The Latest Upgrade
Dan Kunz
If you have a smartphone, it’s inevitable that you’ll get a message every month or two telling you to “download the latest upgrade”. If you’re like me, you probably dread the thought of getting a new upgrade. Some “techno-geek” somewhere is being paid whole bushel baskets full of money, to make your life more convenient, quicker, easier, or better. I just want it the way it was! The upgrades might be an improvement in their eyes, but not necessarily in mine. I’ve got to search for things, change how to do things, or do without something I really liked and depended on. Ugh!
Sadly, the same mindset has affected people’s perception of God. Many in today’s world want a God who is more convenient, quicker, easier, or better. Take, for example, the topic of abortion. God’s viewpoint of taking another person’s life is pretty simple and straightforward. “You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13. God begins life at conception also seems obvious. “For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13. Show a three-year-old an ultrasound picture of an unborn child and ask them what it is. “It’s a baby,” they’ll tell you with a look that shows they don’t think much of your intelligence if you had to ask a three-year-old that! Those two concepts should tell us all we need to know about abortion, yet people have wanted an “upgrade” in God’s “operating system” for years and years. Even with the most recent Supreme Court ruling about abortion, people are more determined than ever to do away with any limitations on abortion. Babies sometimes aren’t convenient. Having a baby right now will make things difficult. Adding another child to the family will not make our financial situation better. These are all reasons for an upgrade in God’s laws, right?
Of course other upgrades are popular, too. Do you want to live together outside of marriage? Just pretend God “upgraded” the Sixth Commandment. Don’t like the thought of going to hell when you die? Imagine God did a “re-boot” and eliminated hell. Everybody gets to go the heaven! Don’t like the idea of going to church to hear God’s Word every week? No problem! God just upgraded the Third Commandment, too. You don’t have to go to church or be bothered with God’s Word at all! Just drop a couple items at the local food pantry occasionally, and God will call it “good” at Judgement Day!
The only upgrade God does is in our status as a sinner! Through Jesus’ life and death, God has upgraded us from sinner to saint, from damned to forgiven. He doesn’t change to accommodate us. He changes us, to accommodate him! His perfect justice was executed on Jesus, not us. Wearing Christ’s robe of righteousness, we are now “fit” to enter God’s presence. What am I thankful for at this time of year? I’m thankful God, through the Holy Spirit, installed the most important upgrade I needed - faith in Jesus as my Savior! Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and tomorrow.”