Question and Answer Evening - 7/31/02 — David Guzik

The Sense of Salvation and the Transformation of Conversion

Now, you have to give me a few moments until we get there, but tonight we're going to be turning around to a lot of different passages of Scripture, but we're going to begin at Colossians chapter 1. So turn in your Bibles there, keep a finger there, and listen to me for a few moments as I approach what I want to talk to you about this evening.

As part of my devotional reading over the past few years, I've made it a point to read biographies, or sometimes autobiographies, of great Christians. And one book recommended to me by Gail Irwin that I had in my library that I had never read was a book called A Song of a Sense by a fellow named E. Stanley Jones.

And E. Stanley Jones was a famous missionary to India. He was an American born on the East Coast in Maryland, born in 1884. He died in 1973. And E. Stanley Jones was a very well-known and a very effective missionary in India.

He went there in a very much different way than the English missionaries to India had gone. The English missionaries went to India pretty much with the heart to make the Indians as English as possible.

But that was not the heart of E. Stanley Jones. He wanted to show them how you could still be a good Indian and still be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. He was controversial in some ways, but he was an amazing man.

And I've been very blessed by reading his autobiography, which again is titled A Song of a Sense. Now, in the early chapters of this book, E. Stanley Jones remembers his salvation experience as a teenager in Maryland.

He remembered what it was like to be converted. And he recorded what changed in his life and what changed in his perception of life. Now I found his description to be very real and thoroughly scriptural.

So let me read to you several paragraphs from E. Stanley Jones, and then I want to talk about it from a scriptural framework. I'll title this message The Sense of Salvation, because that's what E. Stanley Jones speaks about in these points.

Again, I'm quoting from him now, beginning now. What had really happened? I said that a tiny ray of light had pierced my darkness. In that ray of light, as in all light, there were seven colors blended.

Three primary, the rest secondary. So now he's going to list three, excuse me, seven things that he gained or that changed in his life when he was converted. Number one, a sense of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, with life, with my brothers, with myself.

The universe seemed to open its arms and take me in. The parable of the prodigal son was reenacted in my setting. Number two, a sense of being at home in my homeland. I did not try to make myself at home in my new condition and position.

I was at home. This was my native land. It had the feeling of a homecoming upon it. This is where I belonged. Number three, a sense of purpose, direction and goal. I had been a raft tossed by storms and waves of meaningless emotion.

Now I had been taken aboard a great steam liner that was going somewhere with some goal, with the power to move on to that goal. A woman in one of our ashrams, this is a community of Christians that East Stanley Jones formed in India.

A woman in one of our ashrams asked, is there anyone here with a car going anywhere? Well, I didn't want to go anywhere. I had a goal and power to move on to that goal. Number four, a sense of not being alone.

I had another who knew and understood me perfectly and was always with me. In spite of knowing me, he loved me. I was loved and I was giving love. I was no longer preoccupied with myself. My entire being went out in gratitude and love to another.

Myself absorbed me. Myself absorbed me no longer. This was the greatest emancipation. With it came a sense of caring. I began to think and care for others. Number five, a sense of being a person. My total being was awakened and coordinated and fulfilled.

One man said, I'm not a man. I'm a menagerie. Do you know what a menagerie is? It's a cage where a lot of different animals are, oftentimes wild animals, but not necessarily. It's a cage with a lot of different animals in it.

So he said, one man said, I'm not a man, I'm a menagerie. I was a menagerie too, growling with passions in a state of tension. But now I was at peace with myself and respected myself as a person. My whole being was awakened, including my mind.

Conversion Brings Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Number six, a sense of wholeness. Fragmentation was over. Life was pulled into central meanings and purposes around a single center. And then number seven, a sense of grace. How did this happen to me?

I felt so undeserving and unworthy, and yet it was mine. I found myself going into solitude and reading my New Testament. And when I came across a verse which spoke of him, I found myself reverently pressing my lips to that verse.

I gaze at him and wonder and wonder until my knees bend in gratitude. But I'm soon up on my feet again with a compulsion, a divine compulsion, to share this with everyone, everywhere. Now, I don't know about you, but I found that list remarkable.

