We Christians often define our faith as a faith where people can be forgiven for all of their sins simply by trusting in Jesus’ finished work on their behalf. This is a completely amazing and completely true fact about the Gospel. When we trust in Jesus Christ for our right standing with God, all of our sins committed beforehand, and all sins that we will commit are completely forgiven in an instant. The book of Hebrews even goes as far to say that not only has God the Father completely forgotten our sins, but so has the Holy Spirit (see Hebrews 8:12, and Hebrews 10:17). But is this all there is to being a Child of God?
It is so tempting to make the conclusion that we are saved by grace through Christ’s work on the cross, but after we are saved, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work for God. The problem is, as all who have lived in this mentality know, that when we think this way, we are often placing trust in our own strength to live the Christian life.
In short, when we do this, we are setting ourselves up to fail. Often.
So when we do fail we think “Crud, there I go again, failing for God. I can’t believe I sinned! I thought I would never cross that bridge again. Well, there I go, being my own sinful self. Thank God I am forgiven!” It becomes an endless cycle. We remember Jesus work. Receive grace. Get back to work. Fail. Remember Jesus’ work. Receive grace. Get back to work. Fail. And so on, and on, and on, and on.
But God does not limit the good news of His Son to forgiveness for sins. Yes, this is an amazing part of the gospel. But it is not the whole gospel. There is an entire second half that we often forget.
Jesus Christ lives in us.
That’s right. The one Being in the entire universe who actually has the Christian life down perfectly is alive in us, wanting to express Himself through us. So what does this look like?
Imagine for a minute that you are a young filmmaker trying to be noticed by Hollywood, and have the opportunity to have the spirit of the Academy Award winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg living inside of you. Wanting to be as good as him, you jump at the chance. So, old Steven’s spirit comes and lives inside of you wanting to express his style of filmmaking through you. A few days after this miraculous (and weird) encounter, you receive a call from a top producer who really wants you to make a movie for them. You jump at the opportunity!
As you might already imagine, when you make that movie you have a choice. You can either roll up your sleeves and get to work on it in your own power, or you can let the master live his life through you guiding your actions and counseling you. You can let him help you.
This is how it is for us after salvation. We can either go for the Christian life ourselves, or we can let Jesus do it.
The Bible describes the character of the Spirit of Jesus in this way:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23
He is always producing these qualities both towards and within His children. We never have to wonder how God is acting towards us at any given moment. He will always be loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, gentle etc. towards us. But He will also always be guiding us into a lifestyle of allowing Him to express these qualities through us. It’s what He has designed us to do: be expressers of Him.
So how do we produce these qualities? We don’t. We stop trying to live the Christian life. We rest in grace and in God’s total acceptance of us through Christ, and as we do, the grip that we hold on our Christian walk lessens, and Jesus’ grip begins to tighten.
As Christians we have been spiritually redesigned. Our sin nature has been destroyed and we have been made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) and “slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). We aren’t evil at our core anymore; we desire what God desires. But we don’t successfully express this new us on our own strength. This was never God’s intention. We do it in total dependence on the Holy Spirit as our Helper, our encourager, and our power source. We do it WITH Him, BY His power. It is not “all of Him and none of us” as we are tempted to say. It is all of Him and all of us living the life together. Do you know that you are actually one with the Spirit of God? That your life and His life are completely inseparable?
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
“But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” 1 Corinthians 6:17
We are completely forgiven when we trust in Jesus, and what an amazing truth this is! But it is not the whole gospel. We are changed from the inside out, and we become the Home of a God who desperately wants us to understand that we are not alone, so that we can stop living the Christian life as if we were.
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