The Water is Still Foul

Of all the truth that God has revealed to me, no two have been more perspective-changing, life-altering, glory-revealing than these:

• God is passionate for His glory above all else, and
• if I have been truly born again, than He is at the bottom of my joy. 

Funny enough, both of these truths have been delivered by John Piper at Passion Conferences, 2010 and 2011.

While I wish I could recap all the points and discuss how exactly God has changed my life through them, I don't think I have time here. I do, however, want to take a minute and share one of the enormous implications of the second truth that I haven't been able to get away from.

To be born again, to have salvation, to know Jesus, is to have something fundamentally change. There has to be "an alteration in the foundation" as Piper says. He refers to this as the exchange of the bottom of my joy: self for God. God now, as the bottom of my joy, is the source and reason for all of my happiness and purpose. My desires now come from a new place. This truth, that the new birth is a foundational change, is seen throughout Scripture using several different analogies:

• death to life: Eph 2:1-10; John 5:24
• heart of stone to heart of flesh: Ezek 11:19, 36:26
• enemies to sons: Rom 5:10; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5

I believe that this foundation change is the new birth. It came about through repentance and belief in Jesus Christ, at which point I received forgiveness of my sins, the Holy Spirit made my spirit alive, baptized me, sealed me, and changed the foundation of my joy from myself to God. In all of this I find immense hope. Yet the implications of this truth reach much further, as I realized sitting in family group on January 3, 2011.

Not only does God become the bottom, the foundation and fountain of my joy, but He replaces the self that was there. He does not simply replace me as the bottom, nor does He place Himself below me. No, the truth is that He changes me, He renews me, He brings me to life, and then supplants Himself as the bottom. He establishes the new me upon Him. He is now the source, pushing through my new, redeemed man, up into my life.
My fountain now has a new spring!
And that spring is sending forth good water! 

There is a problem though: my fountain is not empty. In fact, it is quite full. The fountain of my life is full of dirty, unclean water because I have been the source. Though the source has now changed, the water is still foul. This is one of the great mysteries of Scripture: though I have been born again and have received a new nature, God does not rid me of my old fleshly, sinful nature. Instead, He allows it to remain until ultimately, sin and death will be put away. But that does not mean it can stay. I have a new spring pushing up good water into my fountain, and that means the foul water must be pushed out. This is sanctification. This is being made holy. This is being conformed into the image of Jesus. This is where I find glorious hope. Often, I find myself drinking of the foul water and asking "Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?"(James 3:11) Often I am discouraged. But I must realize this is the process: the good water must expel the foul. I am not to be content with the foul. I am not to delight in tasting of it. It cannot remain. But I must recognize this is sanctification. And when I taste foul and fresh mixed, I want to rejoice in the fresh, and seek to expel the foul.

Thank You Jesus, that You care too much for me to allow the foundation of my joy to be myself.

There is now inside me a new spring pushing the old ways out.