Let me read it again to you. Just just the title points, not the descriptions. This is what happened to E. Stanley Jones as he describes it later when he was converted, a sense of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, with life, with my brothers, with myself, a sense of being at home in my homeland, a sense of purpose, direction and goal, a sense of not being alone, a sense of being a person, a sense of wholeness and a sense of grace.

My suggestion to you. Is that the description that E. Stanley Jones gives of what conversion feels like is thoroughly scriptural and thoroughly accurate, and so I want to take a look at these one by one and consider whether or not they're scriptural.

First of all, E. Stanley Jones said that when he was converted, he had a sense of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, with life, with my brothers, with myself. He says the universe seemed to open its arms and take me in the parable of the prodigal son was reenacted in my setting.

Look at Colossians chapter one, verse 14. There, Paul says in him, excuse me, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Is it God's will to give those who are converted by the spirit of God a sense of forgiveness?

I think it's absolutely so. I mean, the person is forgiven. It's not wrong and it's completely appropriate for them to have a sense of forgiveness, a sense of reconciliation. Now, I like how Paul puts it in Colossians 1, 14, where he says in whom, because he's speaking about a person and who's the person?

Well, it's Jesus himself. It says in verse 13 that he's delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

You know, it's a beautiful thing to consider. This thing that's East Stanley Jones speaks about this sense of forgiveness. Where does it come from? Where does the sense of forgiveness come from? Does it come from hearing a good message on forgiveness?

Not necessarily. Does it come from your brothers and sisters saying, I forgive you? No. Look at it right there in verse 14. In whom we have. Where do you find the sense of forgiveness? You find it in Jesus Christ.

Matter of fact, if you go down to verse 21 of Colossians 1, I think it's another great place where he describes the same dynamic. He says in verse 21. And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled, you're reconciled to God, that there used to be a separation between you and God, whether you sensed it or not, it was there and now it's gone.

It's vanished. And so now we can have a sense of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, with life, with my brothers, with myself. God is in the business of reconciliation. As a matter of fact, he says that he's entrusted to his people, the ministry of reconciliation.

And really, we find from passages like this, that the ministry of reconciliation isn't our going in there and making reconciliation. It's grabbing people and taking them to Jesus, who is the great reconciler.

So this is a beautiful thing. We can have a sense of reconciliation and forgiveness with God. Number two, E. Stanley Jones says that when he was converted, he had a sense of being at home in my homeland.

I did not try to make myself at home in my new condition and position. I was at home. This was my native land. He wrote. There are many people who describe this sense. I felt like I was coming home. I felt like I belonged for the first time.

Belonging to the Household of God

Now, this, again, is a very scriptural principle. You know, after all, we're not here this evening to study E. Stanley Jones, even though I'm sort of making his remarks the launching point for what we're talking about this evening.

But what he's speaking about is just a scriptural principle in different ways that he's ordered it. Look at it here in Ephesians chapter two, verse 19. Just turn a couple of pages back from Colossians chapter one.

Ephesians chapter two, verse 19 says,. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Isn't that exactly what E. Stanley Jones was talking about?

A sense of being at home in my homeland. I'm home. I'm not a stranger anymore. I'm not a foreigner. Not to this is a glorious, glorious thing that I have experienced on many occasions, and I think sometimes you have to go far away and to other cultures to really experience this where you can go among other Christians with whom you don't share a language.

You don't share an economic status. You don't share national background. You don't share political viewpoints. You may not share five or six other things, but in a very powerful way, just being, you know, you're among brothers.

You're among the household of God. There's a bond. There's a unity there. Now, again, here's my question. Where does this come from? Look at it here in verse 19 of Ephesians, chapter two. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners.

So the reason that we are no longer strangers and foreigners, it must be back. Right. Because he says, therefore. So look at verse 17. We'll start out. And he came and preached peace to you who were a far off and to those who were near.

For through him, we both have access by one spirit to the father. Well, who's the him? It must be Paul, the apostle, right? No, no, Peter. He was the first pope. No, no, it's neither them. Who is it? It's Jesus himself.

