Pastor’s Thoughts – 01/11/2026
January 9, 2026Pastor’s Thoughts – 01-25-2026
January 24, 2026
“Throughout the millennia of human history, up until the past two decades or so, people took for granted that the differences between men and women were so obvious as to need no comment. They accepted the way things were. But our easy assumptions have been assailed and confused, we have lost our bearings in a fog of rhetoric about something called equality, so that I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to belabor to educated people what was once perfectly obvious to the simplest peasant.”
Elizabeth Eliot
The Supreme Court is currently dealing with the issue of transgenders playing women’s sports. The mindset of changing gender from that which our omniscient wise God has formed, has not entered the arguments. It is interesting to me that the idea of men becoming women, and women becoming men through the means of surgery was not shamefully considered as an issue of morality but only became a concern to a segment of the populace when it affected sports. The arguments for sports have gotten back to the basics – are these who have undergone surgery really now women or just men with modified flesh?
This issue struck me as being similar to the larger problem with mankind. Our sin issue crosses all the lines of humanity for both men and women. The Bible teaches that we are born sinners at conception (Ps. 51:5). We are ruined in sin by our nature (Rom. 3:12, Eph. 2:3). There is no human fix, no physical surgery that can alter our sinful nature. A passage that directly fits this is, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then you as well can do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jer. 13:23). The prophet speaking for God was making the point that Israel was acting foolishly by their sinful nature. Jeremiah was showing them their essential necessity for God.
A similar analogy is used by Peter as he discusses those who use the Bible and twist the meaning into a form of self-righteous religion devoid of the true work of God in salvation. Their plans and promises to improve by their own efforts are worthless and worse than worthless. “For, while speaking out arrogant words of no value they entice by fleshly desires, by indecent behavior, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what anyone is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire’” (2 Pet. 2:20-22). Those who are merely religious and seek to prove by their own mind and ability their righteous behavior are compared to animals when taken and respectably cleaned, but when immediately given the opportunity, the animals will act by their nature and display the reality that they are still just pigs or dogs. What is the fundamental problem? People are by nature born sinners, and no amount of external effort of mankind of himself to change our condition will work.
This is what is missing in the religious man-centered world. Many do not understand what Christ Himself was addressing with Nicodemus, the religious leader who believed a person could earn favor with God by their own works. Christ told Nicodemus, before he even asked the question, “You must be born again!” (John 3:7). Our physical birth was a miracle of God, and our spiritual birth must likewise be a miracle of God. All living persons are alive physically, but spiritually are ruined in sin. No person can change what they are by something merely external. There is no doubt that Christ when speaking to Nicodemus, a learned man knowing the writing of the Old Testament, knew that he was familiar with the supernatural promises of God relative to a change that only God could bring. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezkiel 36:26-27),
The glorious work of God really does change us. How does He do this? As we read and study His Word, His Spirit works within us providing faith. Earlier in John’s gospel we read, “He (Christ) came to His own (Jews), and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:11-13). God must do the birthing. We are actively engaged, but it is His work. He alone can change us from sinners by nature to those who love and cherish Him. This is true for all related aspects of life. We cannot resolve our problems, only God working in us upon our rebirth can affect and overcome the issues of living in this fallen world. The new birth is the most important issue ever for humanity. It is the starting point of our living relationship with God. Thank you gracious Father for the new birth that is given by You as we come to You in faith and You change us! May we cease from our own devices and look exclusively to You! Praise Your Holy Name!
