Old Clichés

We’ve all probably heard these clichés: “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks;” “A leopard can’t change its spots;” and “Insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results.”  All of these clichés are saying the same thing— “Same old, same old” or nothing changes.

When we hear these clichés, sometimes it is irritating or frustrating because these sayings are old and overused.  However, these expressions can also bring about feelings of hopelessness, despair, and misery if we’ve been unsuccessfully trying to change something in or about our lives.  I hear this desperation in Paul, the great man of God who said, “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18b-19, ESV).

Whether we’re trying to kick a bad habit, a tendency not to make poor decisions, or a propensity not to attract unwelcome circumstances, the results always come up the same.  It’s like knowingly putting on a fresh coat of paint on a structurally unsound building or having plastic surgery done to a diseased and dying body.  Why bother, right?

As Paul experienced this struggle, he went a step further by confessing, “I do not understand my own actions…” (7:15).  He finally concluded with, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death” (7:24).

Have you ever, or are you experiencing the same thing?  Have you found an answer to this predicament?  Paul did.  He exclaimed, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7:25).  In the next chapter, Paul goes on to explain his life changing experience.  As a matter of fact, Paul describes his freedom as starting life anew.

In John 3, when Jesus told Nicodemus about this new life, Jesus called it being “born again”.  Nicodemus was bewildered as he questioned Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4).  Jesus answered, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

In other words, a leopard is a leopard by nature.  The only way for a leopard to change its spots is for it to become a new creature.  This is what Scripture is telling us in II Corinthians 5:17 and John 1:13.  Unless we are given a new nature, we are but a poor image of God.  The Good News is that we can change because we have been offered an opportunity to be to be recreated with the same stuff that God is made of (Romans 8:9-11).

Peter says that now that we are born again with an imperishable seed (I Peter 1:23) and we’ve been given everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him (II Peter 1:3), Peter admonishes us to “grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18).

We are almost 3 months into the New Year.  I would not be surprised if some of us have broken our resolve that we made at the start of the New Year.  However, we must not waver in our resolve to knowing Jesus.  Always keep the words of the Hebrew writer in front of you because “He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6).  Jesus never disappoints.