Either/Or???

WARNING: Thorough rant and uncomfortably-directed God stuff ahead…

I ran across an article yesterday that purported to give a young woman advice about marrying a man who had a porn addiction.

The well-meaning author took a sagely-spiritual, egotistical approach and told her that she needed to be sure she married a man who was “deeply aware of his sin and his potential for it.” THAT I liked. What I didn’t like was the fact that the author compared this man to a werewolf, chaining himself in a basement and warning all that he loved that he would turn into a werewolf if he were released.

I ASK YOU?!?!?!?!!!!

He spent the bulk of his article talking about how the man needs to be aware of his temptation to the sin and to be capable of strongly subverting himself when the temptation came up. I pretty nearly threw up. I am not even kidding.

There are way too many men – way too many CHRISTIANS – who are still living in complete and total bondage, trying to be like that werewolf, subverting themselves for good and missing God entirely.

We take one passage from Jeremiah about our hearts being sick, wicked, whatever-word-is-used in your translation, and we IGNORE THE REST OF THE PASSAGE WHEN GOD PROMISES HEALING. We know that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” but we ignore the rest of Paul’s explanation of how Christ FILLED THAT HUGE GAP AND RECONCILED US TO GOD.

There is absolutely no way around this. It is “the narrow way” of which Jesus spoke, something so stunningly simple and NON-spiritual that my downsie sister-in-law can understand it. My children can understand it.

Every single one of us is a WHO. We are not a WHAT. And God meets us “who’s” right where we are, whether we are collecting taxes, catching fish, or sneaking onto a rooftop at night to ask Him about Himself.

The plot is simple: Being His is not about WHAT WE DO. It is about WHO WE ARE. But Satan has this trick that makes me want to scream, because he uses it on a regular basis with people I care deeply about. He says to the Christian, “You are a sinner. Never forget that. Never, EVER forget that. You will always be tempted. You will always struggle with this sin. And you will never win.”

And the Christian thinks, “I am a sinner. I must never forget that. I can never, EVER forget that. I will always be tempted. I will always struggle with this sin. And I will never win unless I struggle against it with Christ’s help.”

That is ALL WELL AND GOOD TO SAY.

BUT.

Seriously? You really want to subject yourself to that kind of bondage, just to be good and fix the problem? You really think that is freedom in Christ? I have to tell you something. You’re off your NUT. You’re flat-out suicidal. YOU WANT TO BE THE WEREWOLF.

I have news for you. Being a Christian is not like being an American. In Christ, our freedom is already won. There is no legislature, no court system, nothing but His righteousness. PERIOD.

Paul instructed the Romans to “reconcile yourself dead to sin and alive to God.”

CHRISTIANS HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS CONCEPT. Because we would much rather DO than BE. Because we still think like the world thinks, that we know the difference between right and wrong – and we know it better than anybody else.

I’m sorry? Did you just say you buy into the temptation Satan handed Adam and Eve? To be like God, knowing good and evil?

Let me build a construct for you here, one that I shouldn’t have to build because Paul already laid this out in Romans.

We are born under Adam. Who bought into Satan’s temptation to understand right and wrong. Who traded in relationship with God to be like Him. WE BECAME SIN. THIS IS OUR IDENTITY OUTSIDE OF CHRIST.

But when we are born again by faith into Christ, WE BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM. WE ARE NO LONGER BOUND TO SIN. (Good night, all these caps are making me sound like a revival preacher!!!)

Christians, Church, Body of Christ – we have GOT to stop making sin our identity. We MUST make Christ’s righteousness our identity. THIS IS WHAT GRACE IS FOR.

My salvation and sanctification is NOT ABOUT DOING THE RIGHT THING. It is about HAVING MY MIND RENEWED from the old Adam-speak that goes, “I just want to do the right thing!”

Do I still sin in Christ? HECK YES. But I AM NOT SIN any longer. I am free to stop justifying it, stop trying to quit it, stop hiding behind the flipping fig leaves. I AM ALREADY JUSTIFIED BEFORE GOD IN CHRIST JESUS. My real identity is the righteousness of Christ, and my sin can be left at the foot of the cross. Every single time.

There is no spiritual hierarchy in Christ. I had a pastor once who used to preach that “the ground is level at the foot of the cross.” My fit with my kids is every bit as bad as the porn addiction that guy is fighting. But I will not accede to Satan’s lie that I am “my fit with my kids.” That “I am wrong.” Sorry dude. You lose.

Jesus Christ died once for all, took the weight of the sin of every one of us on His shoulders and took it into the grave with Him, giving us back our lives the way God meant us to live them. I am CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST and yet I LIVE. His life is my life.

Accept it. Grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ – not in spiritual superiority and works-based sin-focused requirements that keep you chained in the basement trying with all your futile human might not to disappoint God and hurt others.

BE a PERSON. Not a werewolf. BE beloved, not ashamed. BE the righteousness of Christ, not the sin. BE FREE. Or don’t. He’s already done the work. Get over yourself. Live from who He says you are.

Freedom isn’t an understood. Gospel isn’t fire insurance or church attendance. It’s LIFE. Anybody who tells you any different isn’t right. And they really may not be His.