Collaboration between Ole Henrik Skjelstad and Andrea Garzón on Thursday, 5 January 2012 at 23:17 ·
Almost
all of Christianity is obsessed with this idea that we have to change.
In the church there's this quest for becoming more "holy" and
"righteous". The emphasis is on you and what you have to do in order to
improve and become a 'better person'. In grace circles the stress is put
upon correct teaching: "If you would just get to learn how much God
loves you and how righteous and holy you are THAT change in your life
you long for will come to pass."
Let us for a moment speak about geography: Would you call a mountain an imperfection or a flaw because it’s not flat? Or a valley an imperfection because it’s hollow? God’s view on beauty and perfection as displayed in nature is fascinating. And this applies to our personalities too! His creation might seem crazy and from a human perspective marred when we only focus on outer things like mountaintops that are not flat and erupting volcanoes.
Let us also be pragmatic for a moment. I can’t change. Can you? Why do we encounter this emphasis on change when God lives His life as me? Can God change? No! How can the immutable God change? If He wants my valleys to be deep then let them be deep. If He wants my mountaintops to be ragged, well, let them be so. May our inner eyes be opened so that we can embrace ourselves in our stunning and amazing perfection!
The fact is that those who preach a gospel of change are really opposing themselves. To put it bluntly, they look like a bunch of clones trying to “be more like Jesus”. We are not supposed to be clones. God’s idea is that we are to be “more like ourselves”. There’s no need to be afraid of ourselves, because it is Love that drives us. When we have tasted the Real thing, we cannot go back to a "gospel" that put all its emphasis on that we are not whole and need to be changed.
Behind all these “doctrines”, no matter the label, unbelief reigns. To enter the gate of Gal 2:20 is scary because that implies zero control for man, but the paradox is that in the instant we enter that heavenly entrance we find ourselves in Christ with all His resources at our disposal. It is when we recognize the PERSON, the Real Thing, that confusion ends. When we learn what a person is, that is, a person containing a PERSON, and recognize this person in work in us, as us, that quest for change becomes void and nothing.
True freedom is attained when we “forget”, that it is God acting in us and we are just ourselves.
Let us for a moment speak about geography: Would you call a mountain an imperfection or a flaw because it’s not flat? Or a valley an imperfection because it’s hollow? God’s view on beauty and perfection as displayed in nature is fascinating. And this applies to our personalities too! His creation might seem crazy and from a human perspective marred when we only focus on outer things like mountaintops that are not flat and erupting volcanoes.
Let us also be pragmatic for a moment. I can’t change. Can you? Why do we encounter this emphasis on change when God lives His life as me? Can God change? No! How can the immutable God change? If He wants my valleys to be deep then let them be deep. If He wants my mountaintops to be ragged, well, let them be so. May our inner eyes be opened so that we can embrace ourselves in our stunning and amazing perfection!
The fact is that those who preach a gospel of change are really opposing themselves. To put it bluntly, they look like a bunch of clones trying to “be more like Jesus”. We are not supposed to be clones. God’s idea is that we are to be “more like ourselves”. There’s no need to be afraid of ourselves, because it is Love that drives us. When we have tasted the Real thing, we cannot go back to a "gospel" that put all its emphasis on that we are not whole and need to be changed.
Behind all these “doctrines”, no matter the label, unbelief reigns. To enter the gate of Gal 2:20 is scary because that implies zero control for man, but the paradox is that in the instant we enter that heavenly entrance we find ourselves in Christ with all His resources at our disposal. It is when we recognize the PERSON, the Real Thing, that confusion ends. When we learn what a person is, that is, a person containing a PERSON, and recognize this person in work in us, as us, that quest for change becomes void and nothing.
True freedom is attained when we “forget”, that it is God acting in us and we are just ourselves.
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