We’ve really got to get over our self.
Self walks a fence rail, leaning one moment this way toward God’s kingdom and another moment toward our broken and irreparable world. He is finally about to tear down that fence, and the direction a person is leaning when he does will determine the side where he or she will end up.
We became aware of self right after the Infamous Eden Incident.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron-like girdles.[1]
And we’ve been trying to cover up our nakedness ever since. We pretend that the Eden account is just a story or an illustration. We convince ourselves that we didn’t sin or it didn’t count or there’s no such thing as sin. We pretend God doesn’t exist or that he’s distant and insignificant to a modernizing world. We just go on protecting and pampering our self and remaining naked sinners hiding from God.
But a couple thousand years ago, God turned a cross-shaped key and broke us out of our sinful self. It was as if he had put us back in the garden, where we once again could hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day. We could once again be pure, sinless and one with him.
My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, and dispenses his life into mine![2]
Of course, I can still choose to hang out with and indulge my self. But that drive weakens as I begin to see Jesus more clearly than I see my self. I gain control of my self and am increasingly able to redirect and redefine my self, conforming my self into the likeness, nature and character of Christ.
Looking more at him and less at ourselves takes practice and determination. We need to learn to think differently before we can live differently. Salvation is a little like becoming a baby again and learning to walk. But if we don’t practice and work at it until we can get to our feet and walk across a room, we’ll waste our new life rolling around in poopy diapers, instead of deepening our love for Jesus and living a supernatural life.
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[1] Genesis 3:6-7, AMP.
[2] Galatians 2:20, TPT.
