Imperfect in Christ
When I wasn’t in Christ, I deemed myself somewhat of someone who was morally superior to others. I wouldn’t say I was the best person on the planet, but I found myself running into people who didn’t uphold the same moral standards as I did. Their character was flawed to me. And the more I dealt with them, it would irritate me to see how unintentional they were, overly easy going, rude, or sometimes plainly just evil. The things they did I would never do or could even consider doing. The way they treated people on a regular basis disgusted me. It made me feel as though I was living with people from a different planet. So, rightly so, I thought I must be just morally better than them. My character is a bit more developed than them. And that is OK. Some people I thought I could teach, maybe. Others, to me, I would say they are just not my people, which was OK too.
But when I came to Christ, I found those characteristics that I adorned myself with were given to me by God Himself, a type of “types and shadows” of the characteristics of Christ and what He upheld. So, as you can imagine, I was happy about it and thought, hmmm, I reflect the Father. But what I wasn’t ready for was for that pedestal to be dropped completely. In the Gospel, Jesus is a mirror to our filth and who we are outside of Him. There is nothing holier than God. Everything good and upright in you is as filthy rags to Him. The more I dealt with Him, I saw myself smaller and smaller and needing His help to just be that thing I thought I was, righteous. But you see, righteousness is not the act of doing right. Righteousness, biblically, is given to you by Christ. He gives you His righteousness. Unbeknown to me, I do get angry. I had to learn how to forgive when I didn’t want to, and there was nothing in my mind that could justify certain types of unforgiveness. I had to learn long suffering in places where I didn’t want to.
You get the picture? I was nowhere near to Christ-like. It was good that I exhibited some of His characteristics, but I could not fill His shoes. So I shrunk myself, and I allowed myself to take a position where I could be taught and carried along. And I am playing the part very well. It is really safe here! I am always asking the Lord to help me and give me strength because I do not have my own strength. And I lack more understanding than I thought I would. I never looked at people with judgment before, but now I definitely cannot even judge if I wanted to, because we all need God to direct us. Those things that I thought I could not do came to bite me. Opportunities for those flaws to display themselves blossomed like flowers, and it felt like they were trying to force me to prove myself, to prove that I was who I said I was.
That is why it is best to trust Christ and let Him cleanse you as you stay in the Word. If not, your own moral compass will blind you, and because that compass is broken, you will definitely go the wrong way. A strange phenomenon that sprung up during my experience was being surpassed by those who once lagged behind me in understanding. But as they sat in Christ, they surpassed me in the very things I thought I excelled at outside of Christ. My reaction to these experiences is... hmmm, wow.
IFY
Bible Verses:
Isaiah 64:6 (KJV) –
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) –
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
Philippians 3:9 (NIV) –
"…not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith."