You are not at war with yourself.

 

You are not at war with yourself.

The Bible does not teach that the Christian has two natures battling it out, one evil and one good.  You do not have both a sinful self and a good self; nor a wicked heart alongside a good heart. 

Most Christians have been taught that our war within is a civil war, that you fight against yourself. - Bill Gillham

The old man, or ruined heart, or “sinful nature” is literally gone:  “I will remove your heart of stone…” [Ezek. 36:26]    In its place, your new Christ-given heart has a natural tendency to love God and to love others.  Your new-hearted nature is prone to kindness, forgiveness, and trust. 

You've been given the heart you've always wanted.

The source of sin no longer lies in the self:
We know that we can still sin, so what causes you to sin if your “old man” or sin-heart is gone?  Scripture teaches that sin [the noun] is a personified force that lives in your body -  like an infection,   “Personified” means it acts like a person or intelligence with a will of its own, with a cunning ability to deceive and accuse:  "You're an angry and violent man." Or, "You never trust God."  Or, "Your heart can't be noble - look at the evidence."

The infection isn’t you.
When sick with the flu, you would say, “I have the flu,” not “I am the flu.”   The symptoms you're experiencing come from the presence of the flu virus.  Likewise, you are at war with an invading contaminant called "sin," not with yourself.  Similarly, if you were bitten by a Brown Recluse spider, you wouldn't assume that the venum now in your body was coming from you - You would know that it came from the spider's bite. 

Fortunately, the healing anti-venum resides in your new heart.  The good news is,  your good and noble heart is your ally in the fight, not your enemy.

Why avoiding sin's consequences isn't the point.

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A family member said to me that he never wanted to find himself in the situation David got into with Bathsheba.  My relative would do all he could to avoid the consequences of sin, rather than risk falling into temptation and it's aftermath.  As we talked, I sensed this was how he lived his life:  "Avoid sin and the judgement that follows." Stay clear of sin's allure because you don't want to pay the piper. 

While there is the command to flee from sin, and to be self-controlled [Which is to say, be "Spirit-led"], I think there's a better alternative to the "stay out of trouble, avoiding the consequences" model: 

God's unhindered affection is a much better reason not to sin than the fear of consequences or judgement is.

• It's better to avoid sin because you're well-loved and have the real thing, not needing sin's false promise. 


• It's better to be obsessed with how well regarded you are by our Father, than to become preoccupied with consequences and outcomes. 

Love covers a multitude of sins.

• It's better to indulge the striking goodness of your new and noble heart; than to allow fear to overshadow your God-hearted nature.

Delight is stronger than judgement:  Affection reassures where fear accuses.

Why compliance and control work against transformation...

There's a world of difference between compliance [getting adults/kids to act like you want them to] vs. transformation:  One happens through control and pressure; the other happens through connection. 

Anyone who has care or charge over someone:  church leaders, authors, teachers, parents will end up using one or the other, or a combination of both.   Spouses end up using one or the other model as well.  However, God uses transformation.

Note that the 'Compliance" approach to relationships leads to regressive, worse behavior over the long-run.  Don't be fooled:  compliance often looks like change; but it's really a yielding out of fear.

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Helpful resources:

• "Drive - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us," by Daniel Pink
• "Unconditional Parenting," by Alfie Kohn
• "Connecting," by Larry Crabb

Piety is not what God is after.

The following excerpts come from a newsletter I received from Dwight Edwards, author of "Revolution Within."  His book was essential for shaping my understanding of the good and noble heart several years ago.  Here's what Dwight says:

.....................................................................................................................

D.L. Moody was exactly right when he noted, “Some men have just enough religion to be miserable”.  

True, vital Christianity was never intended to be a grim resolve to imitate the example of Christ.

Oswald Chambers puts it so well,

“There is no room in the New Testament for sickly piety, but room only for the robust, vigorous, open-air life that Jesus lived – in the world but not of it, the whole life guided and transfigured by God. Beware of the piety that is not stamped by the life of God…Be absolutely and fiercely godly, but never pious.”

I love that thought. Vibrant spirituality goes far beyond mere piety; it specializes in becoming “absolutely and fiercely godly”.

It is not enough to concentrate on “in nothing I shall be ashamed” [avoiding sin] That is only a very preliminary start. The true goal is not labored suppression of the wrong but robust expression of the right. Lewis Sperry Chafer writes,

“True spirituality is a seven-fold manifestation of the Spirit in and through the one whom He fills. It is a divine output of the life, rather than a mere cessation of things which are called "worldly." True spirituality does not consist in what one does not do, it is rather what one does. It is not suppression: it is expression. It is not holding in self: it is living out Christ.”

[End.]

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After reading this, the obvious question is, "How does this happen?" 

Answer:   The indwelling Spirit ignites and enflames our new, God-given good and noble heart so that our new righteousness radiates outwards into the lives of others.

New podcast: "If I really do have a good and noble heart, then why does the evidence seem to suggest otherwise?" -Guest Joel Brueske joins Jim.

Joel Brueseke [see his insightful GraceRoots podcast] joins me as we try to offer encouragement for Christians who do want to believe that their heart is now good and noble because of Christ's redeeming work for them, but who continue to struggle to live from that new-hearted goodness.

Podcast:  "If I really do have a good and noble heart, then why does the evidence seem to suggest otherwise?"  [Special guest, Joel Brueseke of GraceRoots.com]

In the podcast, Joel and I address:

• Why does my experience seem to suggest my heart really isn't good, noble and true?


• Why truth must drive experience and not the other way around.


• What about us is "finished" and what is still "unfinished?"


• What happened to the "Accuser" in our worldview?  "Warfare" has been grossly abused in the Church, but for the sake of our hearts, the idea is worth revisiting.


• Why multiple exposures to the truth is necessary so that our minds, emotions and bodies can catch up to the truth about our new and noble hearts.


• Should you leave a church that preaches a performance-based, "bad-heart" message?


• Resources for finding new-hearted community and messages. 

................................................................................................................

You can find new-hearted community - people who want to live from their good and noble heart - on the "COMMUNITY" page on my website.  The focus is simple:

1.  Where are you finding it difficult to live from your good and noble heart?

2.  Where are you finding encouragement to live from your good and noble heart?

From borrowed righteousness to actual righteousness: That's the point.

Many Christians end up thinking that the goodness they possess doesn't really belong to them -- that it's only Jesus being good within and through them that counts; as if Jesus dwells within them, but alongside a still faithless or tainted heart.  

They assume that they themselves couldn't possibly be good:  It's just Jesus indwelling that makes them so.   The hope is that they're simply banking on Jesus' righteousness within them: because all the faithfulness and purity appears only on Jesus' side of the ledger and none on their side.

While our goodness is exclusively the gift of Jesus to us, and must always be the result of grace, his goodness has become our actual goodness.  That's the point of the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant system of sacrifices could not do two things:

1.  It couldn’t take away a person’s sin or wash the guilt away.

2.  The Old Covenant sacrifices could only lend the person a temporary and outward righteousness:

“The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.”

“The law … can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they [the sacrifices] not have stopped being offered? For the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.” “…because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Heb. 10: 1,2,3,4)

Under the old way of relating to God, the worshippers borrowed righteousness through the sacrificial system, but it never really made them righteous.  Because of your union with Jesus, his goodness has become your goodness. 

We have shifted from borrowed to actual. 

A reader's response: "After all this time, why am I still struggling to live from my new heart?"

A reader's reaction to my recent post, "Why Do Your Best Is Exactly What the Enemy Wants."  Many of you will find her honesty refreshing:

Jim, thank you for what you said in this newsletter. This speaks to part of my struggle. I've been struggling with circumstances lately that have made me feel really bad about my seeming lack of faith. I tried it for 7 years in the system and left. When I found people online showing me better answers, I left the system full of hope at the time.

Now 5 years later, I'm realizing I don't 'get' living IN Christ much better than I ever did. Oh, sure I can talk a good talk about it, but I'm not doing so well at actually walking it. I think what you speak of, learning to live from the new heart, is still a hindrance to many people because we don't believe, deep down, that God really, truly loves us, accepts us, and thinks well of us.

I'm not sure how much time this is supposed to take. You'd think after 5 years I'd 'get it' better, and I've even had other 'outside the box' Christians imply such to me. I'm not sure what the trick is to 'getting it' that God loves and accepts me, but I haven't found the key yet.

