Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive
Chapter 4
The Ransomed Heart: Ransomed and Restored
Key Verses: Create in me a clean heart, O God. – King David. (Ps. 51:10 NKJV) I will give you a new heart. – God (Ezekiel. 36:26)
Eldredge starts this chapter by recounting the TRANSFORMATION of the Beast in the original story of The Beauty and the Beast, and then follows it up with a list of “stories of transformation,”
It is the deepest and most wonderful of all mythic truths, unveiled here in the original Beauty and the Beast, written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. The Transformation. A creature that no one could bear to look upon is transformed into a handsome prince. That which was dark and ugly is now glorious and good. Is it no the most beautiful outcome of any story to be written? Perhaps that is because it is the deepest yearning of the human heart. Look how often it surfaces.
The phoenix rises form the ashes. Cinderella rises form the cinders to become a queen. The ugly duckling becomes a beautiful swan. Pinocchio becomes a real boy. The frog becomes a prince. Wretched old Scrooge becomes “as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town or borough in the good old world.” The Cowardly Lion gets his courage and the Scarecrow gets his brains and the Tin Woodman gets a new heart. In hope beyond hope, they are all transformed into the very thing they never thought they could be.
Why are we enchanted by tales of transformation? I can’t think of a movie or novel or fairy tale that doesn’t somehow turn on this. Why is it an essential part of any great story? Because it is the secret to Christianity, and Christianity is the secret to the universe. “You must be born again.” (John 3:7). You must be transformed. Keeping the Law, following the rules, polishing up your manners—none of that will do. What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people (Gal. 6:15). Is this not the message of the gospel? Zacchaeus the trickster becomes Zacchaeus the Honest One. Mary the whore become Mary the Last of the Truly Faithful. Paul the self-righteous murderer becomes Paul the Humble Apostle. (Emphasis added.) (Pages 56-67)
??? Much of the rest of Waking the Dead hinges on these couple of paragraphs. How do you respond to Eldredge’s contention that TRANSFORMATION is a key part of all great stories, because it is the secret to Christianity?
And we? I doubt that many of us would go so far as to say we’re transformed. Our names are written down somewhere in heaven, and we have been forgiven. Perhaps we have changed a bit in what we believe and how we act. We confess the creeds now, and we’ve gotten our temper under control…for the most part. But transformed seems a bit to much to claim. How about forgiven and on our way? That’s how most Christians would describe what’s happened to them. It’s partly true…and partly untrue, and the part that’s untrue is what’s killing us. We’ve been told that even though we have placed our hope in Christ, even though we have become his followers, our hearts are still desperately wicked.
But is that what the Bible teaches? (Page 57)
??? Have you been “transformed” or are you “forgiven and on your way”? Have you been told explicitly or implicitly that your heart is still desperately wicked even after you have received Jesus as your Savior and Lord?
WHAT WE MOST DESPERATELY NEED
…. Something has gone wrong with the human race and we know it. Better said, something has gone wrong within the human race. It doesn’t take a theologian or a psychologist to tell you that. Read a newspaper. Spend a weekend with your relatives. Simply pay attention to the movements of your own heart in a single day. Most of the misery we suffer on this planet is the fruit of the human heart gone bad. Scripture could not be more clear on this. Yes, God created us to reflect His glory, but barely three chapters into the drama we torpedoed the whole project. Sin entered the picture and spread like a computer virus. By the sixth chapter of Genesis, our downward spiral had reached the point where God Himself couldn’t bear it any longer: “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (Gen. 6:5-6) This is the first mention of God’s heart in the Bible, by the way, and it’s a sad beginning to be sure. His heart is broken because ours is fallen.
Any honest person knows this. We know we are not what we were meant to be. If we’ll stop shifting the blame for just a moment, stop trying to put the onus on some other person or some policy or some other race, if we will take a naked and frank assessment of ourselves as measured against the life of Christ, well, then. Most of us will squirm and dodge and admit that perhaps we fall a bit short. If we’re truly honest, we’ll confess that we have it in us to be the Beast, the wicked stepsister, Scrooge. Most of the world religions concur on this point. Something needs to be done. (Pages 57-58)
??? Does this seem to be an accurate portrayal of humanity by Eldredge? What changes would you make to it?
