the romance of Christianity – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“We are believers, & not the others, says Paul, because we have received this Spirit that enlightens us (1 Corinthians 2:10, 12, 14)…

Christianity is not just a message that tells you that if you believe in Christ your sins are forgiven, & then leaves you to meet the world & the flesh & the devil just as you are & in your own strength. No, it is regeneration – new birth – a ‘new man’. When you become a Christian, what happens is not so much that you add something to your life as that your life is changed.

When men & women become Christians, it is not that they put on new clothes; no, they are changed, inside & out, & the inside is particularly changed, a new creation. But remember, secondly, that Christianity is not about people deciding to change themselves. They cannot. ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?’ (Jeremiah 13:23). Let them try to do it, then they will find they cannot. We have all tried it. It is impossible.
But, thank God, there is power in this word [of the gospel] which brings forth fruit, & a part of the fruit is that it changes us. We do not decide to change ourselves but we find that we are changed.

That, to me, is the romance of Christianity. A man finds that he is ‘a new man’ and he is amazed at himself. He cannot believe it is true of him! He says, ‘Is it possible that I am the man I once was? I am the same man and yet I am not!’ The apostle Paul was always filled with that amazement at himself – ‘I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20). He had been changed…

Do you know what makes men & women Christians? It is the mighty action of the almighty God, the Creator. He takes them as they are & smashes them & makes them anew. He, God, is bringing into being something that was not there; a new disposition is put into them, a new principle of life is infused into them. God enters into their lives. The life of God comes into the soul; it is a creative act, so the New Testament says that the Christian is ‘a new creature’.

Now there is nothing more wonderful than this. I think this is where the gospel hope comes in. When we have tried & tried & tried again, only to fail, always finding ourselves back at the same point, we stop, & the world stops. Philosophy cannot help us, psychology cannot help us, nothing helps us; but then the Creator says: I will help you. I will make a new person. I will put a new principle into you. I will infuse a new disposition into you. I will make you a new creation.

There is hope there, and it is the only hope. But, thank God, it is the hope that is given in this gospel. And my assertion is that you & I are not Christians unless we have been born again; unless we know that we have received the life of God; unless we become new creatures, new creations…”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Love so Amazing: Exposition of Colossians 1