The Real You

“Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God made you to be; to be about anything else is sin." _Rob Bell

Some people talk about “sin nature” as if it’s natural. What makes sin wrong—what makes it sin—is the fact that it is unnatural. Sin is the act of being something other than who you really are—the person God created you to be. People get caught in this distorted concept that their sin is a part of them and they cannot escape it. Yes, there are some things in us that are not really us. We do sin, we do mess up, and we do become someone else, other than ourselves sometimes. Some of us get so caught up in trying to be that other person that we live our entire lives as someone we’re not. We’re even born with some things that are not really part of us, but that isn’t what God placed in us. Just because we we’re born with something doesn’t mean that it’s part of who God created us to be.

When God breathed life into the dust it had no sin. The Man was exactly who he was and that person was good. Whatever is filled with that breath—whatever is truly alive—is a good creation. So anything within us that isn’t good isn’t alive, it’s actually dead. Some of us are so filled with death that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to be alive. Some of us are still breathing but we’re frantically gasping for air as we watch the breath slowly fade away and we’re desperately trying to figure out how to stay alive. Some of us keep breathing but the air is thin and we don’t know what on earth we can do about it. Some of us remember what it’s like to be alive but the memory is all we have left. We’re so preoccupied with being dead that we don’t see that God just wants us to live and He wants to give us that life.

Whoever you are, if you’ve been tricked into believing that you are your sin and your sin is you. If you’re so sure that you were created the way you are and you cannot escape it. Understand that grace trumps even nature. The breath of God penetrates the dirt in us and brings us back to life. The work of the cross was to bring New breath and New life to a world that lost its identity. The resurrection brings the breath of life into all the death within us. The breath of life is the presence of God. Breathe in deep the Holy Spirit and come alive again as the masterpiece that is the real you—the you that God created.

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”
_Deuteronomy 30:19

“And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
_John 20:22

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