So where do we get this sense of being at home in my homeland? We get it from Jesus. You know, that's sort of staggering to think, because there's something in me that thinks I should get the feeling of being at home from you.

You're the one who should give me that, you know, it's your niceness or your hospitality or your warmth or your handshake that should give me that feeling of being at home. And I'm not trying to diminish the fact that there is a sense of friendliness and camaraderie that there should be displayed among Christians.

But you know what? This basic sense that, man, I'm part of the fellowship of the people of God and I'm no longer a stranger. I'm no longer a former foreigner. I'm at home in my homeland. Friends, that comes as a gift from Jesus Christ unto us.

Purpose, Direction, and the Call of God

The third ones, E. Stanley Jones mentions, he says that when he was converted, he received a sense of purpose, direction and goal. He says that before he had been like a raft tossed by storms and waves of meaningless emotion.

Now he had been taken aboard a great liner that was going somewhere with some goal, with the power to move on to that goal. Well, do we have that as Christians? Is this a scriptural thing? Maybe it was just unique to E. Stanley Jones that he received that.

No, no, no. This is something for every believer. We're already in Ephesians. Take a look at Ephesians 2 .10. It says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

He's got a course charted out. It's prepared beforehand. You know, it's not aimless. God has a goal. God has a course. God has a direction. And even if you are not aware of it, well, certainly, you know what the final destination is, right?

And if you don't know the whole path. Along the way and all the details about it, well, then so what? It doesn't really matter. You're not driving the boat. My wife and I are going to go on a cruise next month, and we're very excited about going on this cruise.

And you know what, though? I know some of the different ports where the ship is stopping, but I don't know the direction. I'm north somewhere. I don't know. That's all I know. But it doesn't matter. I'm not driving the boat.

I'm on it. But let me tell you, it's going somewhere. It has goal. It has direction. It's not just going to go out and float around in the ocean. When we come to Jesus, we should gain the sense that our life has purpose.

Oh, how the world needs this. You know, more than ever, I have the sense that the world lives for meaningless things. One of the things that has emphasized this to me in the past months, and I almost caution myself against saying this because it's one of these things where I could be taken very wrong or misunderstood at, but I'll venture forth to say it, is well over a year ago, it's getting close to two years ago, at the Guzik home, we unplugged the television cable and no antenna, no cable, no satellite, no nothing, just just videos.

And then, well, last Christmas, DVD. And so there we are in the Guzik home with videos and DVD. And so, look, it's not like I'm on a big anti-television campaign. We had our own reasons in our family for doing this.

I'll tell you, it's been a blessing. It's been a tremendous blessing for our family, even though definitely there's things that I miss. You know, man, I miss watching the Dodger games and I like watching the news and such, but I get along just fine in any regard.

You know, it's not like I have this phobia about television, you know, oh, get it away from my eyes. I cannot see it. And so nowadays, when I'll see some television, typically over at somebody else's house, it looks weird.

You don't know how strange television is until you haven't seen it for a while. And more than ever, it just seems to be meaningless. Purposeless. Just, you know, there's a there's a phrase that E. Stanley Jones uses in this.

He said, I had been a raft tossed by storms and waves of meaningless emotion. You know, I tell you, there's a lot of that in this world. A lot of it's communicated on television, but in other places, too.

You don't have to go to television to find it, but it's one place where there's a lot of it. Meaningless emotion. Who cares? Well, let me tell you, when you start living your life for Jesus Christ, when you're converted by the spirit of God, you have something to care about.

You have something eternal that matters for all of eternity. There's a kingdom that God is advancing that he wants you to be a part of. It's a very different way to live. How about this, what Paul said in Philippians chapter three, you don't have to turn there where Paul said, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Oh, Paul had a goal and it's our goal to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So so far, we've seen a sense of forgiveness and reconciliation, a sense of being at home in my homeland, a sense of purpose, direction and goal.

