We Must Be Changed (1)

We must be changed from the state in which we are, as Christ tells Nicodemus (John 3:7), and such a change as a new birth. We must be all new, just as a bell that has even one crack must be newly moulded and recast. It is the same with the soul. Before the soul can make any sweet harmony in the ears of God, there must be a change. There is no coming to heaven without a change.
(1) We are in a state contrary to grace and to God. We are dead. There must be life in us before we come to heaven. We are enemies and must be made friends. How will we be fit for communion with God, in whom our happiness lies, without conformity? Communion is between friends. Before those opposed to each other can be friends, there must be an alteration; and this alteration must be either on God's part, or on ours.
Now, who must change? God, who is unchangeable, or we, who are corrupt and changeable? God will not change. There is no reason he should. He is goodness itself, his perfection unique. Therefore, when there is a difference between God and us, the change must be on our part. We must be changed in the spirit of our minds (Rom. 12:2). We must be wholly moulded anew. On a musical instrument, those strings that are out of tune are adjusted to those that are in tune. In the same way, it is we who must alter, and not God.
We must have new judgements and new desires, new esteem, new affections, new joys and delights, new company. The whole frame and bent of the soul must be new. The face of the soul must look altogether another way. Whereas before it looked to the world, to things below, now it must look to God and heaven. It is a double change, real and gradual. This happens at our conversion when God puts the first form and stamp upon us. The gradual change is from better to better, from glory to glory.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 101-03 [112-14]
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