Please understand I'm not looking for advice or tips on how to 'get it.' I think I've already heard it all. I guess I just wanted to tell you this because you're a fellow introvert and you do get that. And as an introvert, you're not likely to take a "just do it" fix to a heart problem. Maybe there's some conversation out there to be had on this... maybe I'm not the only one...

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Note:  I'll have more to say later on why I think it's so hard to live from our new hearts and what the nature of that battle is.

Why "Do your best" is exactly what you're enemy wants.

 

I think the greatest trick the enemy has pulled on Christians - especially committed followers of Christ - is to convince us to do our best.  Really.  It can take a hundred different forms - serve the world, be a good mother/father, live a holy life, witness for Christ, fight for justice. 

[The enemy] appeals to the very passions within us to live as we long to live, and urges on onward.  But it is absolutely deadly if any of these noble endeavors are what we are living for.  The cunning, cunning shift, so brilliant, so subtle, is away from union with Christ to doing our best for Christ.  - John Eldredge

Religious Pressure - Version 1.0
You experienced this when you diligently tried to make a go of the Christian life - serving on all the committees you were expected to, faithfully pursuing a 'quiet time' to demonstrate your committment to God, and by "raising the bar" on your prayer life.  You got off the fence, got serious and ran hard for God so that you could one day hear him say, "Well-done, good and faithful servant." 

Religious Pressure 1.0 is what the culture of Christian duty expected of us.

Religious Pressure - Version  2.0
But old habits die hard because it's possible, once you do understand that Christ replaced your diseased and wandering heart with a good and noble heart, to put pressure on yourself to live from your new heart. And, as the scientific community has known for the last forty years, a pressured demand to comply doesn't produce intrinsic [inside-out] motivation. 

We're frankly surprised when we don't consistently choose the new resources and appetites of our new nature:

• We scold ourselves for habits we just can't seem to break, even with our new goodness.

• We interpret our failures through the lens of shame:  "I'm still that kind of person."

• We redouble our efforts to "walk in the Spirit" while doubting our ability to do that.

Pressure enflames the flesh.
Yes, it is certainly counter-productive to live from old habits and fleshly thinking, but pressure to engage your new holiness will actually continue to engage your flesh and not your new goodness.  It's like scolding a toddler for not walking when he falls back into a habit of crawling.  You know he can walk, so damn it! Why isn't he walking?! 

Patient encouragement is helpful:  Pressure is not.  Honey, not vinegar.

Beating a young colt
It's like beating a young colt for not having the stamina of the Preakness winner in the next stall.  There's nothing wrong with the colt, he just needs a good trainer...and time.

So, whereas under Religious Pressure Version 1.0, we assumed all the wrong things about our heart - that it couldn't be trusted, that it would lead us into sin - we now vigorously demand that our new heart comply with the demand to run hard like we did under Version 1.0-- and we demand this from a heart that is still learning and trying finding its way. 

... A heart that needs to feel safe in order to come out and play. 

... A heart that wants to do right, and will lead you well as it learns to walk.

Union with Christ trumps doing your best for Christ.  In fact, you don't need to worry about the second when you have the first.  Enjoy the union and the rest will follow.

Update on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 12:20PM by Jim Robbins

For those sharp-eyed readers out there, yes - I did mistakenly spell "your" as "you're" in the title bar.  Can't change it after it's been sent out, as it changed the link address.  Even after multiple edits, these things slip past.  ;)

Be careful what you sing: How hymns and worship songs don't always tell the truth

For years,  I've wished Christian worship leaders and song publishers had a board of theological advisors that really understood the implications of our new-hearted identity in Christ.  Everything teaches, especially those things we repeat.   Sunday after Sunday.

We become not only what we worship but how we worship. 

Take the lyrics of two well-known worship songs:

 "Change My Heart, Oh God"

Change my heart oh God,
Make it ever true.
Change my heart oh God,
May I be like You.  

"Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing"

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;

Myth:  Your heart, Christian, is still suspect and can't be trusted.  Your core desires and your will are still in opposition to God's plans.  You are 'prone to wander.'  God is patient with people like you, but disappointed in your progress. 

Your heart is an unruly and stubborn child:  Therefore, God needs to continue a work in your heart in order to get you to the place where you can love as he wants you to.

