Though we can’t see it, Christ does. He knows what the transformed life looks like. He sees our potential from the moment we’re formed in our mother’s womb. The Apostle Paul got it when he wrote these words:
For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21 NIV
T.B. Maston wrote:
To live a real or authentic Christian life means to let what was a potentiality when Jesus came in become a dynamic reality in my daily life…To the degree that we let Christ live in us and express Himself through us, to that degree we are real or authentic Christians.
T. B. Maston, To Walk as He Walked
Sin blinds us to this reality and messes up what he created in perfection. Thankfully, we find redemption—the opportunity to set right that which was made crooked. The ultimate perfection comes in eternity, but in this life, we are still able to work toward it, living out all he has put in, namely Christ himself.
What can we do to put such a dynamic reality into practice? It starts with knowing Jesus more by reading his Word. I look at how he lived, spoke, cared, and loved, then seek to model my life after his.
Unlike Christ, we are not perfect, and we will sometimes, through our sin, put up barriers to Christ expressing himself through us. Despite this, we can press on. As we know his forgiveness and a renewed filling of the Spirit, he shines forth once again. We are cracked pots for sure, but as we humbly acknowledge our weaknesses and inability, he uses us, even more, to reveal himself to others.
Make it a practice this week, as you leave your house each day, to say, “Lord Jesus, live in me and express yourself through me today.” For, to live is Christ!
Grace and Peace