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How People Change: The Cross

A. We hate instructions, and prefer to just wing things.

B. Such an approach often works, though not always. It certainly does not work when we think of personal change.

“The grace of Christ and the dynamics of biblical change need to be understood within the framework of our circumstances and our sinful responses. We’ve needed to look at specific kinds of Heat, potential sinful responses, and questions about motivation. Without those things, this book would ring hollow. Jesus would still have been the solution, but you wouldn’t have had a clue about how grand a solution he is, because we had skipped over the serious nature of our problems.”

This chapter deals with how we have the ability, in Christ, to transform our thorns to fruit, to change our hearts responses. In sum, our new life in Christ delivers us from idolatry, i.e., our hearts seeking the wrong things.

How do you feel about your potential for change?

A. How do you feel about your potential for change?

B. Each of us faces daily considerations of whether we are ready for the next challenge. Athletically, it may be whether we are ready to run the 5k, 10k, half, or full marathon. At work it may be that the boss asks for you to do a new task, and you wonder if you are capable.

C. In regard to our spiritual life we may experience the same thing. Am I able to curb my temper, stop this addiction, begin to think of my spouse or kids above myself. Stop my overfocus on advancement in my workplace, greed, overindulgence food or shopping, etc.

“Self-evaluation misses the core of your potential as a Christian. For example, it misses how a Christian can feel unprepared and ready at the same time. It misses how you can recognize past failures and present weaknesses and still step forward to do things you have never done. It misses how you can do things in a brand-new way even if you have failed in the past.

“It misses why some of us can admit that we have neither good family models nor a successful track record, yet still have the potential to do genuine good in our circumstances and relationships. It misses why Christians can have hope and courage to face the things they failed at yesterday. Family, education, talents, experience, and success all have value, but they miss the core of our potential as children of God.”

Your Potential: Indwelling Christ

A. : “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”

B. Notice what the passage does not say

2. It does not speak of eternity or the escape from judgment

C. Instead, the passage speaks about the change God brings in our present.

D. Galatians is fleshed out by

Three Redemptive Truths

The Redemptive Fact: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live”

1. Paul considers himself to have died on the cross with Christ.

2. Obviously, this is not literal, but what can he mean?

3. Paul speaks of a reality that took place in the past and has ongoing consequences

4. The language used here of death suggests that the “old Paul” is no longer there, there is complete new life. Though there is continuity with who he was, there was a definitive change that occurred when Paul was united to Christ.

“When you grasp the fundamental nature of this change within you as a believer, you will begin to grasp your true potential. You are not the same as you once were. You have been forever changed.”

The Present Reality: “But Christ lives in me.”

1. The point is that I am not Tim 2.0. I am a new person, with the power of Christ living in me.

2. IOW, there are new desires, motivations, and strengths that once were not mine but have now been granted me in Christ.

The Results for Daily Living: “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

V.