You are a living miracle! At the moment that the Spirit of God enabled you to behold and believe in the Lamb of God who died for your sins, who rose from the dead and ascended back to throne of glory next to His Father, you were made a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
In Christ, you are the very righteousness of God! (2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:7-9)
In Christ, you are perfect! (Hebrews 10:14)
In Christ, your sins are forever forgiven and forever forgotten (Hebrews 10:12, 14, 17)
In Christ, you are God’s friend (Romans 5:10-11)
In Christ, your redemption is eternally secure! (Hebrews 9:14)
In Christ, you are God’s Temple, a member of His Church and body (Ephesians 2:19-22)
In Christ, you are sealed and gifted by God the Holy Spirit! (Eph. 1:13, 1 Peter 4:10-11)
If all this is true, why do we still struggle?
Great question…and here are my thoughts about that.
The journey on the beautiful road called growth (i.e., discipleship, maturity, spiritual formation, sanctification) must start with going back through our past so we can move forward to our new present. Underneath the surface of our lives, we continue to live in the negative patterns of our past which were shaped by our family origin and past experiences. How we handle conflict, gender roles, failure and success, parenting, grieving, singleness, money, and, pleasure are often influenced more by our past then Christ and His finished work.
Here’s the deal: we don’t like to go beneath the surface and travel back to our past. It’s too painful. But if we don’t, the pain we’re trying to escape only magnifies negative and hijacks the beauty of our present reality.
So what are we to do? In order to go back to our painful past, we must travel back and interpret those experiences through who we are in Christ as new creations. Jesus’ work in the past frees us from our family of origin and negative past experiences. The integration of the Gospel takes time. But it’s worth the journey.
