to an innocent man because of it. That's why we can't just stay focused on one side of things. We have to see the whole picture in order to hear the whole story. Otherwise, we're just living a lie based on the things that make sense to us while ignoring the parts that aren't so easy.

And that's where a change in our perspective is so highly necessary. Like I said at the opening of today's post, we thought Christ was just another random guy spreading a random message that would soon fade into oblivion where the rest of randomness resides. We didn't realize what we were doing. Christ Himself said that very thing as He hung upon that cross. "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

He knew we didn't know. He knew we thought Him nothing but another blip in this story. He knew we thought we were just getting some weirdo out of the way so He wouldn't keep destroying our fun with all His talk of truth. He knew that we would kill Him simply because we didn't care to listen to Him explaining who He is and what He was doing here. He knew that we were simply lost within a perspective defined and cultivated by a fallen world that knew nothing of truth, and simply didn't mind staying lost.

That's why seeing and admitting His graphic and horrendous death is absolutely crucial in regard to our faith. It reminds us of how far we'll go to stay lost. It reminds us of how prone to sin we are and what lengths we'll go to in order to protect our free will and the freedom we think it allows us. It reminds us that who we once were, how we once lived, how we once thought, how we once believed, and how we once saw simply aren't acceptable because they're simply not accurate.

For so long we've existed within these hollow lives built upon the common lies that are formed only to appease this world's opinions that are foolishly seen as truth. We've learned to see everything from a worldly perspective. And that worldly perspective is one that told us that Jesus is just a guy, sin is okay, wickedness is a theory, God is a figment of someone's imagination, the Bible is just a book, eternity may not exist, all we have is now, follow your heart, live your best life, look out for number one, and all sorts of other straight up nonsense!

The issue is that when we cling to any part or piece of that perspective, then we remain at least somewhat detached from God and His truth that's meant to set us free by changing our lives in the most drastic way possible. We can't keep living as we once lived. We can't keep thinking how we've always thought. We can't remain who we are, where we are, with all the things that define all the above and still expect to find new life in Christ. He died to change us from the inside out, but if we still choose to fail or refuse to admit the entirety of His message, then we're not fully changed.

As we discussed yesterday, the cross is hard to look at because it exemplifies everything we fear. But it's supposed to. It's supposed to scare us. It's supposed to be so horrifyingly jarring that we're forced to open our eyes and soften our hearts and humble ourselves to learning an entirely new perspective not built upon our preferences. It's supposed to scare us of both what we deserve and sadly what we've become. But oftentimes we flee from fear because we just don't like it. And when we run from the fear of the Gospel, then we miss out on the changes it's meant to bring.

Friends, face it. Look Christ in the eyes as He hang there paying the penalty you owe. Look into the darkness of who we've been and seek the reasons as to why we've chosen to sink so low. We have to do things differently now. We have to change because change is the most important catalyst to growth. And the best way to change is to become absolutely horrified and ashamed of who we've been, how we've lived, and yes, what we've done to both ourselves and our Savior.

Continuing to look at Christ, the Gospel, our faith, our lives, our eternity through the perspectives that we've always held is the saddest failure possible. Christ died to open our eyes to another reality that we only knew how to ignore and deny. Continuing to ignore or deny any aspect of His truth is basically akin to asking Him to hop back up there and do it all again because we just didn't get it the first time.

Friends, if we're not changed then we're not saved. Simple as that. If we still harbor hatred for anything but our sins and the evil upon which they rely, then we've failed the get the picture painted by God's hand through the life of Christ. If we still see sin as harmless then we apparently don't see the cross as a reminder of Christ's death. If we still look at others with anger or hatred or disdain or resentment, then we don't remember that we're the ones who held the hammer that drove the nails that pierced the flesh that belonged to our Savior.

If we don't learn to see everything differently, then we'll simply never do anything different.

We thought He was just another man. We thought His story was unimportant and would soon fade out of our way. We thought His death sealed His fate and our freedom. We thought wrong. What else have we gotten wrong? What else do we need to change? What else do we need to learn to see differently? Are we still teetering somewhere in between the truth of the Gospel and the lies we've always found comforting?

The bottom line is that we need change. Change in perspective. Change in opinions. Change in our hearts. Change in our lives. And the best way to begin making all those changes is to accept the full truth of the Gospel and every part we've played and are called to play within it. Fact is that we've been wrong more than we care to admit. But, admitting it is the first step to changing our lives. And changing our lives is exactly what Christ died to accomplish.

So let the Gospel change you. Face every uncomfortable truth that it holds. Endure the process of humiliation as it sparks humility. Changing our perspective helped us see that Christ was far more than just a man who had to be killed to be silenced. It helped us learn to see that He is truly our Savior, and that we literally have no hope without Him and all He's done. Pretty easy to see that change can be a very good thing. As to why we still fear it, I'm not sure. But we best get over it and allow Him to keep changing us because we've still got plenty of room to grow!

And the most crucial thing we need to change and grow away from is anything and everything this world does, thinks, believes, or pursues. This place loves being wrong. We can’t follow that mindset anymore. Not if we want better than who we’ve been and what it deserves.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold