Scandalous Metaphors of A Saved Life

How the Bible describes the before-and-after of Salvation

By Pastor Kenny Burchard / Email me

Perhaps the most famous and well-known hymn in the English language (maybe any language!) is “Amazing Grace.”  The familiar lyrics that bring tears to the eyes of any feeling person who understands salvation go like this…

Amazing Grace – How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was blind, but now I see

This powerful hymn contrasts a “wretch like me” with a “saved” person; a lost person with a found person, and a once-blind person with one who can finally see!  Lost?  Blind?  Wretch?!!!  (see Rev. 3:17  for additional words… pitiful, miserable, and naked!).

This is the lyrical language of praise to God for a profoundly saved life (I try to avoid the term “changed life” because, well,  Tony Robbins uses it too)! 

Interestingly, many contemporary arrangements (sung in churches) change the phrase “a wretch like me” to “someone like me.” 

It would be interesting to find the first-ever guy/girl who changed it from “a wretch” to “someone,” and ask them “Why do you think you did that, actually?” – I’m sure that in this culture, it seemed perfectly sensible to him. 

The dear people singing along may have even thought quietly to themselves, “I do like that much better than ‘wretch.’”  We can’t have people referring to their past life as “wretched.”  There may have been a non-believer in the room.  Shun the thought of them supposing that we believe they might still be a wretch!  “Someone” is much more seeker-friendly, and non-offenseive.

I was meditating this morning on some of the biblical word-pictures that contrast life before knowing Christ with what we have and what we are now that we are saved.  I title the blog-post “scandalous” word pictures because these are not concepts that are very familiar today in Churches.  If pastors talk to people in this way, it is almost as if they are doing something wrong!  Something… scandalous! 

I focus on the before-and-after, whereas we mostly hear, sing, preach, and talk about the after (which is tough to appreicate without contrasting it with the “before.” ). 

I was God’s bitter enemy.  Now I am His friend!

The Bible clearly teaches that before we were believers, God was not our friend, and we were not God’s friend.  God was my enemy before I was saved, and I was His.  I proved my hostility toward God by living according to my own agenda, and by rebelling against God in my heart and in my actions.  God was not my friend because I rejected his gift of Love – His only Son.  But all of that changed when God broke through my hard heart, and gave me the grace to receive what only He could provide; forgiveness! 

Yes, “I am a friend of God – he calls me frieeeeeend,” but that is only really understood and appreciated in contrast with the fact that I once was God’s enemy!  It is understanding that contrast with the former (enemy) that causes my heart to rejoice in the latter (freind).

See: Romans 5:10 / Colossians 1:21

I was dead in sins, but now I am alive to God!

Before I was a Christian, according to the Bible, I was spiritually dead.  You could call the pre-regenerate state “the walk of the living dead.”  That means that the eternal life of God was not in me, and when I died – if I had died in that state, I would remain dead to God forever.  I lived only according to (1) the influences of satan and his push-and-pull on my life, and (2) according to the sensory, emotional, and physical urges of my flesh. 

When I accepted Jesus Christ, I was “born again”  – which means that my spirit became alive to God, and I was brought into eternal fellowship with God.  That fellowship is now shrouded to some degree by the fact that I am still incarcerated in flesh.  But when I leave this mortal life, I will fully know God as I am fully known by God.  Where I was formerly dead to God, I am now alive to Him.  I am aware of Him.  I am in a living “never-to-end” relationship with Him.

See: Eph 2:1 / Col 2:13 / John 5:24 / Rom 8:6-8

I lived in demonic darkness, but now I am in the light.

Before I was a follower of Jesus, the Bible teaches that I was actually a follower of Satan.  That’s hard for some people to embrace, because we imagine following Satan to mean that we were sacrificing stray black cats in secret ceremonies out in the woods on Halloween night. 

Following Satan and walking in darkness are synonyms for living in rebellion against God, living like I am in control of my own life, and doing things the way I want to do them – even if they are contrary to God.  “Rebellion is the same as the sin of witchcraft” ( 1 Samuel 15:23).

Before Christ, my life was based on lies and spiritual darkness.  God was hidden from me.  I could not see the truth.  I did not live by the truth.  Now that I am “in Christ,” I am no longer a follower of evil, but of God.  I am no longer walking in darkness, but in the light (the truth of God’s Word and God’s ways).  

See: Eph 2:2 / 1 John 5:19 / Eph 4:18 / Eph 5:8 / John 12:46

I was in bondage to sin, but now I am the “slave” of God!

The Bible teaches that before I served God, I was literally bound to sin.  Sin was my master.  Sin told me how to think, what to believe, how to feel, and how to act.  It was my master, and I willinging did what it said.  Sin kept me in a cage, and controlled my whole life.

The Bible also teaches that when I became a Christian, I was no longer enslaved by sin – but I am still a servant!  I am now  the servant of God.  I still have a master, but it is not sin – it is God.  Now He is my master, and his commands, his orders, and his directives are not a burden.  His “lordship” over my life blesses me, keeps me from destruction, and preserves me.  Before I was saved, I served sin.  Now that I am saved, I serve God.  I am His “bond-slave” – submitting to him in love, and serving him out of a thankful heart.

See: Eph 6:6 / John 8:34 / Rom 6:18-22 

I was an object of God’s wrath.  Now I am the object of His love.

No Christian who understands the implications of God’s wrath can talk about it in self-righteous terms.  The fact is, the Bible says that God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11), and that before we were in Christ, we were “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3). 

The wrath of God is an abiding part of His essential nature.  Just as God is ALWAYS love, God is also ALWAYS angry, and His love and anger are morally and dynamically perfect.  That is, God is NEVER angry at the wrong thing, or for the wrong reason (like we are).  God’s anger is not arbitrary, fickle, or misdirected.

Anyone who has a hard time with that part (the anger part) of God’s attributes needs to do a little introspection.  Is there ever anything that you have been angry about that would be considered justifiable (someone abusing a child, etc.)?  According to Ps. 7:11, God is always – and never stops being – angry with the wicked.  When I was not a believer in Jesus Christ, I was a “child of wrath.”

I once heard a preacher say, “God is not angry with you.  God loves you.”  But in fact, God is BOTH angry with the wicked, AND he loves the lost at the same time.  There is no antithesis in God (James 1:17).  There is no need to set these in opposition to each other in the nature of God.  Both Holy Love and Holy Anger abide in him perfectly, and are harmonized without flaw in the character of God. 

If the “wretched, lost, and blind” refuse his love and grace, they are forever subjected to His wrath; but he beckons to the lost and backslidden to return to Him, and says “…I am merciful,’ says the LORD; ‘ I will not remain angry forever” (Jer. 3:12).

I was a bastard;  an illegitimate child.  I am now God’s child!

The popular chidren’s Christmas song, “Here comes Santa Claus” says…

He doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor
He loves you just the same
Santa Claus knows we’re all Gods children
That makes everything right
So fill your hearts with Christmas cheer
‘Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!

Apparently, Santa knows that we’re all God’s children.  The problem is that the Bible teaches that we are not.  In fact, Jesus called some people “children of [your] father, the devil” (John 8:44), and Paul taught that before Christ, we are best characterized as “children of wrath” and “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2-3, 5:6 / Col. 3:6).

The writer of Hebrews taught that if we are not experiencing the discipline of the Lord, then we are not God’s children – but we are actually “illegitimate” and NOT sons (Heb. 12:8).  The KJV translates the word “illegitimate” as bastards. 

The teachings of Jesus unabiguously state that we becomes sons of God only when we accept Christ as the only way to God.  If we have not done that, we are not part of God’s family.  If we have, then we are His children, and we are heirs of every promise that he has made to His children! 

What a scandalous truth!  I was not God’s son.  I was of my father, the devil.  Jesus Christ came into my life, and God made me his own adopted child at the moment that I accepted His free gift.

See:  Gal. 4:5 / Eph 1:5 / John 1:12 / 1 John 3:1

AMAZING!!!   GRACE!!!

Pastor Kenny

As always, I welcome you to leave a comment.
The Oasis Foursquare Church, Hanford, CA