Are You Really Who You Think You Are?

Years ago, I arrived at a spiritual turning point. It had been about a half-dozen years since committing my life to Jesus Christ and I was working full-time on the staff of a Christian ministry. But something wasn’t right. 

I’d read through the Bible several times, had memorized lots of verses, and could talk “Christianese” as well as anyone. Outwardly I might have appeared on the right track spiritually. But two of the verses I had learned troubled me.

 

One was 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” The other was Galatians 2:20, which declared something similar: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

 

My problem was despite having accumulated considerable Bible knowledge, I was still struggling with the same areas of sin I had before becoming a believer – including anxiety and anger. I was trying hard to overcome them but didn’t seem to be making any progress. If anything, it was like taking a step or two backward.

 

I didn’t feel like the “new creation” the Bible talked about. And if Christ was supposed to be living in me, why was I so often acting like the same old knucklehead I’d been before praying to receive Him into my life? The thought kept recurring that maybe I was fooling myself – and others. Maybe I was like the folks Jesus had described, going through the motions without truly knowing Him as Lord and Savior. People to whom He would say, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matthew 7:23).

 

Perhaps you’ve been there. You might have wondered why living the so-called “Christian life” seems so much harder than it’s supposed to be. The first time I heard a preacher declare, “The Christian life isn’t difficult to live; it’s impossible to live,” I thought, ‘You’ve got that right!’

 

Then one October weekend I was assigned to report on a Christian businessmen’s event in Minneapolis, Minn. I stayed in the home of a man named Loren and his wife. You could call it fortuitous, serendipitous or coincidental, but I’d call it part of God’s plan for me. A divine appointment.

 

Loren and I spent hours during our free time discussing what he termed “the real you from God’s perspective.” The point, he said, was to focus on what the Lord says about us in the Scriptures rather than what we think or feel about ourselves. 

 

Look at it this way: Weeks after the wedding, the groom or bride might wake up one morning and think, “I don’t feel married.” Perhaps not, but in wedding ceremonies they don’t say, “I now ask you to feel like husband and wife.” Nope. They say, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” It’s a fact, asserted in public before witnesses – and there’s a marriage license to prove it.

 

In the Scriptures, we’re repeatedly told what’s required to become members of God’s holy and eternal family. John 1:12-13 declares, “Yet to all who received [Jesus Christ], to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” 

 

Did I truly receive Christ as my Savior and Lord, accepting His gift of forgiveness and eternal life? If my answer was yes – and it was – then it didn’t matter how I felt. What mattered was trusting in what God says in His Word.

 

Other passages confirm this: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). And in Titus 3:5 we’re told, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” 

 

The Scriptures teach there’s nothing we can do – not anything – to earn or deserve God’s love and acceptance. It totally by His grace and mercy, receiving what we don’t deserve and not receiving what we do deserve.

 

During my discussions with Loren, other verses I had been studying started making sense. For instance, Romans 6:4, a passage we often hear when someone is baptized, states, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” I might not have been feeling like I’d been given a new life spiritually, but if I believed in what God says about me in the Scriptures, it was true nonetheless.

 

Some verses later it adds, “In the same way, count [reckon] yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). Whether I felt that way or not, the Bible says I’m “dead to sin” – no longer enslaved to it – and have a new spiritual life through Christ’s Spirit living in me.

 

How often have you heard someone say, “Well, I’m just a sinner, saved by grace.” That’s true in a sense, and it sounds quite humble and contrite. But we need a different mindset. Because 1 Corinthians 1:2 explains we’re “called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It says we’re saints! If that’s true, then a more accurate perspective is that we’re “saints who sin.” How we see ourselves – who we think that we are – can revolutionize how we approach life as Christ’s followers. As it did for me.

 

Romans 12:2 puts it this way: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We live in a world in which many trust only their feelings, but we’re called to trust not in feelings but in God’s ‘eternal verities’ – becoming transformed as we renew our minds to believe and act upon what He has revealed about us in His Word.

The ‘How-To’ Book That Teaches We Can’t

Self-help and how-to books promise help for just
about anything, except what's most important.

Have you checked out the self-help section at the local bookstore lately? On those shelves we can find “how-to” books on practically everything: Becoming a millionaire. Growing prize-winning flowers. Finding lasting happiness. Redesigning a house. Taking eye-catching photos. Starting a successful business. Achieving greater intimacy.

We all would like to know how to excel in our favorite pursuits and passions. And if by reading their how-to books we can learn the secrets of others who have already excelled at them, it can save us lots of time and effort. At least that’s what the books promise.

But there’s one book you won’t find on most self-help shelves, because it stresses how not to do something. In fact, it emphasizes that what we might yearn to do is exactly what we truly can’t do. What’s the book? The Bible.

And what is it the Bible teaches that we can’t do? It tells us emphatically that we can’t live the so-called “Christian life.”

