Have you ever wanted to change something about yourself but found it very difficult to do so?
If you’ve felt this way, you are not alone in the world. It’s a problem of the human condition. That in our sinful state, we are unable to change the deep things in us that feel broken or not up the standard that we would hope for.
There are thousands upon thousands of self-help books, podcasts, video, and programs to help us change the parts of us we want to improve. All of this to be a better person, a healthier person, or a more successful person.
While there is merit is seeking to do good, be healthy, and to grow personally, most of the way in which we go about it, even in some Christian approaches, is focused on self-improvement or self-care.
The good news of Jesus is that he didn’t come to improve us into better people. He came to make us new people.
However, Paul continues in Ephesians 2:4-9, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated
us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
It was God who made the first move. He saw our sinfulness and our inability to make things right either in ourselves or in the world so he stepped toward us in love and offered his son so that we might be made saved. It is the gift of God in Jesus that we can move from death to life.
Where once we were slaves to our desires and our self-made righteousness, now we are free to live in loving relationship with our Creator and Lord.
That’s why Paul summarizes these thoughts in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
The blessing of faith in Jesus is that we are “re-created” in Christ Jesus. The literal workmanship of the grace of God. We no longer are forced to strive to earn any sense of love or to earn our place in this world. We are gifted something much better than a call to self-improvement; we are gifted new life in Christ.
John Piper in his book When I Don’t Desire God says, “Conversion is the creation of new desires, not just new duties; new delights, not just new deeds; new treasures, not just new tasks.”
If you are in Christ, you have been made new in Him. No longer are we forced to live under the heavy burden of trying to improve ourselves, instead we can surrender our brokenness and faults to our Lord, who is more than willing to take our burdens and give us something new in
its place. This is the wonderful blessing of knowing and walking with Jesus.
As you continue to reflect this week on what it means to be made new in Christ, I’d like to ask you to meditate on this image of two homes side by side, each hosting a feast.
In one, God is hosting his feast. His invitation is to leave your life behind, be made new by Jesus, and find satisfaction in Him.
In the other, sin is hosting its feast. The invitation is to improve your life and find satisfaction through self-help, self-care, and self-worth.
Compare the two feasts. What satisfaction do they offer? How lasting and real is that satisfaction? What price must you pay to attend each feast?
Scripture readings this week
- March 1 – John 10:22-42
- March 2 – John 11:1-16
- March 3 – Exodus 5
- March 6 – John 11:17-44
- March 7 – John 11:45-57