Years ago a barbers union in Chicago advertised that a certain brand of soap
would change one's life. They went down to Madison Street and picked up the
filthiest derelict they could find and used their soap on him: bath, shave,
shampoo, the works. They bought the poor man a fine suit, put him up in an
exquisite hotel suite and advertised in the newspapers the next day: "See
what we have done, we have made a new man with soap."
Of course, it didn't really work, for he was no new man at all. Some weeks later
a small item on page 13 of the paper written by a reporter stated "The man made
over by the barbers' union was found last night on Madison Street drunk, dirty,
and disillusioned."
In our modern society, people have sought all kinds of things to change our
lives. The problem is that all those things are for the outward man. Real
change to one's life must be on the inside. The heart of man must be made
new. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have
come." For a person to change his or her life, he or she needs to be in Christ,
for only Christ truly changes a person's heart.
