Episode: 247: Can God Really Change Me?: Jonathan Youssef (Reprise)

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Candid, where we never settle for less than the truth.

[00:00:10] I'm your host Jonathan Youssef.

[00:00:12] Each week we'll tackle tough issues, answer your hard questions, and take a candid look

[00:00:18] at the Christian faith.

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[00:00:41] People don't change, the saying goes.

[00:00:44] We all know the experience of trying to change only to regress into well-worn patterns.

[00:00:52] We know the pain of watching a loved one fall into the same traps in spite of efforts

[00:00:57] to escape, and perhaps you are tempted to toss up your hands and give in to your worst

[00:01:03] behavior patterns.

[00:01:05] You are not alone.

[00:01:07] Yet in the midst of our false starts and do-overs comes an event that changes everything.

[00:01:17] In a Jerusalem garden, a stone was rolled aside, and he who was dead came back to

[00:01:24] life.

[00:01:25] The resurrection of Jesus Christ was not only a historical event, but also our hope that

[00:01:32] change is possible.

[00:01:36] Sanctification in the Bible is the process of positive change in the life of a Christ

[00:01:41] follower.

[00:01:43] The Greek root behind the word sanctification is the same root found in the word holy.

[00:01:49] To be sanctified is to be set apart for a holy purpose or to be made more holy in practice.

[00:02:00] Both these meanings for sanctification are observable in the life of the Christian.

[00:02:06] We see both these distinctions in the early church in Corinth as well.

[00:02:10] In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses immorality and division in the church community.

[00:02:17] He reminds them, neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who have

[00:02:25] sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers

[00:02:32] will inherit the kingdom of God.

[00:02:35] But then he adds this revealing statement, and that is what some of you were.

[00:02:43] You were washed.

[00:02:45] You were sanctified.

[00:02:47] You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God.

[00:02:55] Paul's words stir up two thoughts.

[00:02:58] First, people actually can change.

[00:03:01] Former drunkards, former thieves, former immoral people can be so transformed by Jesus

[00:03:07] that they become the living and growing body of Christ.

[00:03:12] Paul of course knew this because he himself was transformed from a persecutor of Christ

[00:03:17] followers to a Christ follower.

[00:03:20] Second, change is not the simple flip of a switch.

[00:03:25] Even though the Corinthians were no longer defined by their former lives, they still

[00:03:30] struggled with issues like immorality and division that had once held them captive.

[00:03:37] They were sanctified, set apart and yet still needed to be sanctified, made holy in practice.

[00:03:47] This is still the struggle of every Christian today.

[00:03:52] We are redeemed and yet we await the day of full redemption when we will no longer

[00:03:58] struggle with sin.

[00:04:01] Think back to when you first placed your faith in Christ.

[00:04:05] God opened your eyes to the depth and weight of your sin.

[00:04:09] You confessed it to the Lord and he forgave you.

[00:04:12] You probably saw some immediate change in your life.

[00:04:15] Perhaps you quit cursing the next day or you restored a broken relationship.

[00:04:21] Maybe like Zacchaeus, you reconciled a history of financial abuse.

[00:04:26] It was an encouraging start.

[00:04:28] However, after the initial change perhaps you discovered a level of deeply embedded

[00:04:33] sin patterns.

[00:04:36] These rocks were harder to move and change slowed.

[00:04:40] Eventually you began to give up on seeing change in these areas and settled into a

[00:04:46] sanctification stasis.

[00:04:49] Many times the sins that are so difficult to overcome are either internal and therefore

[00:04:54] easier to hide or are acceptable in our culture.

[00:04:59] Greed and gluttony are examples of deeply embedded sins.

[00:05:04] You know they aren't the best, but everyone struggles with something, right?

[00:05:09] Pride is the king of sins that refuses to give way.

[00:05:14] Since pride can look like confidence, something we praise or success, something we aspire

[00:05:20] to, and since pride lives at the heart level it can be one of the hardest sins

[00:05:25] to uproot.

[00:05:27] Indermining every effort we make to put on the new self and so many give up hope.

[00:05:36] But this is where we come back to Paul and the Corinthians.

[00:05:40] Why would Paul remind the Corinthians that they have been sanctified?

[00:05:46] Because the foundational reason to walk the path of sanctification, to work to root

[00:05:52] out embedded sin patterns, is that we have already been sanctified set apart.

[00:05:59] And this has everything to do with the resurrection.

[00:06:05] Paul clarifies this concept in his letter to the Colossian Church.

[00:06:10] In the second chapter he makes a radical use of the preposition with.

[00:06:15] He writes that we as Christians were buried with Christ in baptism, in which

[00:06:20] you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him

[00:06:27] from the dead.

[00:06:29] The apostle is saying that when Jesus died, we died.

[00:06:36] When Jesus was buried, we were buried.

[00:06:41] And when Jesus was raised to new life, we shared in his resurrection.

[00:06:50] And now that is real change.

[00:07:20] This episode.