Its the butterfly thing

Chapter 3  A Brand New Me
This is the chapter that begins to move heavily into who we are in Christ.  Take some time to click the link to Neil Anderson's "Who I Am in Christ" on the left of this page under "Must Reads."  This is who the Bible says we are the instant we accept Jesus Christ.  As I have said before, we may not feel this way, or we may not even believe what the Bible says about us is true, but that does not change the truth.  Understanding God's truth about us is the place to start.  What did Jesus say?  "The truth will set you free."  John 8:32

So, how do we move from the place of thinking of ourselves as sinners who need to be saved; or sinners saved by grace, to understanding we are saints; children of God; accepting who God says we are in His Word?  Regardless of our feelings?

First, we need to get out of the mindset that our behavior determines our identity.  We (especially men) are so programmed to think of "who we are" as being the same as "what we do."  That may fit well into American culture, but it does not fit into God's culture.  Remember, we have to keep asking the right questions if we want the right answers.  What is one of the things that happened when you become a Christian?  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."  This is one of the pieces of scripture that many of us have read over and over and skimmed over it over and over without accepting it as a fundamental truth of who we now are.  You and I are new creations!  Who we were before we met Jesus hasn't simply been "changed" or "improved" -- we are new creations.  It is not our behavior that defines who we are now, it is how God has created us new.

We are no longer sinners!  We may sin.  But our behavior does not define us.  If we continue to focus on sin-management, Jesus-in-us fades into the background.  If we focus on who we are with the life of Jesus-in-us, sin fades to the background because God has already dealt with our sins through Christ.  Paul looks at the mess that the Colossian church has gotten themselves into and and instead of focusing on their sins, he reminds them of the incomprehensible glory and majesty of Christ (Col 1:15-20); that they have been raised to new life with Him and in Him (Col 3:1-4) and continues by calling them to live as the new creations they are.  This letter always reminds me of the scene in The Lion King where Simba is out by the swamp after his father has been killed, lamenting his miserable situation and Mufasa appears to him in the clouds and says, "Remember who you are!"  God's truth can speak to us even through Disney.

So many Christians continue to think of themselves as sinners.  The New Testament never refers to believers as sinners, but it does refer to them as saints -- 62 times.  You were a sinner.  Now you are a saint. You may not always do saintly things, but that does not change your identity in Christ.

Many folks have compared God's new creation of believers to the metamorphosis that takes place between a caterpillar and a butterfly.  The caterpillar starts out as a caterpillar.  It eventually spins a cocoon and emerges as a butterfly.  It is a new creation.  No one would describe a butterfly as a caterpillar.  They might say, "It was a caterpillar, but now it is a butterfly."  This new butterfly might once in a while do caterpillar-type things --- hang out in old spots, taste old caterpillar food...whatever it is that caterpillars do.  But there is nothing this butterfly can do that will change it back into a caterpillar.  That is true for believers -- there is nothing we can do that will change us back into sinners.

Yes, we still sin, because even these new creations live in fleshly bodies.  Any time we talk about our ability to sin in connection with God's grace, the question of being free to sin; or whether we are minimizing sin comes up.  Paul addresses it in a number of places -- 1Cor: 10:23, Romans 6:1 for example.  I sometimes share it this way --- I certainly have the ability and the freedom to beat my children.  Do I want to?  Of course not.  Because I love them.  Is my love for my children stronger than any violent tendencies I may have?  Yes!  I also have the ability to sin all I want.   Do I want to?  No, because I love Jesus.  Sinning is against my character; against who I am -- just as beating my children would be.  Why, if we know that Christ is our life (Col 3:4) do we still want to focus on sin instead of Jesus?  Why do we somehow assume that the power/desire to sin is stronger than Christ in us?  Sin is not the focus of our lives.  Jesus is.  We'll talk more on this later.

Start thinking of yourself as a completely new creation.  Not a repaired version of the old one.