Reality:  You no longer have a wandering, "divided heart," because Jesus removed that diseased heart that was in opposition to God.  In its place, resides a powerful, clean and obedient heart that loves what God loves, desires what God desires, and is just as good and noble as the heart Jesus himself possessed.

 

Your heart is no longer your enemy.  It is now your ally. 

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To learn more about the widespread Scriptural basis for your good and noble heart, you can get my book, "Recover Your Good Heart:  Living Free from Religious Guilt and the Shame of Not Good-Enough."    The book has been especially helpful for people who are tired of being told they're never enough for God.

It's time to trust what God has already given you.

"Fully-Devoted" and Quietly Ashamed: How some Christian books crush the heart with pressure tactics.

Pop Christianity's message of "commitment"
Popular Christian books come with a clear message:  "You are lukewarm at best; on the fence with Jesus and far from a "fully-devoted follower."  You're keeping Jesus at arms'-length because you're too busy or too apathetic.  You're not fully-surrendered to Christ." 

Serving up a diet of pressure, "conviction," and self-deprecation, these pop-Christian books will have you nervously reconsidering whether you're a radically committed "fully-devoted follower" of Jesus or merely a "fan" watching casually from the stands.  The author's "wake-up call" will admonish you to "up your game" and "ratchet up your commitment" with the same suffocating judicial strong-arming the Accuser himself delights in. Their message is built upon this core assumption:  "Your heart, Christian, is naturally unfaithful and it is our job to point that out to you."

Exposure disquised as truth-telling
These popular books delight in exposing you.... reaching in to rip your spiritual fig leaves off, leaving you naked and branded for spiritual adultery.  "Step up your commitment.  Get off the fence." The authors use pressure disguised as "admonishment" and "truth-telling" to lay bare your lack of spiritual fervor.

Here's one reader's comment on a recent popular Christian book she read:

I feel this is a great book to get you really thinking about your relationship with God. Am I "all-in"? Am I committed? Am I a fan, or an "enthusiastic admirer," that is running lukewarm for Christ, instead of on fire?

The reader's comment continues...

In all honesty, this book revealed to me that I'm not 100% completely committed. When I'm honest, I put other things before God. Not all the time, but sometimes. Do I surrender all? Do I die to self everyday? It's sad to say the answer to these questions is . . . no. I can be full of pride, I can be selfish, I can be judgmental. I'm a sinner...

Why do authors and pastors write these books?
Can we live from the flesh and get apathetic, succumbing to a myopic view of other's needs?  Of course.  But the problem doesn't lie in the commitment or faithfulness of your heart - for the heart that was "prone to wander" has been replaced with a thoroughly good...and faithful heart.  [Ezek. 36:26]

I think one of the reasons there are so many Christian books designed to expose our lack of commitment to being "radical followers" is precisely because those leaders believe the Christian's heart remains "prone to wander" and therefore prone to apathy and lukewarm commitment. The authors are writing books based upon outdated assumptions, treating a threat [a diseased nature] that no longer exists - like vaccinating people against small pox even though that disease was declared wiped out worldwide by 1979.

Rather than assuming the believer's heart needs scolding and judicial exposure, they need to acknowledge that Christ has decisively removed the old, unfaithful heart, and replaced it with a new heart that will gladly move in love and devotion towards God and others if they'll just stop scolding it.

Related posts:

• "My Story:  Generalized Accusation Disorder"


• "Why the Dinka and Nuer Tribes Pull Their Children's Permanent Teeth Out"


• Video:  "Prone to Wander Myth"

Note:  I don't fault pastors for what they believe - they're simply teaching what they've been taught.  However, a refusal to question our assumptions about the Christian's heart will lead to more defeated and less Christ-like followers.  A pressured focus on law inflames sin rather than constraining it.

Were you a "high-Reactive" introverted kid? [High-Reactives: Part-two]

Here's part two on "high-reactive" people, and the unique ways in which they suffer as well as can do well in the world.  Excerpts from Quiet:  The Power of Introverts In a World That Can't Stop Talking.

High-reactive kids and adults:
Although much of the research with "high-reactives"  has been done with kids, "the footprint of a high- or low-reactive temperament never disappeared in adulthood" when those same persons were tested in adulthood. 

