“He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” That means that when people are born again and become Christians, they have the Spirit in them; they have an understanding, but other people cannot understand them.
The true Christian is a problem to everybody who is not a Christian, and this again, of course, is one of the best tests we can ever apply to ourselves. If people can understand you in total, you are not a Christian. The Christian is a mystery. The Christian is an enigma. He must be. You cannot have the life of God put into you and remain as you were. You become strange. There is a difference; something has happened. “How can these things be?” they say. They do not understand you. They see what has happened to you. They see what you are, but they do not understand.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Experiencing the New Birth: Studies in John 3,” pg.189-190
Jesus told us of this in John 15:19 - we are aliens here, just passing through this world, doing what we can do to aid those around us. The residents of this rock see us as aliens, objects of fear and distrust, although they don't understand why. They see our presence as an affront to their 'wisdom' when in reality our presence is an affront to their master.
ReplyDeleteDoug's point is well made and spot on.
ReplyDeleteI just had a discussion with someone who cannot abide the notion of a death-bed conversion. He doesn't see how someone can be a scum-bag all his life, engaging in all manner of sinfulness, and then at the very end be welcomed into Paradise. It doesn't seem fair to those who get it, and I'm not surprised if seems unfair to those who don't. But this is a situation where someone is judging the "rules" by their own standards of fairness and insisting that God must live up to OUR standards. I asked the dude, "Who's the creator here?" and that in all areas of life, we must play by the house rules. It's God's house, His rules. It's really that simple. Worse, his issue with the house rules is a cheap excuse to reject them and/or God. The problem is, his rejection of the "rules" doesn't relieve him of the fact that he is still subject to them, and the consequences for failing them.
He's certainly responding to the concept as if an alien.