CHRISTIANITY IS NOT A SELF-IMPROVEMENT COURSE
The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia instructing them to be like executioners, dealing cruelly with their own sin. Our human tendency however, is to deal cruelly with the sin of others, rather than our own. For when we see sin in others, we do not hesitate to judge, even assigning it to their character. Yet, when we see it in ourselves, we make excuses for it, claiming some external cause or momentary lapse. Or we go the opposite way, and make sin our identity, calling ourselves by sin’s name (thief, liar, adulterer, addict, murderer…). Neither our tendency to condemn sin in others, nor to excuse or identify with it in ourselves is right.
Those “who belong to Christ” count their sin nature dead with Christ, so that they might live in Christ. Counting sin dead, it is not excused, nor is it allowed to live and become our identity. Our identity is in Christ! Christianity is not a self-improvement course. It is an invitation to come and die, so that the old sin nature is crucified and buried with Christ and the new nature is risen with Christ.
PRAYER: Dear Father, help us to walk by faith in our new identity in Christ today. Strengthen us to put off the old nature and to put on the new. Empower us by Your Spirit to reflect Your glory in these jars of clay. We want to decrease, so that you might increase in us. In Jesus’ name, amen.