Tim Chester - You Can Change: Gods Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions

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Theres a lot of talk about freedom of choice today. Whether its supermarket shelves, health provision, sexual orientation, or even the fate of unborn children, our culture wants freedom of choice. But from a Christian perspective, freedom of choice is in one important sense a myth. Human beings are not free to choose: theyre slaves to their sinful desires. We can choose between white and brown bread, whole and skim milk. But we cant choose to live holy lives. Were not free to be the people we should be or even the people we want to be. Were controlled by whatever has captured our hearts, and those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires (Romans 8:5a, NIV ).

Free to Choose, Free to Struggle

But Jesus sets us free. He does this by giving us another desirethe desire to serve and glorify God. We still do what we want, but Jesus gives us a new desire, so now we want to serve God. He does this by putting his Spirit in our hearts: but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5b).

So now Christians can choose. The old desires still linger. But the Spirit has placed a new desire in our hearts. Each day were faced with a choice between these two desiresthe deceitful desire for sin and the Spirit-inspired desire for God. Before [a person] was saved there was only one possible outcome in every choice: he was going to sin. But now that he has a new heart, there are two possibilities. He can sin or he can not sin, freely choosing according to his desires.

The Bible describes this struggle between our old sinful desires and our new Spirit-inspired desires as a war. And the battleground is your heart. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul (1 Peter 2:11). For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want (Galatians 5:17, NIV ). When we want to follow our sinful desires, the Spirit opposes us. When we want to follow our Spirit-inspired desire for holiness, the sinful nature opposes us. We never quite do what we want, for our old sinful nature stops us from serving wholeheartedly and the Spirit stops us from sinning wholeheartedly. No wonder we experience life as a battle! So Paul adds, Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9). The question we each need to ask ourselves is: Am I ready for a lifetime of daily change?

A Lifetime of Daily Struggle

CHANGE IS A LIFETIME TASK

Change is a lifetime task, not a one-time event. Sanctification is progressive. It takes a lifetime. Its a marathon, not a sprint. Christians are called to a lifetime of change. The habits and thought processes of sin are not easily unlearned. There are few quick fixes. Well never be perfect in this life, but we can always and should always be changing.

Well never be perfect in this life, but we can always and should always be changing.

We are [Gods] workmanship, says Paul in Ephesians 2:10. It is as if, suggests Horatius Bonar, God is sculpting us like statues into the image of his Son. Except, he adds, we are not inanimate marble. That would be a simple task. The remolding of the soul is unspeakably more difficult. The influences at work, internal and external, spiritual and physical, are numerous. Yet over the course of a lifetime, without violating our will and yet without fail, God fashions us into the image of his Son.

Sometimes people are dramatically changed, and one area of struggle disappears almost overnight. But this is rare. And even when it happens, plenty of other areas of struggle remain. Most of us find change a slow battle. Analysis can be quick, but change is slow. We mustnt confuse the two. Understanding the lies and desires behind my sin doesnt mean the problem is solved. Now I simply know where the fight is taking place. I know where to deploy my forces. I know the truth I need to embrace. But the struggle to believe that truth continues.

CHANGE IS A DAILY TASK

Faith and repentance are daily disciplines. Turning from sinful desires in faith today doesnt mean that the problem will be gone tomorrow. I may well find myself having to turn from my sinful desires in faith to God today, tomorrow, and day by day after that. I may realize I crave the approval of certain people so much that theyve become idols in my heart. I may determine to fear God more than I fear those people, but it will still be a daily struggle to remember that God is greater. I may realize that my identity is defined by the clothes I wear rather than by my relationship with Christ. So I cut up my credit cards and cancel my catalogs. But tomorrow when I walk past a shop window, the struggle in my heart will flare up again.

The gospel is so foolish (according to my natural wisdom), so scandalous (according to my conscience), and so incredible (according to my timid heart), that it is a daily battle to believe the full scope of it as I should. There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel.

The battle for holiness is made up of what Horatius Bonar calls daily littles.

We must always be on a war footing. Imagine a soldier in the thick of battle who decides that today is his day off. He unfolds his deck chair, puts on his sunglasses, gets out his paper, and sits in the sun reading. He wouldnt last long! Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world (1 Peter 5:89). We need to be in a constant state of alert because our enemy is in a constant state of attack (Ephesians 6:1417). John Flavel says:

Keeping the heart is a constant work. Keeping the heart is a work that is never done until life is over. There is no time or condition in the life of a Christian which can allow a let-up of this work.... A few minutes break from the task of watching their hearts cost David and Peter many a sad day and night. It is the most important business of a Christians life.... My son, give me your heart, is Gods request.

There are amazing stories of Japanese soldiers defending remote islands long after the Second World War had ended. People found them in a state of battle readiness because somehow the news of peace had never got through. Christians can suffer the opposite problem. Some Christians dont seem to have received the news of war. They act as if were in peacetime, but were at war.

Weve seen how were changed by faith. But this is not passive or inactive faith. The Wesleyan and old Keswick traditions also emphasized the centrality of faith in sanctification, but often in unhelpful ways. The Wesleyan tradition taught people to look for a crisis moment akin to conversion that brings you into a state of entire sanctification. In the Keswick tradition, faith was understood as reliance on Christ that brought you into the higher life in which sin, while not eradicated, was repressed by the Spirit. There was continual deliverance from sin.