Two Roads: Please God, Or Trust Him?عينة

Nothing you believe and depend upon is more magnificently freeing than this single truth: You are no longer who you were, even on your worst day. Trusting and leaning upon “Christ in you” is the source of every shred of strength, joy, healing, and peace. What we believe happened in that first moment of trusting Jesus affects everything. That start is called “justification,” which means to be made right. Some believe they will eventually, through sincere diligence, change into someone better. Their confidence to change centers on sanctified self-effort. Others believe the very essence of who they now are is completely changed. They are convinced of absolute fused union with the God of the universe. Their confidence to mature is placed squarely in trust of their new identity in Jesus. This does not mean they don’t fail. They do fail. But in the end they trust who God has made them. If I follow the first path, I’m trying to change from who I was into who I should be. If I follow the second, I’m maturing into who I already am. Nature provides many examples of this incredible discrepancy between who we appear to be and who we truly are. Consider the caterpillar. If we brought a caterpillar to a biologist and asked him to analyze it and describe its DNA, he would tell us, “I know this looks like a caterpillar to you. But scientifically, according to every test, including DNA, this is fully and completely a butterfly.” Wow! God has wired into a creature looking nothing like a butterfly a perfectly complete butterfly identity. And because the caterpillar is a butterfly in essence, it will one day display the behavior and attributes of a butterfly. The caterpillar matures into what is already true about it. So it is with us. God has given us the DNA of righteousness. We are not sinners striving to become saints. We are saints, who yes, still sin. This is why, in the New Testament, we aren’t called sinners, but instead are called saints, holy ones, and beloved children. Nothing we do will make us more righteous than we already are. Nothing we do will alter this reality. God knows our DNA. He knows that we are “Christ in me.” And now He is asking us to join Him in what He knows is true!