Transforming Identity - 1 Corinthians 12:12-14

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. - 1 Corinthians 12:12-14

    I never expected to witness the deliberate quest for personal expression that I have seen in the last sixty-years. Sure, it all started innocently enough with the delusional basket-weaving, incense burning, flower children. ‘Flower power’ was their chant. Turn quickly to the dizzying present and what started innocently enough has now become a Frankenstein-like monster with snake tattoos and self-mutilation that was once confined to Canaanites, Philistines, and savages. For the vast majority, these cases are merely the outward manifestation of trending fads. But for those spiritually void individuals, it is what devils are made of.
    Radical self expression has become an idol to the unbelievers. Scarification and tattooing are but two of the ways modern people idolize their own flesh. Multiple piercings serve the same purpose for many. And while these practices are not sinful in themselves (though of dubious benefit) they become sinful when they are done to enhance what God has created, as though God somehow failed to meet a human standard. If these same individuals were conspicuously ‘marked’ against their will, they would scream to high heaven and hate the stigmas and what they represented. Ask any Holocaust survivor.
    These individuals yearn to be noticed for their looks rather than for their good works or accomplishments. It is indeed about pride and belonging to a particular group that shares the same notion of individuality, presenting themselves and their body enhancements as though it raised them above the conventional crowd somehow. This conduct does not differ from bejeweled plumage, gaudy facial makeup, body sculpting, gender surgery, cosmetic surgery, or body-building for self-esteem rather than for health purposes. “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” - 2 Timothy 3. All these things exist because they don’t feel they are complete without this nonsense. Pride and covetous are the benchmarks of their sins. Is it not clear that we show what we treasure in how we adorn ourselves?
    I speak not of pierced ears or a tattoo ... or two. I speak of those who have so encrusted themselves in their vainglory that they have become indistinguishable from the crowd of the like-minded. They speak of group identity as though they can only find self-value in a community of people like themselves. They seek company among others who share their penchant for self aggrandizement and are seldom seen or associated with those who choose not to transform themselves in such a vulgar and ostentatious way.
    If what we seek is personal transformation, God is ready and willing to provide the means for it. But He will not make it His goal to transform the outer garment of mortality. In fact, He decries the very notion. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.” - Matthew 23:27.  Human flesh remains human flesh, regardless of how we present it. True transformation can only occur within the body, in heart, mind, and soul. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." - Romans 12:2.
    If we're going to be seen as a member of a group, shouldn't we be recognized by what Christ has done in us, rather than what we have done to ourselves? Then we can truly glory in our transformed identity, bestowed upon us by the grace of God!

True To This Day - Luke 2:34

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed ...” - Luke 2:34

    The account of Simeon’s prophecy is one of the clearest statements on predestination ever recorded in the Bible. It also predicts the reaction of the unsaved to Christ’s revelations.
    The ‘fall’ of many refers us directly to those predestined for hopeless eternal damnation. Scripture is replete with passages describing unrepentant sinners and what they are to expect at the hands of God, who is a consuming fire. “Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.” - Psalm 21:8-9.
    The ‘rising’ of many speaks of God’s elect or those who are predestined to heaven. God knows the difference, and those He has appointed to be adopted into an eternal inheritance will find their salvation through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” - John 6:44-45.
    As for the last phrase of the title passage, ‘the sign that is opposed’ is Jesus Christ Himself. The voices of unbelief will clang loudly against the Word of God. They will miss no opportunity to denigrate and despise the Gospel. They will even oppose the mere mention of Christ’s holy name. Ban it, censor it; they will do everything in their power to keep others from hearing about redemption and salvation because they hate Jesus and His words. “Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.” - John 15:23-24. They routinely hate Jesus and His Gospel.
    Many of the saved will first fall in unbelief or ignorance. But indue time, God will raise them up, through faith in Jesus Christ, to eternal glory while others He will leave in their unbelief to their eternal shame. It is God who will choose us rather than we who will choose Him. “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” - Romans 9:16.
    Think about it. If we could affect our sovereign election by our own efforts (our works) it would no longer be of grace. It would be payment owed to us by God. But God owes us nothing. It is only by His exceedingly gracious mercy that we receive redemption at all. God isn’t looking for our sacrifices or works. Our works are merely trash in the eyes of God. “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.” - Isaiah 64:6-7. This is what our works earn for us.
    What then does God want? “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” - Psalm 51:16-17.
    That many would fall and many would rise in Christ is true to this day.