What is God up to in our lives? When we look throughout Scripture, we see that, above all, God is restoring his image in us so we can be fruitful members of his eternal community of love. Restoring God’s image is another way of saying “becoming like Christ,” or as I like to put it, “Christformation.”
In this article, I would like to explore the importance of accepting our forgiveness in order to progress in Christformation. Throughout Scripture, we learn that God has forgiven our sins through the cross of Christ: “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3, NIV).
I want to persuade you to fully believe in this forgiveness from God. In fact, I want us to believe in this forgiveness enough that we are not averse to discovering our weaknesses and faults and the roots behind them. Much of Christformation depends on our willingness to let God make us aware of our faults. If we resist this process, then we are resisting the restoration of the Christ-shaped image of God in our lives, which also means that we are resisting God’s mission to create his community of love with himself and his followers. If we embrace the process, we will experience steady progress in freedom from our corruption and freedom to abide in Christ.
“If we embrace the process, we will experience steady progress in freedom from our corruption and freedom to abide in Christ.”
In my early 30s, I had gone through over a year of excruciating physical and emotional pain. One day I was standing in the yard looking out over the waters of Puget Sound, reflecting on what I was feeling, and I realized that I was angry at God. This was not welcome news, but I accepted it and began to tell God why I was angry at him. Even though I had not done this before and was afraid to fully admit and express anger at God, I pressed on because I trusted his forgiveness.
When I was done, there was no sense of rejection from him; on the contrary, it was a big release and birthed a deeper relationship with him. It was okay to be honest about my frustration and tell him all about it. A forgiveness mindset gave me the freedom to acknowledge my misguided anger and taught me how to develop a better relationship with God.
Without a forgiveness mindset, our natural attitude toward our faults is to minimize or deny them. Even when we are clearly wrong, we try to justify what we did. We like to blame others for how we are and think we cannot help but act the way we do. We even have the capacity to consciously or unconsciously pretend that faults aren’t there.
“Without a forgiveness mindset, our natural attitude toward our faults is to minimize or deny them.”
We do all this to convince ourselves that we are still good people. We cannot bear the thought of thinking that we aren’t good because we believe that would mean we are less valued and less wanted, even if we consciously reject that thinking. If we did not think that faults led to some type of devaluation, we would never avoid the truth about our faults. It is all rooted in the basic human desire to view oneself as justified and right, which easily leads to forms of self-deception and pride.
Overwhelmed by His Commands
Another indicator that we lack a forgiveness mindset is becoming overwhelmed by all the commands for living in the New Testament. Just reading the Sermon on the Mount can make us feel like we will never measure up. The weight of the “shoulds” in Scripture feels too heavy to bear. So, we may choose to minimize or avoid our shortcomings.
But if we embrace our forgiveness, we can view all the commands as positive instructions for living and goals that God wants to achieve in us. If we welcome them as gifts, they will teach us about ourselves and guide us.
Discouraged by Everyday Life
The battering we take in life due to our weaknesses and faults also tends to draw us away from honest self-awareness. We may not want to think about our faults at all because we are just trying to get through life and be reasonably good Christians. Maybe we grew up with dysfunctional parents and never developed a sense of security and intrinsic value. We may live in anxious circumstances and become discouraged about life. We may be confused about the meaning of the Christian life. Focusing on our faults just produces more discouragement and may lead to self-rejection.
If someone does manage to emerge from childhood with enough inner resources to pursue a satisfying career and a stable life, they still have to battle all the time pressures, financial stress, selfishness, deceit, and destructive social influences around them. If they don’t feel connected to God, they must also battle the exhaustion, futility, and loneliness that gradually wells up inside them. Finally, they must wrestle with their destructive responses to life’s challenges. They may have a sense of what is good, but they can’t do it, so they try to ignore their weaknesses, faults and lack of fulfillment.
“The battering we take in life due to our weaknesses and faults also tends to draw us away from honest self-awareness.”
A Strange Combination
On the other end of the spectrum, some of us dwell on our faults, become very frustrated with them, and beat ourselves up. We may find faults where faults do not exist. We do not allow ourselves peace because we keep stumbling and feel like second-rate Christians. We embrace subtle self-rejection. Paradoxically, these attitudes can also make us resistant to discovering the root faults underneath our known faults.
Many (most?) of us practice a combination of minimization and self-rejection when it comes to our faults. We hurt ourselves in both ways because we do not have a forgiveness mindset, even if we have followed Jesus for many years. It takes practice to resist these two errors. Thus, we naturally resist deep self-awareness.
Breaking Our Bondage to False Beliefs
To test your openness to self-awareness, ask yourself how you react when you discover a previously unknown fault. Or how do you respond when someone criticizes you, and they are partly wrong and partly right? What forms of defensiveness do you use?
And how aware are you of the root faults behind all your known faults? How much time do you spend asking God to help you see the crookedness inside? The reason we limit our self-awareness and do not naturally respond with thankfulness when seeing our faults is that we are in bondage to our false beliefs about the implications of our sin.
