WHAT KIND OF POWER?
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the saving power of God for everyone who has faith. Rom. 1:16, N.E.B.
I could hear him coming even before his car rounded the corner into my driveway. It was the muffled, throaty roar of a highly tuned engine, impatient with slow travel. But the sleek, brilliant red car was enough to make any man's blood pressure rise. It was a flawless De Tomaso Pantera Stage 3, one of the most exotic performance cars on the road today. When he handed me the keys and said, "Take it for a spin," my knees went weak.
I topped sixty miles per hour before I shifted out of second gear. It had the kind of power you feel shoving against your lower back. In my timidness I slacked my speed quickly, but he assured me I had come nowhere near sampling its upper limits. And all that power was available simply by pressing down the toes of my right foot!
Many times we Christians long for a power in our daily living that is just as tangible, just as muscular, and just as quickly available as that huge V-8 engine. We wish for a divine magical shove in the lower back that would keep us away from a second helping of dessert. We'd like a strong "hand" placed over our mouths when we are angry or over our eyes when we are lustful. We ache for something that would kick us out of our chairs to shut off the TV. And then we sometimes fault God for not providing just that kind of power when we needed it.
But salvation, at all its levels, is not a product of physical power. It is not a sanctified shove toward righteousness. It does not "make" us do something we don't want to do or have desires that we have not consciously chosen to relish and nurture. God works through the power of truth that appeals to the intellect and the loyalties. We are on Christ's side because we have seen the beauty of who He is, and we have chosen Him as Lord. We embrace His lifestyle because we have found it to be sensibly appealing. We love His Word because it appeals to the highest levels of our beings. We open our hearts to His Spirit because, as a gentleman, He respects our freedom. There is nothing of coercion in the kingdom of Christ, not even toward the right!
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the saving power of God for everyone who has faith. Rom. 1:16, N.E.B.
I could hear him coming even before his car rounded the corner into my driveway. It was the muffled, throaty roar of a highly tuned engine, impatient with slow travel. But the sleek, brilliant red car was enough to make any man's blood pressure rise. It was a flawless De Tomaso Pantera Stage 3, one of the most exotic performance cars on the road today. When he handed me the keys and said, "Take it for a spin," my knees went weak.
I topped sixty miles per hour before I shifted out of second gear. It had the kind of power you feel shoving against your lower back. In my timidness I slacked my speed quickly, but he assured me I had come nowhere near sampling its upper limits. And all that power was available simply by pressing down the toes of my right foot!
Many times we Christians long for a power in our daily living that is just as tangible, just as muscular, and just as quickly available as that huge V-8 engine. We wish for a divine magical shove in the lower back that would keep us away from a second helping of dessert. We'd like a strong "hand" placed over our mouths when we are angry or over our eyes when we are lustful. We ache for something that would kick us out of our chairs to shut off the TV. And then we sometimes fault God for not providing just that kind of power when we needed it.
But salvation, at all its levels, is not a product of physical power. It is not a sanctified shove toward righteousness. It does not "make" us do something we don't want to do or have desires that we have not consciously chosen to relish and nurture. God works through the power of truth that appeals to the intellect and the loyalties. We are on Christ's side because we have seen the beauty of who He is, and we have chosen Him as Lord. We embrace His lifestyle because we have found it to be sensibly appealing. We love His Word because it appeals to the highest levels of our beings. We open our hearts to His Spirit because, as a gentleman, He respects our freedom. There is nothing of coercion in the kingdom of Christ, not even toward the right!
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