In other words, you certainly have the free-will to change some parts of your personality, but certain aspects will follow you into old age.  According to the "rubber band theory" of personality, we can stretch our personalities to a degree, but they'll always snap back to a preferred default position.

More characteristics of a "high-reactive" temperament:

• These kids are more at risk when there's "marital tension, a parent's death, or abuse.  They're more likely than their peers to react to these events with depression, anxiety, and shyness." 


• But there's a beneficial side to having high-reactive kids - especially if they're parented well under a stable environment:  These kids will "tend to have fewer emotional problems and more social skills than their lower-reactive peers, studies show."  They can even be more resistant to the common cold when in a nurturing environment.


• These children [and presumably as they grow into adulthood] are often "exceedingly empathic, caring, and cooperative.  They are kind, conscientious, and easily disturbed by cruelty, injustice, and irresponsibility." 

According to Jay Belsky, "'Instead of seeing these kids as vulnerable to adversity, parents should see them as malleable - for worse, but also for better.'"  The ideal parent for a high-reactive child:

• "can read you cues and respect your individuality;"
• "is warm and firm in placing demands on you without being harsh or hostile;"
• "is not harsh, neglectful, or inconsistent."

Creating a new environment for high-reactives [and probably everyone else as well]

As I read this research, it was obvious to me that "high-reactives" in particular need a grace-filled environment  - absent of accusation and shame.   Certainly, though, everyone could benefit from gracious relationships; but particularly "high-reactives." 

Let's:

• Respond without reactivity.
• Refrain from controlling and accusing.
• Confront [when necessary] with information, not condemnation.
• Celebrate the new heart in the other before jumping in.

Related posts:

• "Why Accusation Is So Debilitating For Sensitive-Hearts"


• "Parenting Where the Heart Comes First."


• "How We Talk to Our Kids:  An Alternative to Constant Evaluation and Judgment Calls"

What about you?
What did you experience as a "high-reactive" kid?  How has it carried over into adulthood and what benefit has it brought you?

Why the Dinka and Nuer tribes pull their children's permanent teeth out...

Image courtesy PittRivers MuseumIn the Sudan, the Dinka and Nuer tribes have a bizarre tradition.  "They extract the permanent front teeth of their children - as many as six bottom teeth and two top teeth - which produces a sunken chin, a collapsed lower lip, and speech impediments." [1]

Why?  During a period of time in which lock jaw [tetanus] was common,  children's jaws were slamming shut, preventing them from eating and drinking.  The teeth are painfully removed with a fishhook.  By pulling out up to eight permanent front teeth, the children could drink through the resulting hole that was left. 

The tetanus epidemic has long passed, but the two tribes are still pulling adult teeth from their children's jaws, continuing a completely unnecessary pattern of injury.

The threat has long passed, yet the pattern continues.

Many Christians continue a similar pattern of self-injury, fearfully detesting their own heart and distaining the very core of their being.  They unwittingly believe their heart continues to be the source of malice, sin and threat when it no longer is.  Out of ignorance, many Christians wish they could extract the alleged evil within their hearts, not realizing that the epidemic sickness that once ravaged their hearts is no longer there. 

In fact, the diseased heart was removed during conversion, when  Jesus entered their bodies.  Yet Christians continue a curious tradition of self-deprication and self-loathing - believing there is still a threat within them that makes them "prone to wander," selfish and opposed to God's will.

No longer in the heart, but in the body.
Though the Christian may and does still sin -- the source of that sin is no longer within their heart.  Sin, as Paul indicates, may be lodged in the Christian's body...but not within her core nature [the heart].  "So don't allow sin to rule in your mortal body, to make you obey its desires." [Rom. 6:12] 

In fact, you can count approximately 17 times throughout Romans chapters 6 through 8 the use of terms like, "flesh," "body," "members."  This is why we "eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies."

The threat has passed.
That old, wayward heart [our core nature] was removed by Christ the moment you said 'yes' to Him.  The threat of a former diseased heart is gone. Let's learn something from the Dinka and Nuer tribes, and stop a completely unnecessary and painful tradition based upon a diseased disposition that no longer exists.  Your heart is good now.  God made it so.

[1]  "Mistakes Were Made - But Not By Me,"  by Tavris & Aronson

Our old nature is not in remission, it's been removed.

