'can a leopard change his spots?'

Imagine for a moment a serial burglar, sex offender or drug dealer being released from prison. Part of the justification for long-term prison sentences is rehabilitation. The parolee moves into an area, but it isn't too long before he re-offends and you hear people say, 'Well, what do you expect? Can a leopard change his spots?' The saying comes from the King James Version of the Bible. 'Can . . . the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil', is the question God asks His people in Jeremiah 13.23.

The answer to the rhetorical question is obvious - No, it cannot. People love to think they can change themselves. They love to talk of 'turning over a new leaf' and every new year is full of broken new year's resolutions. But the sinful nature of mankind is irredeemable. It cannot be changed by any man, for even though man may do his best to discipline himself, to civilise himself, to educate himself, to live an outwardly good life, whatever, the sinful nature of man cannot be changed. We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. We are born that way. As a result of the Fall of man in the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve first disobeyed God, the nature of mankind is totally depraved. This does not mean we are as bad as we could be. It means sin has affected us totally, every part of us - our minds, our hearts, our wills, our motives - everything. And only God can deal with that. The leopard cannot, by his wishful thinking, change his spots, neither can the sinner change his or her nature.

Paul talks of the struggles mankind faces. 'I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For 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. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me' Romans 7.15-19, ESV. Paul goes on to say, 'O wretched man that I am!' Martyn Luther struggled with this, despite being a monk. He beat himself, starved himself, tormented himself when he sinned despite living in such 'holy' conditions in a monastery. But everything changed when he was born again, born from above, born in the spirit.

It is only the power of God that can change us. 'If any man be in Christ he is a new creation'. When that happens we have the privilege of being 'partakers of the divine nature', 2 Peter 1.4. 'A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them', Ezekiel 36.26-27. First of all God gives us a new nature, then He gives us the motivation to live according to that new nature - 'be ye holy, for I am holy' - and finally He gives us the power by which we can live according to that new nature, the Holy Spirit of God Himself. Praise God today that, although the leopard cannot change its spots and neither can a sinner change his nature, any sinner, by the grace and power of God, can be changed and be called a saint. But remember - that is only by the grace of God.