THE ATTITUDE NEEDED FOR SALVATION

"No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better." (Lk. 5:39)

Our duty is to trust in God, putting our confidence in Him, submitting to the Word He has given to us. We do this by living it, although it isn't always easily done. What we are, what we have become through a lifetime of experiences, has become nature; and our nature, formed by years of habit, does not change easily. Take Israel for example: "And the LORD said to Moses, 'I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!'" (Exodus 32:9). "Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people" (Exodus 33:3). "But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction" (Jeremiah 17:23). Instead of listening to the voice of God through Moses, it was easier to continue in the old ways of thinking and acting.

This idea runs throughout the Bible. When Hebrews 4:1-2 says that the Israelites fell in the wilderness because "the word they heard . . . [was not] united with faith," The Hebrew writer is speaking to this principle. The people would not yield their mind--and their old ways--to admit that He was right. They fell back upon their own opinions, observing them rather than what God commanded. Interesting, but each man and woman of Israel probably did not go through a process of rejecting each command, but resting upon and trusting in those long formed habits produced the same end. Their attitudes and actions, then, as when old players refuse to accept new approaches to winning, showed what they deep in their hearts thought.

Luke 5:39 illustrates this tendency of man to reject something new. He shows that we have a natural resistance to new things: even spiritual things. This can be good or it can be bad. It is therefore very important that we be open and honest lest we reject God's will without ever really hearing it.

Are we open-minded so that, when the Bible is read or taught to us, we change when we are wrong? The people of Israel went the easy path, resting on old habits, by rejecting God's will. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are childlike in their faith. Israel did not have an open, honest, and obedient attitude. Scripture tells us, for the most part, their habits and attitudes never really changed. Though they were free from Egyptian bondage, they were not free from the old ways of thinking. They left, but their old ideas and habits did not.

How about you, when you read the Bible do you give it a fair chance? You may be 18 or 68 and find that you are comfortable with life, but the Word of God may have something new for you. Are you open and honest enough to change if you learn something totally new from Scripture?