Taking the Truth to New Territory
For the Passover Feast - the commemoration of the time when the destroying angel killed all the firstborn of the children of the Egyptians - the Jews had to remove all the leaven from their homes. The Passover was celebrated on the evening of the 14th day of the month of Nisan. By extension, the Passover was associated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was celebrated for one week. During this time, anything that was fermented was strictly excluded from the diet of the Jewish people.
Not too many people understood the symbolical meaning of the seven-day festival, but those who did - and tried to live in harmony with it - had the promised blessings of God in their lives.
In connection with the festival, the people were taught that leaven was a symbol of sin. And as their homes were to be cleared of all leaven, so they were led to understand that all sins had to be cleared away from their hearts. How can that be accomplished?
A person cannot, by the exercise of his or her will power, put away sin from the heart. He is entirely dependent on a power coming from without, from God. “The change can be made only by the Holy Spirit.”1 The purifying action of the Holy Spirit is represented by the sprinkling of clean water. The Lord says:
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an [new] heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
I repeat: We cannot change ourselves. Only God, through the Holy Spirit, can change our hearts with our consent and cooperation. The Holy Spirit is still active, leading men and women to find repentance and conversion as He did with a young man whose experience is still fresh in my mind.
After listening to a sermon on confession of sin, this young man turned to the pastor and asked for advice. I’m giving, in my own words, the gist of the conversation that followed.
“Pastor, I’m in trouble. I have sinned against another person and I don’t know what to do. I would like to make a confession and make amends, but I cannot muster up the courage to do that. I’m ashamed. I have built a boat for my boss, and, in my trade, I took advantage of him. I have used common nails (which are relatively cheap) instead of copper nails (which are expensive). Copper nails are used in boat-building because they do not rust in the water. In this case I was tempted to deceive my boss.”
The pastor said to the young man that he must go to his boss, make a confession, and make it right.
“I cannot,” said the young man. “I cannot tell him that I have robbed him. I cannot offer to compensate him for the wrong that I have done to him.”
“Why not?” asked the pastor.
“He is an unbeliever and a scoffer. I have often tried to talk to him about God and about salvation, but I only got derisive answers. If I tell him what I have done to him, he will say that I am just a hypocrite. I’m afraid to represent an unfavorable image of Christianity and Christians in general if I talk to him. But my conscience is bothering me. I have no peace of mind. I want to settle this problem and I don’t know how to.”
The pastor, again, insisted that he must talk to his boss, making a confession. That was the beginning of a fierce mental struggle. Positive decision and cowardly hesitation kept circling in his mind in a seemingly endless alternation. At the same time, however, the Holy Spirit kept rebuking his conscience and building up his courage to make a confession.
After a few days the young man met the pastor.
“Pastor,” he said with an expression of joy on his face, “the matter is settled. My conscience is clear now.”
“Tell me more about it,” said the pastor.
“Well, I confessed to my boss. There was a queer look in his eyes. Then he said to me: George, I must tell you the truth. I have always had an unfavorable opinion about you. I have always thought you were just a hypocrite, like others, those that call themselves Christians. But now, after I’ve heard your confession, I have changed my opinion about you and your religion. Now I begin to see that there is something positive in Christianity. It must be good to follow such a religion.”
The work of the Holy Spirit, which was seen in the experience of the young man, is illustrated in one of the parables of Christ. While Christ was teaching by the Sea of Galilee, a multitude of men, women, and children were attentively listening to Him. Most of His listeners belonged to the poorer and humbler classes of society. There were vagabonds, beggars, robbers, prostitutes, and also some educated and influential people. As these representatives of the higher social class looked upon the crowd, they started asking themselves an intriguing question:
“Is the kingdom of God” - that this Master called Jesus is trying to promote - is it “composed of such material as this?”2
The educated and influential men saw no future in the miserable human material that usually gathered around the Saviour. And He, who could read their thoughts, answered them by a parable - the parable of the leaven (Matthew 13:33).
Christ “drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him” (Luke 15:1). And, as a result, the Pharisees and scribes accused Him: “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them” (Verse 2). This accusation contained a malicious insinuation. They wanted people to form a negative opinion about Jesus. We often hear the warning: Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are. Evidently the concept of this proverb was there. The accusers of the Master hoped that the common people would judge the character, the mission, and the expected result of Christ’s work by the intellectual, social, and moral condition of His followers. He could read their thoughts and He warned them:
“Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:31).
On another occasion, when the Pharisees put a derogative question to the disciples - “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” (Matthew 9:11) - He replied to them:
“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Verse 12).
The Gospel is the good news that every sin-sick person that comes to the Great Physician can be healed. Praise be to God! “This Man receiveth sinners” in order to heal them and transform them into saints. It is true that “publicans and harlots” and all kinds of sinners will “go into the kingdom” - but only after they have been healed by the grace of God. The doors of heaven are open, not to unrepentant and unregenerate sinners, but only to former sinners. The apostle Paul clarified this point in these terms:
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, emphasis supplied).
From the parable on which Jesus spoke of the work of the Holy Spirit under the symbol of a bit of leaven introduced into the dough (Matthew 13:33), we learn that men and women can be changed only by the renewing power coming from God. All who desire to have a place in the kingdom “must submit to the working of this power.”3
When a sinner submits to the Holy Spirit, he or she will be guided into all truth (John 16:13) and undergo a complete change. The mind will be changed (1 Corinthians 2:16), the thoughts will be changed, the disposition will be changed, the desires will be changed, the voice will be changed, the countenance will be changed.
“Christ abiding in the heart shines out in the faces of those who love Him and keep His commandments. . . . The sweet peace of heaven is revealed [in their looks]. . . .
“Man with his human nature becomes a partaker of divinity.”4