Many believers see themselves as sinners covered by the blood of Jesus. Or as Dwight Edwards puts it many believers see themselves like “costume jewelry. Worthless metal covered with an attractive coating.” But he goes on to explain that we’re more like tarnished silver.
“While we’re covered by the infinite righteousness of Christ, we’re also new creations in Christ (silver) clothed in an earth suit that is sin-saturated (tarnished.) The new you isn’t a sinner but rather a saint who struggles with the tarnish of sin. We’re golden eagles with prairie-chicken tendencies still hanging on.”
This lesson from Edwards had a profound impact on me. I had always heard the phrases “covered by the blood of Jesus” and “sinner saved by Grace” which held a “hopelessness” for real transformation. If I’m covered by the blood of Jesus (which I believe I am) I’m still the same old person underneath. A sinner saved by Grace gives the same image. Yucky ol’sinful me under neath the Grace of God.
What a different picture Ewards paints. Sure, I am covered by the blood and saved by Grace, but I’m also a new creation through the blood. No longer am I worthless metal, but silver still tarnished with the pull of sin. By seeing myself as a saint who struggles with sin instead of a sinner saved by Grace, it gives me hope of true transformation.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” NIV
It doesn’t say that’s what we ARE but WERE! We’re new creations. Tarnished silver! This doesn’t mean that we’ll live perfect lives or never do anything to hurt or annoy another human being. On the contrary, we will fail. Even the apostle Paul recognized he was sinful by nature.
Romans 7:17-22 “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;” NIV
Paul didn’t see his primary identity as a sinner, but one of righteousness, someone who wanted to do good, someone who delighted in God’s law. Edwards says, “Sin is still resident in our overall condition, but it’s no longer the primary homeowner. The ‘Christian life is simply the process of becoming who we are,’ as someone so boldly expressed it. We don’t change our living in order to become godly; we change our living because we’ve already been made godly. We stop scratching around like prairie chickens, not in order to become golden eagles, but because we really are golden eagles In Christ we’re complete (Colossians 2:10), though not yet completed.”
What a beautiful and hopeful picture!
