Jesus Changed Landscapes

What Did Jesus Do?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
2Corinthians 5.17

I think the folks who produce television shows, especially so-called “reality” shows, are far too impressed with themselves. They build someone a new house and call it an “extreme makeover.” Please, moving into new digs doesn't mean much more in the long run than winning the lottery; and there are many tales of woe associated with lottery winners whose lives are no better, and oftentimes worse, after their windfall. I guess there is nothing wrong with new clothes, new hairdo, new car, new home: it keeps tailors and barbers and car makers and carpenters in business. But none of these things really changes a person, does it? If we want to talk about extreme makeovers we need to accept that the work must progress from the inside out. Literally, it means being made into a new creation. And, ahhh, you guessed it, that's what Jesus did.

While John the Baptist proclaimed a coming transformation of the exterior landscapes of the world, with valleys being filled and mountains and hills being made low, with crooked paths being straightened and rough places being smoothed over (See Luke 3.4-6), John's cousin dealt with a very different and more stubborn landscape: the hearts and minds of men and women. You see, Jesus' specialty was the re-creation of interior landscapes. There was divine genius in this. Change the person from the inside out, and the exterior landscapes of their life, their direction, their relationships, and their worldview will be transformed.

The fallen world, corrupt and passing away, truly needed an “extreme makeover,” otherwise the whole mess was going straight to he _ _ ! But, while creation wasn't responsible, the guilt, if you will, lay with man, for it was man who first sinned. It didn't matter how many valleys were filled, how many mountains brought low, how many rough places smoothed, if the heart of men and women were unchanged the entire world would remain under the curse. The Father was not about to let this happen, so he sent the Son to go to work on our hearts. Give people a new heart, change their interior landscape, and the whole world could be saved. For Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3.17).

Most fundamentally, with their hearts changed, women and men would be reoriented 180 degrees. No longer would they be turned from God, but longingly, lovingly be directed towards God. With a new heart people would no longer have any reason to run and hide from God (See Genesis 3.8), but those who had had no relationship with God, who had never known him, would come to desire nothing more than to run towards him (See Isaiah 55.5). And, with a wholly new relationship with God, people would relate to their neighbors in a totally new way as well. Barriers and distinctions of gender, ethnicity, and social class would disappear (See Galatians 3.28; Colossians 3.11). Our worldview, how we perceive and understand everything, would also be transformed. Truth would banish the lies and illusions that for so long impaired our vision. Strongholds would be torn down, and remarkable new landscapes would be revealed and realized.

But the extreme makeover of humanity also required that men and women should die; actually, what was required was that people should be put to death for their sins. And here is where the Son did his best work. What good a new heart for men and women if all must die for their sins? And so the Son willingly offered his life for ours. Christ died and rose again so that we might both receive a new heart and the promise of new and eternal life.

The landscapes of this world change when people change. And the change is not a matter of new clothes or new car or new home, but a new heart which makes totally new creatures of us. Change even one heart, and you begin to change a family, a classroom, an office, even a congregation! Change a family, a classroom, an office, a congregation, and you begin to change a neighborhood, a school, a company, even the Church! Change these, and the landscapes of the world will begin to change. That's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4