But the usual remedies involve some sort of shaping up on our part, some sort of face-lift whereby we clean up our act and start behaving as we should. Jews try to keep the Law. Buddhist follow the Eightfold Path. Muslims live by the Five Pillars. Many Christians try church attendance and moral living. You’d think, with all the effort, humanity would be on top of things by now. Of course, the reason all those treatments ultimately fail is that we quite misdiagnosed the disease. The problem is not in our behavior; the problem is in us. Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19, emphasis added.) We don’t need an upgrade. We need transformation. We need a miracle.
??? Why do you think that all of the world’s religions, OFTEN including Christianity, focus on moral living rather than transformation?
THE LAST ADAM, THE SECOND MAN
…. But one name seems to have escaped our attention, and that might help explain our misunderstanding of the gospel. Paul refers to Jesus as the Last Adam and the Second Man (1 Cor. 15:45-47). Why is this important? Because of what happened through the First Adam.
…Our first parents chose, and it was on the side of evil. They broke the one command, the only command, God gave to them, and what followed you can watch on any night on the news….Something went wrong in their hearts, something shifted, and that shift was passed along to each of us. Parents will often wonder where their toddlers learned to lie or how they came into the world so self-centered. It doesn’t need to be taught to them; it is inherent in human nature…..Of course I am simply restating the doctrine of original sin, a core tenet of Christianity essential to Scripture. (Pages 59-60)
??? Jesus the “Last Adam” came to undo what the first Adam had done—bring original sin into the world. How have you seen original sin lived out in your life, and those around you, or have you?
But that is not the end of the Story, thank God. The First Adam was only a “pattern of what was to come” (Rom. 5:14) He would foreshadow another man, the head of a new race, the firstborn of a new creation, whose life would mean transformation to those who would become joined to him:
KEY SCRIPTURE: For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Christ, the Last Adam] the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19) (Pg. 60)
??? What are the implications for our lives, found in this passage of Scripture?
I WILL REMOVE YOUR HEART OF STONE
You have been ransomed by Christ. Your treachery is forgiven. You are entirely pardoned for every wrong thought and desire and deed. This is what the vast majority of Christians understand as the central work of Christ for us. And make no mistake about it—it is a deep and stunning truth, one that will set you free and bring you joy. For a while.
But the joy for most of us has proven fleeting because we find that we need to be forgiven again and again and again. Christ has died for us, but we remain (so we believe) deeply marred. It actually ends up producing a great deal of guilt. “After all that Christ has done for you…and now you’re back here asking forgiveness again? To be destined to a life of repeating the very thing that sent our Savior to the cross can hardly be called salvation…. (Pages. 61-62.)
??? Have you ever been taught that there is something more central to the Good News of Jesus than His ransoming you from sin and death on the cross?
The good news is…that is not Christianity. There is more. A lot more. And the more is what most of us have been longing for most of our lives….It’s not just that the Cross did something for us. Something deep and profound happened to us in the death of Christ. Remember—the heart is the problem. God understands this better than anyone, and he goes for the root. God promised to “take away your heart of stone.” How? By joining us to the death of Christ. Our nature was nailed to the cross with Christ; we died there, with him, in him.
KEY SCRIPTURE: “The death he died, he died to sin once for all…In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin.” (Romans 6:10-11)
You’ve been far more than forgiven. God has removed your heart of stone. You’ve been delivered of what held you back from what you were meant to be. You’ve been rescued from the part of you that sabotages even your best intentions. Your heart has been circumcised to God. Your heart has been set free.
And there is even more. (Pages 62-63)
??? What would it look like in your everyday life if you lived Romans 6:10-11?
AND I WILL GIVE YOU A NEW HEART
Most people assume that the Cross is the total work of Christ. The two go hand in hand in our minds—Jesus Christ and the Cross; the Cross and Jesus Christ. The Resurrection is impressive, but kind of…an afterthought. It was needed of course, to get him out of the grave. Or the Resurrection is important because it proves Jesus was the Son of God. His death was the real work on our behalf. The Resurrection is like an epilogue to the real story; the extra point after the touchdown; the medal ceremony after the Olympic event. You can see which we think is more important. What image do we put on our churches, our Bibles, our jewelry? The cross is the symbol of Christianity worldwide. However…
The cross was never meant to be the only or even the central symbol of Christianity.
That you are shocked by what I’ve just said only proves how far we’ve strayed from the faith of the New Testament. The cross is not the sole focal point of Christianity. Paul says so himself:
KEY SCRIPTURE: If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…IF Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor.15:14) (Pages 63-64)
??? How do you respond to Eldredge’s assertion that the cross was never meant to be the only or even the central symbol of Christianity?
☼ The early Christian Church symbolized the Resurrection, healings, and miracles because the church thought those things were central. The reason the first and closest friends of Jesus focused on miracles, healings, and hopeful aspects of the faith such as the Ascension and the Resurrection was simply that those are what God himself wants us to focus on. Those are the point. Those make Christianity such very good news. A dead man is not a great deal of help to us; a dead God is even worse. But life, real life, the power of God to restore you…now that’s a whole nother matter.
We say Christ died for us, and that is true. But Christ was also raised for us. His resurrection was as much for us as his death was……It has always been God’s plan not just to forgive you but to restore you…..The Resurrection affirms the promise Christ made. For it was life he offered to give us: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10) We are saved by his life when we find that we are able to live the way we’ve always known we should live. We are free to be what he meant when he meant us. You have a new life—the life of Christ. And you have a new heart. Do you know what this means? Your heart is good. (Pages 65-67)
??? What would it look like TODAY, if each of us believed the words in the previous two paragraphs?
THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD
… Each person knows that now his body is the temple of God:
KEY SCRIPTURES: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?” (1 Cor. 6:19)
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Sprit lives in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)
Okay—each of us is now the temple of God. So where is the Holy of Holies? Your heart.
That’s right—your heart. Paul teaches us in Ephesians that “Christ may dwell in your heart through faith (3:17). God comes down to dwell in us, in our hearts. Now we know this: God cannot dwell where there is evil. “You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell” (Psalm 5:4) Something pretty dramatic must have happened in our hearts, then, to make them fit to be the dwelling place of a holy God
Of course none of this can happen for us until we give our lives back to God. We cannot know the joy or the life or the freedom of the heart I’ve described here until we surrender our lives to Jesus and surrender them totally. Renouncing all the ways we have turned from God in our hearts, we forsake the idols we have worshiped and given our hearts to. We turn, and give ourselves body, soul, and spirit back to God, asking him to cleans our hearts and make them new. And he does. He gives us a new heart. And he comes to dwell there, in our hearts. (Page 68)
??? Does Eldredge’s argument from Scripture that our hearts are new AND good convince you? Why or why not?
THE PROMISE FULFILLED
“If we believed that…we could do anything. We could follow him anywhere!”
…the new covenant, accomplished through the work of Christ, means that we have a new heart. Now listen to Jesus:
KEY SCRIPTURE: Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man bring evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. (Luke 6:44-45 emphasis added.)….
The see on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. (Luke 8:15, emphasis added).
Jesus himself teaches that at least for somebody, the heart can be good and even noble. That somebody is you, if you are his. God kept his promise. Our hearts have been circumcised to God. We have new hearts. Do you know what this means? Your heart is good. Let that sink in for a moment. Your heart is good.
What would happen if you believed it, if you came to the place where you knew it was true? it was true? Your life would never be the same. My friend Lyn got it, and that’s when she exclaimed, “If we believed that…we could do anything. We would follow him anywhere!” Exactly. It would change our lives. It would change the face of Christianity. This is the lost message of the gospel, lost at least to a great many people. Small wonder. This is the last thing the Enemy wants the world to know. It would change everything. Those of you who’ve gotten your hearts back know exactly what I mean. It’s freedom. It’s life.