Mad Max is a ferret, which is a small animal closely related to the weasel. His fur is whitish, tan, and dark brown in color, and he has a dark mask around his eyes. He belongs to Sue who lives in a big city where larger animals can be a problem to keep. This impish little fellow keeps Sue amused when he is out of his cage. He is constantly on the move, exploring from room to room and investigating everything he can reach. And when held by someone he likes, he can become very lovable, licking that person’s ears and wanting his stomach scratched.
Sometimes Sue will tie a little bonnet on his head and put a leash on him, and they will go out for a walk along the busy city sidewalk. This causes all kinds of reactions among the people they pass. Some want to pet him; some want to hold him; others just stare. Once, as two passing teenage boys saw Mad Max, one asked the other, “What’s that animal?” The other’s reply was, “It’s a little raccoon.”
When Sue travels, she sometimes takes Mad Max with her. A small custom-made, carry-on cage is his home then. She places it at her feet on the plane. She has to get special permission from the airlines to do this. So Mad Max is a pampered pet . . . but he is still a ferret.
There is another side to a ferret’s nature; in the wild, it is a cold-blooded killer. It will quickly catch and kill a rat or a prairie dog. Men have, in the past, trained ferrets to seek out and kill rats and rabbits. If a building were infested with rats, the landlords would hire the ferrets’ owners to turn their animals loose in the building, and there wasn’t a place that a rat could hide where a ferret couldn’t find it. Soon the building was free of rats!
It’s hard to imagine Sue’s lovable pet being a cold-blooded killer, but that is the very nature her ferret was born with. No matter how cute Mad Max may look with a bonnet on and walking along the sidewalk on a leash, he still has a ferret’s nature. Sue can’t change that even though her pet is tamed.
It makes us think about the nature that each of us is born with that likes to sin. We can wear lovely clothes, be well-educated and be well-liked, but we still have that sinful nature underneath it all that is capable of doing some pretty wicked stuff. You and I can’t change that sinful nature of ours. We can dress it up and cover it over, but God still sees it. “The Lord [sees] not as man [sees]; for man [looks] on the outward appearance, but the Lord [looks] on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:77But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)).
I expect that as long as Sue keeps Mad Max well fed and takes such good care of him, the killing nature he was born with, though still there, will remain hidden and inactive. The sinful nature that you and I were born with will not go away either, but ours continues to actively show itself daily, every time we sin. God knows all about it and that we can’t change that sinful nature we each have, but He lovingly offers us a new nature that can’t sin and that loves to please Him. You and I can receive that new nature by coming to God’s Son the Lord Jesus, in prayer, telling Him we are sorry for our sins, and by faith believing that He died on the cross of Calvary to wash away our sins. Then we are given that new nature just as He promised: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)). God cannot allow one sin in heaven, and we still have that sinful nature. But with our sins forgiven and having a new nature which God has given us that can’t sin, we will be accepted in heaven when this life on earth is over. Another happy thought is that once we are in heaven, we won’t have that sinful nature anymore.
Have you received that new nature with the assurance that you have eternal life? “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:1313These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)).
ML-07/14/2002