Both Wicked and Valued

Some Tim Keller wisdom on self-image for Christians:

When Jesus invites Peter to follow him, he’s not just saying, ‘Would you like to sign up for a few courses with me?’ He wants him to live with him. He wants him to be his family. Therefore, when the salvation of Jesus Christ comes into your life, you see yourself as more wicked and sinful than you ever dared believe, and yet you sense you’re more valued and loved and affirmed than you ever dared hope at the same time.

That is a mark, infinitely greater self-worth, infinitely greater realism about your flaws at once, which is the selfquake, which is the unique self-image, which is the transformation of identity that happens to anyone into whose life this salvation comes. I say it every so often, but it has been a while so I’ll say it again. If you were saved by works, if you go to heaven through your performance, then you might be bold but not humble when you’re living up or you’ll be humble but not bold and confident when you’re failing, but you can never be bold and humble at once.

If you are more wicked than you ever dared believe and you’re more loved and affirmed than you ever dared hope at the same time because your relationship with God through Jesus Christ is based completely and sheerly on his grace, on his call, then it means you can’t be into either superiority or inferiority at all, because at the same moment you have infinite self-worth from his affirmation and you have infinite realism about your sin.

You can’t get an inferiority or superiority. There is a boldness and a humility about you at once. It is absolutely different.

Reacting to the Threat

"...the gospel is more threatening to religious people than non-religious people, Religious people are very touchy and nervous about their standing with God. their insecurity makes them hostile to the gospel, which insists that their best deeds are useless before God. One of the ways we know that our self-image is based on justification by Christ is that we are not hateful and hostile to people who differ from us; one of the ways we know that our self-image is based on justification by works is that we persecute."

        - Timothy Keller, Galatians For You, page 128

I'm Not the Center

Read an interesting post from Tim Chester this morning about the danger of Facebook narcissism, how Facebook (and other social media) allow us "to recreate my image and my world through my words to gain approval." But buried in the discussion of that problem was this gem about finding true identity in Christ.

Am I trying to do self-identity or am I finding identity in Christ? Or, Am I looking for approval from others through my words or approval from God through his gospel word?

The gospel of Jesus says that Jesus recreates me in the image of God and Jesus is recreating the world. God’s kingdom is extended as his word is proclaimed.

•      Jesus recreates me – not me
•      Jesus recreate me in God’s image – not my image
•      Jesus recreates the world – not me
•      Jesus recreates God’s world – not my world
•      Jesus creates God’s world with God at the centre – not me at the centre
•      What creates and recreates are God’s word – not my words

It is these truths that enable me to be truly human, fit for the purpose for which I was created. And this is what liberates me from self-obsession to enjoy the goodness and grace of God. Knowing the real God is better than Facebook.

Tim used the British spelling "centre", but I still get his point.  I'm not the center, Jesus is the center. It's less about bringing God down into my story; It's about bringing me up into His story. Amen to all that!

A Diagnostic Kit: Four Gospel Truths

Here's a Monday morning diagnostic kit for yours and my gospel health:

The key to gospel change is the recognition that change takes place through faith. We become Christians by faith and we grow as Christians by faith. Faith recognizes that God is bigger and better than anything sin might offer. So what’s the connection between faith in God and your Monday-morning struggles? Identifying and remembering these four liberating truths about God will help:

1. God is great – so we don’t have to be in control
2. God is glorious – so we don’t have to fear others
3. God is good – so we don’t have to look elsewhere
4. God is gracious – so we don’t have to prove ourselves

A failure to embrace one of these four truths lies behind most of our sinful behavior and negative emotions. So ‘the four Gs’ are like a diagnostic kit to help us identify the gospel truth that we need focus on.

From: 4 Gospel Truths to Remember on Monday Morning | Crossway

Rewrite Your Personal Story

This is a great quote on letting God rewrite your personal narrative with the Gospel.  Good Stuff!

“….Through union with Christ, you are righteous (having been justified), new (regenerated), and holy (definitively sanctified). In this unbreakable union with Christ we are given a new history, a new identity, and a new destiny.

• We are given a new history, because his past counts as our past: his perfect life and obedient death is credited as ours. His death to the ruling power of sin counts as ours, securing our freedom from sin’s tyranny.

• We are given a new identity, because when we are joined to Christ, God sees us in his Son. In fact, we become saints, children of God, and heirs with Christ.

• We are given a new destiny, because in the resurrection of Christ, the age to come has dawned. His resurrection guarantees that we will be raised from the dead as well, and, in fact, empowers us to live in newness of life in the here and now.

Jesus has not just given us a ticket to heaven. He has changed our essential identity. He has irrevocably altered the effect of our past on our present and future by causing his death and resurrection to count as ours. We really are new creatures, even as we press on by God’s grace to become more holy.

The point is that sanctification (freedom from the dominion of sin), no less than justification (freedom from the guilt of sin), comes through faith in Christ alone.[v] Everything we need for life and godliness is found in him! Transformation can happen in no other way.”

Brian G. Hedges, Christ Formed in You: The Power of the Gospel for Personal Change, (Wapwallopen, Pennsylvania: Shepherd Press, 2010), p.103

Hat Tip:  The Gospel Rewrites Our Stories « Already Not Yet

Identity Defined by the Word

Contra to Joel Osteen and most American pop-psychology, having proper self image is not just pumping up "self esteem," but instead believing both the good and bad of God's proclamation about who we are.  I like and agree with what Jared Wilson said at You Are Who God Says You Are (is Not Osteenism):

We are who God says we are.

Does that sound like Joel Osteen to you? Whenever I say something along those lines, someone asks me if I'm not just dipping into the shallow dredge of self-esteem. But no. When I want to know who I am, I dip into the well of the external word in the gospel. God declares me a sinner deserving of hell. Nobody can say anything worse to me than this, really. God declares me a beloved child, a joint-heir with his Son, and eternally secure to future glorification with Him. Nobody can say anything better to me than this.

Cornelius Plantinga says, "We are redeemed sinners. But we are redeemed sinners."

Because of Christ, I am free to confess that I am a sinner deserving the wrath of God but I am also free from both sin and wrath. Why do some Christians think that to seek our identity in Christ, the way the Scriptures say we ought to, is thinking too much of ourselves? Why are they afraid to trust what God says about them? When God says to his people, "whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye" (Zech. 2:8), am I to think he doesn't mean it? Why ought we to side with the devil in accusing ourselves as if the gospel is not true? As Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, we need to stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves!

 So today I am going to echo God's word abut me and talk to myself!  How about you?

The Person I See in the Mirror

Love this poem!

The Looking
In the mirror one day,
I saw a self.
Body.
Mind.
Emotion.
I took a closer look and peered into my soul.
The things I saw?
Brokenness.
Fear.
Envy.
Lust.
Insecurity.
One more time I looked into the mirror.
This time I saw a redeemed self
This time I saw a beautiful self.
This time I saw, in the background, Jesus.
By his grace he redeemed me.
Now he is making me into
the self I want to be,
the self that I really am.

Poem by Jim Martin at A Place For The God-Hungry