Christ’s Presence and the Christian Life

I think all of those are thoroughly scriptural. Let's take a look at the fourth one, a sense of not being alone. I noticed this, he says, I had another who knew and understood me perfectly and was always with me in spite of knowing me.

He loved me. I was loved and I was giving love. I was no longer preoccupied with myself. My entire being went out in gratitude and love to another. Myself absorbed me no longer. This was the greatest emancipation.

With it came a sense of caring, I began to think and care for others. Is that something that should be the property of every Christian, if you're born again, if you're converted by the spirit of God that used to have a sense of not being alone?

You remember what Jesus said in Matthew 28, 20. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, always. That's how long Jesus would be with his people always. He would never leave us. And I think he wants us to sense that he wants us to sense his presence, to sense that he is the center of our life, that we're too preoccupied with being preoccupied with him and not with ourselves.

New Creation and Personal Wholeness

How about this? The fifth one that Jones mentions, he says that when he was converted, he gained a sense of being a person. I like how he puts this one. My total being was awakened and coordinated and fulfilled.

One man said, I'm not a man, I'm a menagerie. I was a menagerie too, growling with passions in a state of tension. But now I was at peace with myself and respected myself as a person. My whole being was awakened, including my mind.

Well, that's what it should be like when we come to Jesus. How about Second Corinthians 517? Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. All things have become new.

You're a new person. Might I say you are a person perhaps for the first time. Oh, before you got this war, this battle, this this strangeness going on, that there should be a clarity because now you're a new man in Christ Jesus.

You now are a new person because you are in the ultimate person, Jesus Christ himself. That's what you are, a new creation in him. And so we can agree heartily with E. Stanley Jones when he talks about this sense of being a person.

Wholeness Through Jesus Christ

Now, the sixth one he mentioned was a sense of wholeness. He says fragmentation was over. Life was pulled into central meanings and purposes around a single center. This is almost a variation on the fifth one that he gave about a sense of being a person.

But, you know, many of us feel so scattered that there's no unifying principle in our life. They say that scientists are searching for the great unifying principle of the universe. Some theory or explanation, you know, something on par with Einstein's, you know, E equals MC squared.

You know, the theory of relativity and all of that. They're looking for some sort of equation that will explain the whole universe in one equation. Well, listen, I'm here to tell you that there is a equation that explains the whole universe and brings everything into a central place.

And the equation reads like this. Jesus, that's it. He's the center of everything. Life was pulled into central meanings and purposes around a single center. You know, there are planets and then there are meteors.

Meteors just sort of fly through the heavens, fly through the universe until they crash into something. There's no real path is just flying around. And then there are planets which have a center and they orbit around the center.

Well, I think that some lives, most lives, all lives before they are converted, they're like meteors. They're just flying about in the space. Who knows where they will go? They're not even like comets that have a big circle, you know, that go around a big sphere.

They're just flying about through the heavens like meteors waiting to crash into something. No, but it's different when we come to Jesus, he he puts us around his orbit. And, you know, I don't know about you, but I want his gravitational pull on me to become stronger all the time so that the orbit gets tighter and tighter and tighter.

You know, some of us are like Pluto way out there at the end of the galaxy. You know, I want to be what is it, Mercury? That's the closest to the sun. That's what I want to be. I don't have Mercury. It's one of those planets out there.

So a sense of wholeness. Now, listen to what Paul says in First Thessalonians, Chapter five, he says, Now, may the God of peace sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

He who calls you is faithful and who will also do it. Now you get into a big debate with theologians. Well, spirit, soul, body. You know what? I don't we could get into the big debate here. Can we just say that Paul means to be comprehensive?

Everything is drawn together around Jesus Christ. Fragmentation is over. This should be the property of every Christian at conversion. And then finally, that's First Thessalonians, Chapter five, verses twenty three to twenty four.

Grace as the Gift and Calling of God

Now, finally, Jones mentions a sense of grace and let me read his description to you about that. He says, How did this happen to me? I felt so undeserving and unworthy, and yet it was mine. I found myself going into solitude and reading my New Testament.

And when it came across a verse which spoke of him, I found myself reverently pressing my lips to that verse. Isn't that a beautiful picture thing? Oh, this is so precious. If I could, I would kiss this verse.

