Be It Resolved? Part 8

Be It Resolved? Part 8
Monday, February 20, 2023 by Dr. James Walraven

Categories: Contemporary issues / Encouraging words / Scripture discussion / Spiritual deception / Spiritual warfare / The church / Thought for Today

How does one truly change if one isn’t a Christian?

If one is not a Christian, the situation is vastly different: there is no reason for optimism. Without Christ in us, there is no real hope. Genuine lasting change is highly unlikely. We might overcome an addiction, but then replace it with another. I remember observing an AA meeting many years ago. While the folks there had for the most part stopped drinking, the cigarette smoke was chokingly thick. Were the people better off? In one sense, most likely yes, but in another sense, not really.

Worse, we will be separated from God, in hell for all eternity. For a non-Christian, the first step to real change is to come to faith in Christ, to admit and confess that one has and does sin, that one cannot save one’s self, that a Savior is needed, and that Savior is found only in Jesus Christ, that He willingly chose to die on the cross for our sins, to die in our place. Every Christian starts there, myself included.

The good news is that God does love us, He truly loves us, so much so that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8), so that through Christ, we could be saved.

On the other hand, if we want to successfully save ourselves, 100% sinless perfection is God’s standard. As the scriptures make very clear, there isn’t a one of us—except for Jesus, the Son of God—who has or ever will achieve it. All of us have sinned, all of us fall short. None of us are righteous. It isn’t that we don’t sometimes do what is right, it is that none of us reaches the 100% standard. Eternal separation from God in hell is the result.

When we come to faith in Christ, when we accept His gift of salvation (we cannot earn our salvation), and His death for our sins, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside us and He then begins changing us. We also must admit that what the Bible calls sin is indeed sin, and with the Spirit’s help, stop. That is what makes the difference when seeking to change, and why success becomes possible (the big theological word for that process is “sanctification”). We also learn that if the Holy Spirit doesn’t reside inside us, we are not truly saved. More than anything it can be said that true Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.

As a well-known Christian song puts it: In Christ alone, my hope is found. In Him real change is possible. Please accept Him today, confess your sin, repent, ask Him to live inside you.

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