To Become What We Might Be

An Interlude


When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

• Lao Tzu

We don’t tend to think of ourselves as “what we are.” We usually think in terms of who we are; I think, therefore I am. We define who - not what - we are to the world in our Facebook and Twitter and other social media site profiles.

But there is an exception, an exception that annoys and irritates and screams at me in the Spirit whenever I think about it: we do so love to be sinners. And because we are so taken, so infatuated, so hopelessly in love with the idea of that “we’re only human” we just can’t help it! Sinners we are, sinners we will be and “we’re only human.”

So no matter how hard we try, we just can’t change so we don’t have to worry about changing. Oh well. And we can’t let go - or perhaps it’s not that we can’t but that we won’t.

Letting go of being a sinner is hard. We’ve been told hundreds - being somewhat overly dramatic, depending on our “age” in church, maybe thousands - of times by radio and TV preachers, possibly your own preacher that indeed, we are sinners. And we’ve bought into the lie. We’re quite comfortable in this state of being. It requires nothing of us except that which we want to do for our own selfish-ambitions.

Being sinners is so much easier than having to let go and thus be responsible for changing into what we are in Christ. Changing our lives, repenting of our lives, is, well, hard. And we don’t like hard things. Hard things are well, hard.

So it is little wonder that we are resistant to the idea that as a son or daughter of God through adoption and by the blood of Jesus Christ, the lamb who takes away the sin of the world, that we are a new creation (as in different than we are now with a non-human frame of reference).

And we are resistant to the idea that as a new creation we have been called to be ambassadors for God in Christ Himself!

We are resistant to the idea that through Christ, we are righteous - in a right relationship with God.

We are resistant to the idea that we are to be, indeed even having the capability of being, perfect.

We are resistant to the idea that we are to be holy.

We are resistant to the idea that we are to not only be godly but that through His precious and great promises we are partakers of the divine nature.

Oh, and the really big thing that we absolutely can’t handle: the idea that we have the mind of Christ.* (Sinners, it was explained to me by a very upset Baptist preacher, cannot have the mind of Christ because “we’re sinners, dirty filthy sinners.” To which, minister to minister, I would say he blasphemes at the bare minimum. If he thinks of himself as a sinner then a) he is ignorant of the Scriptures, especially of the will of the Father and does not follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and b) he has a monstrous case of low spiritual self-esteem for which there is no medication for the soul.)

* The actual verse is 2:16 but you really need to read the whole of chapter 2 to get a proper understanding. And, if you are still a little fuzzy on having the mind of Christ, I suggest you check out this article with your Bible open to follow along.

So it’s no wonder that the idea of becoming all the things disciples of Christ are supposed to be is so anathema to so many Christians. Being a sinner: it’s easy. It’s far more comforting to be wretched sinners who can’t help themselves, can’t be anything else but sinners because “we’re only human.” Nice piece of circular logic.

Sinners have no real duties or responsibilities to shoulder except to go to church and try to be moral - a word and a set of relativistic ethics for men, for sinners or, as the writer Henry Miller put it, “Morality is for slaves, men without spirit and when I say spirit I mean the Holy Spirit.” Really, being a sinner is sort of like being a child with developmental disabilities. Stuck at spiritual age two or five or 12 and happier than a clam living it up on the clam flats. No responsibilities - you’re only human, you can’t aspire to anything else. You’re only human.

To be a new creation, to be an ambassador in residence in this temporal world for the Most High God, to think of ourselves as righteous, perfect, holy and godly, to be partakers of the divine nature - well, it’s hard. And being those things carries duties and responsibilities. And yet, being these things, gladly got all the apostles martyred except John (and John got exiled to Patmos to live out his life away from those who loved him and whom he loved).

It requires repentance, which is not a “repentance” of just sins but a repentance of our lives. A repentance that, until we get the hang of it, must be done daily. The Greek word is metanoeo. It requires a new way of looking at the world, of thinking and then acting accordingly.

And it requires that, in the words of Lao Tzu, we “let go” of what we are (sinners) to become what God has laid out for us. We were once sinners but we are no more. We are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. Will we stumble, will be fail, will we have relapses? Oh, you betcha! But we are no longer outside the royal House, the royal Family, like those who do not know God, who have not been adopted. Paul makes it abundantly clear to the Church at Ephesus that we have passed from death to life because of Christ, saying in vs 10 that it’s why God sent Christ - to “make us what we are.” John says that we know we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Death is the natural state of the sinner. But we who have given ourselves to Christ and been baptized have been washed in the blood - we are alive in Christ! We are no long dead in our sins!

Oh, I cannot claim innocence. I confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and was baptized. But I was misinformed on the repentance bit for a long, long time. Upon adoption to the House of God on April 18, 1969, I stopped being a sinner; I was no longer dead. I am something so much more. Of course the thing is: while I have let go of being a sinner - at least in my head, I have not stepped up to become what I am supposed to be. But I’m working on it.

Perhaps if we worked on it together?

Until next time,

May the Peace of Christ be with you!

† Scott V.D.M. ev