As I pointed out in my last post, there's a big difference between "reassuring grace" and "replacement grace." 

While "reassuring grace" says that we can "live loved" and that "God isn't disappointed with us,"  replacement grace offers us the real change we needed.  Reassuring grace is a welcomed relief, but not the cure.

Our dis-eased nature [heart/spirit] - the thing that led us astray in the first place -  was completely removed when we said 'yes' to Jesus:

• It's not about a touch-up, but a transplant.


• It's not about incremental improvement, but a dramatic deletion.


• It's not about remission, but total removal.


• It's not about symptom-management, but eradication of our sin-stained nature.

Then why do Christians still sin?  Because residual attitudes and patterns of sin - left over from before we met Jesus  - can still operate in our bodies...  like a residual infection from an amputed limb.  Sin may still operate in our bodies, or "members" as Paul says, but not in our new nature [heart.] 

[Paul describes "sin" as an alien force in our bodies:  A force that can operate within us, but is not us.]  Those left-over habits and patterns of thought live in our bodies, not in our hearts now.

Because the ruined heart that used to hold us captive has been surgically removed by Jesus, our God-given new heart is now our ally and not our enemy.

Why reassuring grace isn't enough...

[CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE.]

There are two kinds of "grace:"

• "Reassuring Grace"


• "Replacement Grace."

Most of us think that God's offer is limited to reassuring us of his forgiveness, or reminding us of his "unmeritted favor."  We're drawn to the comfort of "living loved," "God's not angry with you," and "resting in him."  This kind of grace, while putting us at ease with God and removing the anxiety that comes with religious performance, is not the best part of God's offer.

More immediately hopeful than even Reassuring Grace is "Replacement Grace."  Why?  Because "Reassuring Grace" by itself is cruel:  Like comforting a cancer patient without attempting to cure the cancer that's destroying her. 

That sick person needs the cancer to be gone if her body is to function at-ease.  She needs restoration.  [* I realize that in the physical world of sickness, "victory" doesn't always mean removal of the disease.  However, in the spiritual world, the world of our heart or core nature, victory can and does mean the immediate removal of the diseased organ - in this case, our diseased, sin-sick spirit/heart.]

While reassuring that patient that you love her and will comfort her certainly helps her, what she really needs is a new lung, or whatever organ is ransacked with death.

So God, in addition to reassuring us with his gracious love, replaces the diseased core within us:  he replaces our old, wandering and sin-sick heart with a new, supernaturally-good and noble heart.

The grace that replaces is even better than the grace that reassures.

"Change Blindness:" How today's Church missed the core of God's offer.

• Why do some Christians still believe that they're more likely to sin than to love goodness?


• Why do some Christians still believe they have a 'divided heart?'


• Why do some Christians still believe God the Father has to look upon them with 'Jesus glasses' so he doesn't see their sin?

Answer:  Change Blindness.

"Change Blindness" is when a person [or group] looks at two seemingly identical pictures or scenes and misses important visual changes from one scene to the next or one picture to the next.  The person believes that they are still looking at the same exact image as the first. 

Even though something in the second picture is very different from the first, they don't see it.  It's a gap in perception.

Here's a short video on change blindness:

Watch Change Blindness on PBS. See more from NOVA scienceNOW.

Another Example:
Look at this short video called, "The Big Fish."  Did you notice the change in the scene?

How the Church has missed the dramatic change in our core nature...our heart:
Here's how change blindness has occured in much of the Church today:  Many Christians believe that the New Covenant message of 'grace' means that their heart is still just as deceitful as ever, or only somewhat improved from before, yet Jesus will work in them despite their still unfaithful heart.

*In other words, they believe that their true nature [heart] has been left unchanged, even after they've come to Christ.  They mistakenly think that their nature [heart] is still corrupted by sin, and that Jesus must work around that diseased and corrupt heart.  Like the subjects in the video you just watched, Christians are missing the change:  something was replaced with something else.

The real offer of God:
Grace means that an old, "prone to wander" heart was surgically removed -- replaced with the supernaturally-good heart of Jesus.  His heart now throbs within you, and has taken on your unique God-given desires, gifts, and temperment. 