We’ve all heard the saying, “God helps those that help themselves.” Well, you won’t find that adage in the Scriptures. Maybe it’s in 2 Opinions, but not in the 66 books of the Bible. In fact, what we find is quite the opposite. During one of His discourses, Jesus declared, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

In terms of accomplishing things of eternal value, Jesus didn’t say there are only some things we can do. No. He stated we’re unable to accomplish anything of lasting significance apart from Him.

The apostle Paul affirmed this when he stated, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). Later he added, “I can do everything through him (Jesus Christ) who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Recently I spoke at a men’s breakfast on, “How Do You Live the Christian Life?” I explained the process God began in my life in 1981, enabling me to understand with increasing certainty over the past 35 years that the answer to this question is simple: I can’t. The Christian life isn’t hard. It’s not difficult. It’s impossible to live, humanly speaking.

This is one of the truths that set Christianity apart from any other belief system or religion. Religions essentially stipulate, “This is what you must do – and what you must not do.” In the Scriptures we find that in Jesus, what must be done has already been done. Once and for all.

The Bible’s Old Testament shows the people of Israel had plenty of laws of follow. They just did a miserable job of following them. As someone observed, “Before Moses got to the bottom of Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments, the Israelites had already broken every one of them!”

But the fact we can’t possibly live the perfect, holy life God requires doesn’t mean we should shrug our shoulders and resign ourselves to being “sinners saved by grace.” Because through the power of Christ, we can live the life we can’t possibly live in what the Bible calls “the flesh.”

We all have struggles; some of them seem insurmountable. Deep-seated anger, or anxiety, as I’ve dealt with for much of my life. There might be addictions or other compulsions we can’t control. Inability to forgive and bitterness are particularly problematic for some. But in wrestling with such “besetting sins,” those who have truly been “born again” in Christ can’t opt for the excuse that comedian Flip Wilson’s character, “Geraldine,” often used: “The devil made me do it!”

Because if we scour the Scriptures, doing as the ancient Bereans did, who “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what (they heard) was true” (Acts 17:11), we discover sin no longer holds mastery over us.

In the 6^th chapter of Romans alone, we find numerous passages declaring we have “a new life,” that “we should no longer be slaves to sin,” we are “dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus,” and we “have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” If we can grasp such truth, believe it, and act according to it, rather than depending on our feelings at any particular moment, the impact can be transformative.

As Galatians 5:1 declares, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free….” Years before the apostle Paul made that assertion, Jesus gave this promise: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:32-36).

We’d do well to heed the oft-repeated words of the late Wayne Barber, beloved pastor of a church in Chattanooga, Tenn. who recently passed from this life: 
      “I can’t. God never said I could. He can, and He always said He would!” 

No Job for the Lone Ranger

The U.S.A. was founded with a healthy dose of “can do.” Pilgrims sailing across the ocean. Venturesome pioneers exploring the horizon to the West, discovering territories previously unseen by non-native Americans. During the Industrial Revolution, enterprising entrepreneurs embodying the virtues of “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.”

The Lone Ranger and Tonto,
a team of the 1950s.

Yes, we’ve prided ourselves in our self-sufficiency. From 1952 to 1954, TV even offered a “poster child” for this independent attitude: “The Lone Ranger.” The mysterious masked man would ride into town on his white horse, Silver, accompanied by his faithful companion, Tonto, and discern what problems were plaguing the local citizenry. He’d deftly dispose of the bad guys and then, without fanfare, ride off into the sunset with a mighty “Hi-yo, Silver, away!”

The local folks were left behind, scratching their heads and wondering, “Who was that masked man?”

In July, we’ll get a fresh look when a new “Lone Ranger” movie premieres, starring Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp. I have a suspicion “ke-mo sah-bee” will never be the same!

American culture being as strong as it is, this lone ranger mindset infiltrated every aspect of daily life, including spirituality. For decades churches have produced “lone ranger” believers showing up from time to time for worship services, professing to be devout in their faith, but having little ongoing connection with other followers of Jesus Christ.

This is not how the so-called “Christian life” is to be lived.

In John 15:5, Jesus declared, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Paul the apostle affirmed that when he said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

A major distinction between Christianity and other belief systems is that through His Spirit, God can empower believers to live as He calls them to live.

But there’s another dimension to this reality. Jesus’ followers aren’t to live in isolation – they need one another. Many passages underscore the importance of strength in numbers.

For instance, Proverbs 27:17 states, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” And Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 points out, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!... A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

The apostle Paul also offered a model for carrying out Christ’s Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Paul instructed Timothy, the man he was mentoring, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

Have you ever wondered, with various studies showing a large portion of Americans believe in God and the Bible, even claiming to be followers of Christ, why is our nation in such moral and ethical chaos?

That question has no simple answers. But “lone ranger thinking” is a significant contributor. Through the years I’ve been fortunate to have many people, men and women, who invested in my life in various ways. And I’m striving to “pay it forward” by investing in others through personal mentoring and teaching. We can't do it alone.

The Christian life never was intended to take place in a vacuum. Just as human organs must function in concert to sustain healthy life, as parts of the body of Christ we’re designed to support and complement one another. For following Jesus, lone rangers need not apply.