That's a precious picture, a little strange, honestly, but it's very precious. It says I gaze at him and wonder and wonder until my knees bend in gratitude. But soon I'm up on my feet again with the compulsion, a divine compulsion to share this with everyone, everywhere, a sense of grace.

And I think of what Peter said in First Peter, Chapter four, verse 10, he says, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, the manifold grace of God.

That means the many faceted grace of God. And he says to do it as stewards, which means you've been given the grace of God. Now be a good steward over it. Well, I think the fact that we've been given this grace speaks to the fact that we should live our lives with this sense of grace that E. Stanley Jones speaks about.

The Seven Birthrights of Every Christian

Now, let me read the list to you one more time and then I'm just going to make a few comments about it and then we'll be done for the evening. The list he gives, again, just in the headings of it is, he says, number one, that he gained a sense of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, with life, with my brothers and with myself.

Number two, a sense of being at home in my homeland. Number three, a sense of purpose, direction and goal. Number four, a sense of not being alone. Number five, a sense of being a person. Number six, a sense of wholeness.

And number seven, a sense of grace. Now. You have me read that list to you and you listen to it and you say. Do I have the sense of those things? Honestly, now. Between you and God, do you have a sense of those things?

Or is it running kind of low in your Christian life on those things? Now, let me say this, first of all, by way of observation. If life is alive with these senses, then the Christian is never defeated.

How can a Christian be defeated if they're alive with the sense of these things? It's absolutely impossible. You just can't be burdened with the sense of defeat. If you go around with the sense of forgiveness, of being at home with purpose, direction, a goal of not being alone.

All of these things are the opposite of defeat. If you have the sense of these things. Now, I'm not talking about just having the fact of them. A person can have the fact of forgiveness without the sense of forgiveness.

A person can have the fact of direction without the sense of it or the fact of being at home in their homeland without the sense of it. But here, E. Stanley Jones is very specific. He talks about having the sense of all of these things.

Let me say, secondly, that these things are the birthright of every Christian. They belong to us as adopted children of God. Might I say that these seven things, these are not matters of maturity. It's like mature Christians have the sense of forgiveness, but immature Christians don't.

No. Friends, these are not marks of maturity. These are the birthrights of every believer of Jesus Christ. These are matters of listen carefully. These are not marks of maturity. They are matters of faith and abiding.

This is your birthright. It's this is the environment of the household of God, and if you live in the household of God, you live in this environment and you should sense it. You say, well, what if I don't?

Then what's wrong with me if I don't? Well, I'll tell you, there's a lack of one of two things. Either there's a lack of faith or there's a lack of abiding. And really, the two are connected. It's almost two different ways to describe the same thing.

There's something wrong there with your faith link, your spiritual link with Jesus Christ. Friends, when you think about it, there is no reason for a Christian to be without the sense of forgiveness. To be without the sense of being at home in their homeland, to be without the sense of purpose, direction and a goal, to be without the sense of not being alone, without the sense of being a purpose, without the sense of wholeness and without the sense of grace.

I think we're prone to just make a lot of excuses about these things in our Christian life. And when we see that we lack these things, we should be on our knees before God and say, Lord God, I want these things as a possession in my life.

Won't you grant them unto me in Jesus name? That is the fact of the matter. These things are the birthright of every Christian. They belong to us as adopted children of God. They're not matters of maturity, but they're matters of faith and abiding.

Receiving These Gifts from Jesus Rather Than People

Next, I would point out that these things come from Jesus, from him. We waste a lot of time in our Christian life waiting for other people to bring these things to us, or we blame people or we blame groups or institutions or churches for not giving us these things.

This is vain because these things come from Jesus. If you don't have a sense of forgiveness in your life, don't you blame your husband or wife? Don't you blame the church? Don't you blame that friend who made you cross?

And maybe they were totally wrong. Maybe you're completely innocent and they're completely right. Are you telling me that what they did to you robbed you of your sense of forgiveness, your sense of being at home in your homeland, your sense of purpose and direction and goal?

You've just been ripped off by the devil, haven't you? Well, he's robbing you blind. You think that those things are given to you by other people or by institutions or, God forbid, by pastors or leaders.

They're given to you by Jesus Christ. Don't waste your time waiting for other people to bring you those things. They can be your possession now by faith and abiding in Jesus Christ. You know, it's almost as if we come together as Christians to enjoy these things together.

We get together with a bunch of other people, have the sense of forgiveness. And man, isn't it sweet? You get together with other people, have the sense of being at home in their homeland. Here we are all together.

Great. We're all at home in our homeland. We don't come together to gain these things from one another, though, as we come to Jesus together, he can bestow them upon us. But friends, we don't get confused about this, do we?

We come together to enjoy them, not to gain them. We gain them from Jesus. And Jesus may come and meet us and give us these things while we are with other people. But we don't gain them from other people.

We gain them from Jesus. I could put it to you this way. In conclusion, I would say that these things are rooted in our vertical relationship, not in our horizontal relationship. There is a great error that people make in understanding the Christian life.

For some people, the Christian life is all horizontal. It's all about their relationships with other people. And if they're getting along with other people fine, then their Christian life is fine. If they're not getting along with other people very well, then their Christian life isn't very good.

Now, there are other people for whom their Christian life is all vertical. You know, I don't care about you one bit, brother. I'm abiding in God. And that's the attitude that they have. Oh, that it's all just about me and God and you don't matter at all.

Where the true Christian life is both vertical and horizontal, each component is essential. But if you think in your mind about the classic picture of a cross and think about the classic picture, we don't know exactly what Jesus's cross looked like.

But think about the classic concept of the cross. Which beam is longer? Well, the vertical one. The vertical one is more important and it comes first. But it's also absolutely necessary to have the horizontal component.

We live with both, but we don't kid ourselves about which one is primary and which one gives us these things. Let me read it one more time. A sense of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, with life, with my brothers, with myself, a sense of being at home in my homeland, a sense of purpose, direction and goal.

Dear brothers and sisters, have you been waiting for the church to give you that? A sense of not being alone, a sense of being a person, a sense of wholeness and a sense of grace, these things that E. Stanley Jones mentions in his biography and that we've gone by passage by passage and found to be entirely scriptural.

These things are given to us by our vertical relationship, not by our horizontal relationship. That's not to say that the horizontal relationship is not important. Matter of fact, one of the most effective ways that the horizontal relationship is important is as a measure of our vertical relationship.

Because remember what the Apostle John says in 1 John, he says, anybody who says I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar and the truth isn't in him. So both are important. But don't look to the horizontal relationship to give you those things that can only be gained at the vertical relationship.

Faith, Abiding, and the Prayer for Spiritual Fulness

How about it? You know, as I read that list to you, was there one or two of them that really struck your heart? Oh, I don't have that. And oh, do I want it. Oh, do I need it. Then, you know, why don't you come to God in faith and abiding and say, oh, I need that, Lord.

Lord, you didn't just love E. Stanley Jones and not love me. You want to give those things to me. You want me to live my life with a full conception, with a full sense of those things. God loves you enough to give it if you have the faith to receive it.

So, Father, that's my prayer to conclude us this evening is to call out to you and to say, Lord, God, pour out your spirit upon us. Speak to us, Lord. We don't want to live a single additional day of our Christian life without the sense of these things.

We regard these things, Lord, scripturally so as our birthright, as adopted sons and daughters of God. These are not things that we have to earn before you. These are not things that we have to gain some level of spiritual maturity before we can lay hold of.

Lord, we believe that they are ours as adopted sons and daughters by faith in Jesus. And God, forgive us, Lord, forgive us. We we were mistaken. We were misguided all those times where we thought we would gain those things from people.

From churches, from leaders. Lord, it was mistakes of ignorance and misdirection. Be merciful for us, for those those misguided things. But, Lord, we don't want to be misguided any longer. We want to be put on the right place on the right path.

Help us to do it, Lord. Fill our lives with your goodness, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.