There are some minor renovations taking place at my home right now.
I am staying with my parents, and my dad has decided to get the walls re-painted and the carpets re-laid.
The carpet in my room is currently grey, but I just re-discovered that it used to be blue. There was a book cabinet standing near the door, and when it was removed to make way for the new carpet, the original colour was there for all to see.
The current carpet was laid 17 years ago. But over the years, it has become de-colorised due to wear and tear and also because of the dust and dirt generated from renovations that have been carried out in the surrounding houses.
As I looked at the patch of blue in the midst of the grey, a deeper spritual truth dawned upon me.
Previously, I would have drawn an illustration of a Christian who over the years starts to become complacent, allows sin to creep into his life and backslides so much that he is no longer what he used to be. And then he needs to re-invite Jesus into different parts of his heart to clean up the mess.
But I think the following analogy may be more appropriate...
When we first become Christians, we are like that patch of blue. Over the years, the dust and grind of false doctrines and teachings come in and start to pollute and blur our minds, so much so that the gospel that we know is no longer one of unadulterated grace, but one that is a mixture of law and grace.
And that is typically what has happened down throughout church history. Man starts to re-introduce the Law or their own sets of laws.
We see that happen in the church in Galatia and that is why Paul had to write that epistle to them.
We see that happen in the Roman Catholic church, and hence Martin Luther had to protest against papal practices, which led to the Reformation.
We see that happen in the Anglican church, resulting in the founding of Methodism by John Wesley.
We see that happen at Grace Baptist church, leading to Rev Lawrence Khong being ex-communicated and forming Faith Community Baptist church.
And we are seeing that happen today, hence grace preachers are being accused of being cultic, occultic, heretic and antinomian.
Let us remember what Jesus said the role of the Holy Spirit is in Jn 16:8-11. He convicts the world of the sin of unbelief, but He convicts us believers that we are the righteousness of God in Christ!
Hence, the earlier illustration of Jesus going into different parts of our heart to clear out the clutter of sin is erroneous. The very moment when we accept Him as Lord and Saviour, our slate has been wiped totally clean right there and then.
The correct analogy should therefore be one where the Holy Spirit constantly reminds us that we are righteous, and in so doing, He removes those layers of dirt and grime that the devil tries to pollute our minds with, such as we are not unworthy, or that we need to work so as not to lose our salvation, or that prosperity is a dirty word, or that God gives us sicknesses to keep us humble, and so on.
So what is it that "de-colorises" the believer? It is not sin, but wrong beliefs :-)
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