You Can Change #9 (Chapter 1)

Tim Chester, in You Can Change:

I want to be like Jesus. I can observe him in action as I read the Gospels. I can study the life he lived and the love he showed. I could try very hard to imitate him. But at best that would lead only to a small, short-lived improvement, and indeed even that small improvement would probably only make me proud.

I need more than an example. I need help. I need someone to change me. Trying to imitate Jesus on its own only leaves me feeling like a failure. I can't be like him. I can't match up. I need sorting out. I need rescuing. I need forgiveness. (16)

I hope you've heard this idea in our church before, but in case you haven't, this is a critical, fundamental point. We need to follow Jesus' example, but we have to have him first as a Redeemer, as a Savior.

Why? Because, as Example-Only, Jesus becomes just another version of the Law we cannot possibly keep. The Old Testament Law was good and perfect, but it only served to highlight the people's sin. Jesus, a perfect God-man, will in this way only reveal our imperfections. If he only serves to point the way, he's not much good, because I can't walk that way as I am.

The other possibility in a law system, which Chester alludes to, is that we may become Pharisees: proud experts on the law, but not truly godly. We could bring Jesus down to our size, then become conceited in our mastery of Christianity.

In contrast with all this, the gospel is good news because it tells us that Jesus not only lived the life I should have lived, but he also died the death I should have died. His sacrificial death means that I can be forgiven and reborn to a new life.

Then (and we'll be talking a lot more about this in the remainder of the book), with that foundational relationship with Christ as my Redeemer, I can live in grace as I seek to grow in following his example.

To put it in more theological terms, we don't want to hold only to justification without sanctification (i.e., forgiveness without personal holiness), but we can't have sanctification without the foundation of justification (i.e., no personal holiness without forgiveness in Christ).

Consider again the quote above from the book. Do I really want to be like Jesus? If not, I need to be pleading with God for this and pursuing it, or considering whether or not I am a genuine believer.

Do you see your need for Jesus as Savior-- even if you've been a Christian for many years? Not that you need to "get saved" all over again, but that you need an ongoing relationship with him as your Redeemer before, and as a basis for, any kind of growth in godliness.

How do you see that need for Jesus as Savior in your everyday life? How can you remind yourself of this each day, throughout the day?