But when we know our sins are forgiven and God does not devalue or leave us, we have the freedom to welcome greater awareness of our faults and weaknesses. And we are not afraid to actively examine ourselves and discover the faults behind our faults, knowing that this will end well.
“When we know our sins are forgiven and God does not devalue or leave us, we have the freedom to welcome greater awareness of our faults and weaknesses.”
There is no downside to discovering our faults. Even if a discovery causes us to mourn for our sins, this sadness produces spiritual growth. Jesus paid the price for all our sins and weaknesses, so we have nothing left to pay. His divine death on the Cross means that God made an infinite payment to cancel out all the condemnation and punishment we deserved. Colossians 2:13-14 states:
“He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us.” (Colossians 2:13-14, NIV)
Only when our hearts rebel against God and embrace destructiveness do we need to fear our fate.
The Confidence Our Souls Need
All our efforts to make up for our sins don’t add anything to what Jesus paid. We might as well give up trying and just accept the forgiveness. We must endure the truth that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, NIV). “We have been justified through faith” in Christ (Romans 5:1, NIV). “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:32, NIV). “You were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11, NLT).
If we do not cheerfully receive the peace and forgiveness God is offering us, are we not saying that our sin was bigger than the price that Jesus paid on the Cross? It may not be intentional, but are we not denigrating the price he paid for us? Are we not resisting God? Moreover, how can God restore his image in us and prepare us for the New Eden if we constantly fight off his forgiveness? Our souls need this confidence in order to be free to cooperate with his guiding hand.
When We Discover a Fault . . .
So when we fall to temptation or discover a fault in ourselves, we should not fear the shame because no rejection can attach to us. Why should I accuse myself? Why should I beat myself up inside? What do I have to fear? “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” (Romans 8:33, ESV). My faults cannot steal my peace with God unless I doubt him and allow discouragement into my soul.
Of course, there should be a time of conviction, grief, and repentance for any substantial sin. We observe this when Paul tells the believers at Corinth: “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10, ESV). But even in the midst of grief, we embrace the grace of God’s forgiveness.
When I discover sinful motives behind my actions, God does not shun me, so I can freely acknowledge it. My sinful actions displease God, but they do not block my acceptance from him. He wants me to confess sins to him, and maybe to others, so that the impairment in our unity is wiped away (see I John 1:9).
Once we admit our sin, it is a good practice to remind ourselves of the price Christ paid on the Cross. We can mentally picture our present sins or immature ways being washed away by Jesus’ blood when we first believed. This keeps us in the mindset of being a forgiven child and keeps us aware of God’s grace and love for us. It restores our peace and keeps our focus on Christ. He is always with us, luring us in with His holy goodness. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, ESV).
“He is always with us, luring us in with His holy goodness.”
Thus, we face a wonderful challenge: we have to accept the truth that there is no more condemnation or punishment for us! Once we do that—believe that we are free from judgment for our corruption and have peace with God—then we need to ask ourselves how we are going to respond to revelations of our faults. Are we going to accept revelations of our faults, and even look forward to discovering them? Will we earnestly seek God for victory over our sinfulness? Will we pursue deep friendship with God and let him transform us?
It is critical to learn to welcome God’s revelations of our corruption. Why wouldn’t I want to know about something that is hindering my participation in the Infinitely Delightful One? Why would I want to retain anything in myself that conflicts with the new self that God is cultivating?
This process is similar to the way we maintain our friendships. If I hurt a close friend, I wouldn’t just let it fester. I would try to renew our bond, admit my fault to them, and apologize even if I wasn’t sure they would accept my apology. Similarly, if I am harboring something that interferes with my unity with God, it only makes sense to apologize and purge the fault. With God, I know he always accepts my confession, so I am not afraid of inviting him to show me all my faults.
“With God, I know he always accepts my confession, so I am not afraid of inviting him to show me all my faults.”
Therefore, since I am in Christ, seeing a fault is like discovering a doorway to a treasure because I have discovered a barrier to partaking of more of God. It is a huge blessing for God to reveal barriers because now I can shatter them. Then I will have a better opportunity to learn how to cooperate with God’s grace as he trains me to leave sin behind and fully embrace the new Christlike me.
So I will enthusiastically dive into this! When I do, my soul will prosper, and I can glorify God and be a more fruitful contributor to the eternal community of love with God and his followers. This is what it means to act forgiven.
Summary
We pursue Christformation to be fruitful and more fully one with God and his community of love. One of the keys to Christformation is the willingness to become aware of all of our faults which requires us to fully embrace God’s forgiveness in Christ. Humans like to minimize or avoid their faults, mostly because they don’t want to feel devalued. A forgiveness mindset sets us free from this thinking and refocuses us on exploring our sins, immaturity and their roots. Revelations of our faults enable us to overcome them and partake of more of God.
This article is based on material from an unpublished manuscript by Phil Rehberg titled Pursuing Christformation: Embracing God’s Shaping for Maturity. You can find his new book, A Quest for the Ultimate here.
