This one is going to hit hard so be prepared.
I have an analogy for you, a story if you will. A man or woman is found on the street, just as nasty as can be. Muddy, gross, stinky and diseased. This represents all peoples before coming to Jesus. We can all agree that our lives before Christ was like that description. So, Jesus comes along, convicts our heart through the Holy Spirit, we accept Him and He washes us of our Sins (nastiness) and we are made new. However, most churches teach of a rinse and repeat theology.
Say our person is a homeless man. A church member walks up to him and teaches him about Jesus. Upon hearing the good news, the man wants to come to faith in Jesus. The church member takes the man to the river, baptizes him, washing him clean. The member takes him to a clothing store and buys him all new clothes, gets him a hair cut, a shave and plugs him into his church. The man has been been renewed. Just like our hearts are when we come to faith. However, our homeless man is taught that he will always have that homeless nature in him and he needs to try and avoid it at all costs.
The man eventually falls back to the streets, not fully but his feet stay dirty. Everywhere he walks, he leaves a trail of mud. He becomes set in the fact that his feet will never be fully clean and he becomes complacent in it. Everywhere he walks, he leaves dirt. Those living on the street that he talks to, recognize the dirt on his feet and say, your just like us in clean clothes.
The fact of the matter is this. This man represents all who get washed initially but deny the fact that Christ cleaned us and we stay clean because of Him. Teachings out there contradict what the Bible says about this. They say, your washed, going to heaven but you'll always be a sinner saved by grace. Get used to failure. The Bible doesn't state that though. Christ came to make us free, not to open our prison door so we can come in and out of prison. It would be like a prison opening the cell doors and telling everyone they are free but they must come back to sleep there every day. So every day you wake up in the same cell. You go outside and try to be a productive member of society yet your bed is still in the prison. How does that help, it doesn't.
Jesus or the apostles never taught this idea of a somewhat clean philosophy. They taught that Jesus came to rid the world of sin through His sacrifice. He atoned for our sins once and for all. For our homeless man, instead of being told he's just a cleaned up homeless man, he is now told, your the richest man alive. How would his perspective change? If he was told, you are rich because the man that picked you up on the street, clothed you, washed you and made you new is now sharing His inheritance with you, wouldn't his actions change. Instead of walking around in defeat, he now walks around in pure joy. He's even told to share his new found wealth with others. So he goes out to tell people, love on people and show them how to be clean and free.
It's our self defeating attitude that plagues our churches. It's the once a sinner, always a sinner message that cuts us off from our inheritance. We have been given a great gift, handed to us by God. It's not earned or deserved but given none the less. He loves us so much that He handed us the keys to the kingdom. Yet we stand at the edge of the property, unwilling to step into His house because we are afraid of getting his rugs dirty with our unclean feet. We see dirt, He sees clean. Who is correct? Of course He is.
If you went to a persons house and said, my feet are dirty, I can't come in. They then wash your feet, yet you still refused because you perceived them as still dirty, who is then offended. The owner of the house is. Here they took their time, effort and love to wash your nasty feet and afterwards you basically deny their gift. They say thank you, they appreciate it, they may even show praise but they won't enter fully into the house. They may stay on the porch or deck or just outside but never fully enter, because they still believe there feet are dirty.
Back to the homeless man, if he goes from homeless to limitlessly rich, what would he do to test his new wealth. Buy a car perhaps, go to a fancy restaurant, buy a huge home. For those believing they still are homeless, his spending of the wealth seems disrespectful. However, his new benefactor tells Him, spend as much as you want.
The point to this is nothing new to my writings, yet I need to be reminded constantly that I am rich beyond my wildest dreams. It's because the world says I am not. Every system in place here on Earth is to do one thing, keep us from reaching our true potential. Systems are in place to keep us reliant on them. It's so pervasive and engrained in how we see ourselves, when we are given a new choice of how to be, we reject it. Same as when the religious leaders had Jesus crucified. They rejected His teachings because they couldn't see beyond their current belief system. They justified His death through God's law which was directly violated by killing Him.
We do the same thing today. I couldn't possibly be completely clean, no shame, no dirt, no nothing. Surely there's residue on the bottom of my feet you missed? How can we boldly deny the truth and call it true? Seems like someone is wrong in this equation and it's not God.
Identity in Christ
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Colossians 3:3
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
Galatians 2:20
You Are a New Creation, Not a "Saved Sinner"
Colossians 3:9-10
“...you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
Righteousness and Holiness
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me...”
2 Corinthians 5:21
“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Hebrews 10:10
“And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
You Are the Righteousness of God
Romans 5:17
“...those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Live Free from Condemnation
Romans 8:1
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus...”
Hebrews 10:14
“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
Be Transformed by Renewing Your Mind
Romans 12:2
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...”
Living Free from Sin and Condemnation
Romans 6:6-7
“We know that our old self was crucified with Him... so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
Romans 8:1-2
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
1 John 3:5-6
“But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning.”
Become Love (Not Just Know About Love)
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Ephesians 5:1-2
“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us...”
John 13:35
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Relationship and Intimacy with God
John 17:3
“Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”
Hebrews 4:16
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence...”
James 4:8
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
Don’t Live for Yourself
2 Corinthians 5:15
“And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
To God be the Glory
