Saturday, August 1, 2015

Truth #216 - When God changes us, He does it right! John 1-2

John 2:9-10
When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

Truth:  When God changes you, He does it right and complete

The "turning water into wine" is the first miracle Christ did, according to John's own words in John 2:11.   It seems to be such an insignificant miracle.   Lives were not miraculously transformed and changed.  No one received their sight, walked their first steps, or heard their first birds.  The miracle wasn't asked for by a desperate widow, a fearful father, or a great leader asking for a favor for his favorite slave.   This miracle was at the request of Jesus mom, Mary.   Apparently Mary had been invited to a wedding and she brought Jesus along (it is good to know that our Lord was social in nature).  At the wedding the wine order comes up short and rather than go down to the local Kroger, Mary asks her son, Jesus to do something.   Mary must have, at this point, knew that Jesus had power that no one else was aware of or had tested.  Jesus, at this simply request, takes barrels of water and turns them into not just wine, but the best wine.   Why this miracle?   There are a lot of reasons for this simply act to be recorded by John, but perhaps the most instructive for us is that this miracle is a word picture of the rest of John's book and Christ's ministry.   Christ, in the rest of the book is the life changer of people.   He will take average people, simply water in the world, and turn their lives into beautiful wine, good for the Master's use.   Note that in chapter three of the book, the next chapter, Jesus talks to a religious leader about being "born again" (changing a life from empty religion to a life of faith in Christ).  Chapter four follows where Christ introduces himself to an immoral women at the well, as the "living water."  In both of these cases John is recording stories of transformation.   This turning the water into wine is all about transformation.   God can take something so simply and make it something so special.  That is what He is doing with believers.  We are sinners He is saving by grace to make us fit for the Master.   The transformation of our lives will be thorough and complete.   Note what Paul tells us about this transformation:

Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Or,

2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Or,

1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ is transforming us, like turing water into wine.  We can rejoice that, when completed at glorification, we will be exactly what God wants.   When the master of the feast, in the above story, tasted the wine he recognized the beauty of what Christ had created.   The same is truth when the Master, God, sees the finished product ... complete and the best!

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