The dramatic change we missed is this:  Your heart is no longer prone to wander, because that heart doesn't exist anymore.  It was burned up by Jesus' indwelling righteousness.  Just like the change from one picture to the next, the old has gone [it no longer exists] and the new heart has taken its place.

Your "flesh" [some residual and often strong programming left over from before] still exists, but that's not the authentic you.  Paul points this out in Romans 7:  "It is no longer I who sins..."

................................................................................................................................
Your heart is now your ally and not your enemy:   Once you see that, change blindness can no longer keep you pinned down.

P.S.  If you missed what changed in the "Big Fish" video, look for something large and yellow.

Rescued through a promise, not obedience.

Even if most Christians believe their relationship with God began with grace, they often mistakingly believe it must be maintained by obedience or our capacity to keep the fires of faith stoked. 

For many years, I twisted believing into a work, fearing that God would save me only if I kept up a certain level of faith.  I based my eternal salvation on what I could maintain, rather than on what God promised.

God's promises act differently than ours.
A promise is the future peering into the present:  a sighting from a future God has already accomplished.   It's the difference between an acorn and a tree:  The tree already exists and God sees the tall tree right now.  God is present to that full-grown promise.  Yet at present, you can only see the acorn the tree sprouted from.  God has tossed the acorn from the future into the present in order to remind you of the tree.

*Truth flows from the future into the present.

The fact is, our relationship with Jesus has always been rooted in a promise God made, not our obedience [rule-keeping, law-based performance] and not our faith-keeping.

Before he had done anything good or bad...
Paul reminds his own Jewish friends, who thought they were qualified by their Jewish obedience to "thou shalts," that God chose their ancester Jacob to carry foreward the promise of his forebears, Abraham and Isaac, before Jacob was even born - before Jacob had the chance to do anything good or bad. 

God chose Jacob "When they [Jacob and Esau] had not yet been born, and had done nothing either good or bad - so that what God had in mind in making his choice might come to pass, not because of good works but because of the one who calls...  [Romans 9:11-12]

Yes, we choose our having been chosen, but when God saves a person from death into life, it is never about that person's obedience:  It is always about God's choosing them. 

Rescue and obedience have nothing to do with each other:
God made a promise to rescue.  He heals and saves because he wants to, not because you've done well this week:  An emergency room doctor doesn't treat and heal only those who have done less bad during the week than the others who have come for his care. 

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the road to heaven is paved with God's intentions. 

Trust the Promise, not your obedience. 

Are you costume jewelry or tarnished silver?

As Dwight Edwards, author of Revolution Within suggests,

Costume jewelry is essentially worthless metal covered with an attractive coating.  So many believers see themselves in that way - sinners through and through, yet covered by the blood of Christ...

Tarnished silver is a much truer image of who we are after conversion. 

In "good and noble heart" vernacular, the Christian's heart or true tendency is pure and untainted now, the old diseased heart having been removed and replaced by a completely radiant heart containing no trace elements of sin. 

That noble heart may be surrounded by a tarnished layer called, "the flesh" - sinful residual programming leftover even after our old heart was removed; but that tarnish does not penetrate to the level of the new heart.  Why? Because your new heart [unblemished silver] is no longer compatible with sin [tarnish].  In fact, your heart propels sin away from it.  The unfiltered radiant wattage of your new heart dispels the darkness of the flesh.  ["Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it, right?]

Related posts:

Video:  "THE PRONE TO WANDER MYTH."

Blog:  "Your Heart Is Not A Ship Off-Course."

Blog:  "Sin Is No Longer A Heart Issue."

Your new heart is as holy as it ever will be.

Your new nature is fully-completed. 

Your heart is not growing in holiness because it doesn't have to; it is already as holy as it ever will be.  A bucket overflowing can't get any more full.  Even among Christians who believe God has made them new creations, giving them his righteousness, there's a great deal of confusion over this issue.  

Most Christians think their heart is somewhat holier now with a moderate level of improved goodness, but probably isn't thoroughly, 100%, good.  So they mistakenly believe their nature will continue to improve with time.

This view short-changes the biblical view of our new nature.  As a Christian, your nature is no longer fallen or in need of improvement: It is as steadfast towards God as Jesus' heart is.  Your heart no longer possesses false convictions about God, nor harbors any deceit.  Nor is your heart easily mislead or self-centered. 

Replaced
The old heart that did possess false convictions, deceit and mistaken conclusions about life was replaced.  Not tweaked, not altered or improved.  REPLACED.  It's gone. 

After surgery, Jesus didn't leave the removed heart just lying around your interior world like a rotting organ left in a trash bin after surgery:  That old nature is gone.  Flash-obliterated:  Burned up by his righteousness.

Your completely-new heart only possesses the noble DNA of Jesus and his convictions.

The real question is,

"Then why do Christians still sin?" 

The answer is because the life in our new heart has yet to reach the creases of our mind, our choices and convictions.  The process of sanctification has nothing to do with our hearts growing in goodness:  Our hearts couldn't be more true and noble than they are now.  Rather, sanctification has everything to do with our actions, convictions and relational patterns coming into alignment with that new heart and its goodness.

[There is also our flesh, but that too is no longer your identity.  And the Spirit wages war against the flesh, not you.]

Jesus does not give approximations or half-solutions:
Our new hearts don’t simply possess a purity like Jesus had:  They possess the actual purity Jesus had, his DNA.  Our purity is not an approximation of what Jesus possessed:  It IS the purity Jesus possessed.

Sin is no longer a heart issue.

Bottom line:  Your heart is no longer compatible with sin.  Sin cannot penetrate your heart.  Jesus now lives within your heart, and he isn't compatible with sin.

Your new heart in Christ deflects sin rather than absorbing it!

A friend and I were reflecting on a sermon we had recently heard in which the pastor was urging  people to be more honest in their relationships and toward God. The pastor concluded that the reason people (he was speaking primarily to Christians) are not as honest as they should be was because of a deep-seated condition: “It’s a heart problem,” the pastor said.

So, as my friend and I sat smoking cigars (some of my best conversations have been over a good cigar), I asked him: “What did you think about the pastor’s statement—that it’s a “heart problem.” Is he right?

While my friend paused to think through it, I asked another question: “Is it a heart problem or a flesh problem?” As we talked through it, we agreed that it was, in fact, a struggle with the flesh, or old programming, not with the heart.

When I told my friend that his heart was now pure because of Christ, he  immediately felt a sense of pressure lift from him. Christians may be slow to live from their hearts, but sin is never a “heart problem” in the believer: sin is a flesh problem. As Christians, we don’t reject our hearts: we reject (consider as dead) our flesh through Christ’s cross.

[Excerpted from Jim's book, RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART.]

Your heart is more faithful than you think.

On another forum, I recently posed the question:  "As a Christian, do you believe your heart is still 'prone to wander?"  -- still in danger of being unfaithful to God, in other words.

Reader:
"Yes - by experiance I do believe that although I have a new heart, my old man battles against it.  Therefore Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.  I believe that it is a constant choice to offer my heart up to God. That HE might take and seal it afresh and anew for the courts above.  If my heart was not prone to wander I believe that I  would not have to choose this day who to serve."

Jim:
When God gave you a new heart, why would he give you one that was still prone to wander?  Wouldn't that leave us exactly where we were before?  It would serve him better to give us a heart that was now steadfast and faithful to him.  Otherwise, that "changed heart" or new creation really isn't all that changed. 

You might be surprised to learn that it's not your new heart that wanders -- it's your flesh; and in fact Paul says your flesh no longer represents the true you.  You can still sin, or course; but your new heart no longer wants to.  Your heart/will is already dedicated to His will because Jesus actually replaced that wandering heart with his own heart and purity.

Although your flesh is at war with the Spirit, your heart is not.  This actually isn't a new message at all:  It's the classic Christian doctrine of "regeneration."  In my book, I point out folks from Martin Luther to J.I. Packer who talk about this surprising biblical truth.

We no longer have to daily recommit our heart out of fear that it will wander off.  Jesus didn't have to do that.  He worshipped God with all his heart certainly, but didn't feel anxious about having to constantly renew his faithfulness to God.  His DNA is now in your heart.

..........................................................................................................................

[Note:  As we talked more, the other person and I seemed to be tracking more together; yet I realized that there's often the acknowledgement of a new heart without understanding the quite radical implications of that new identity.   We often want to cling to the dirt in our lives far more than we want to celebrate the radical goodness Jesus has given us.]