10/07/25 WILL THE REAL YOU PLEASE STAND UP

10/07/25 WILL THE REAL YOU PLEASE STAND UP

I recently wrote,
"I often encourage people to, 'Be the real you.' By this I mean, be the "you" which God intended for you to be, through His redemptive power. Be the "you" that God will enable you to be. Sin keeps us from becoming and from being the person God wants us to be. God created you for Himself. He would rather bless you than curse you. He would rather indwell you than disown you."

The following is not meant to be understood as an explanation of a particular passage. It is a way of looking at the transformational work of salvation.

Let me elaborate.
Sinning religion focuses so strenuously on man's sin that it cannot see God's mercy, power, cleansing, deliverance, plan, victory, redemption, transforming salvation. Though God allows men to choose sin, He took the initiative to reconcile sinners to Himself by providing an atoning sacrifice through His Son. He also calls and enables them to choose faith, repentance, salvation. God loves sinners in this world and provides deliverance for "whosoever will' believe. The sinning "you," as a child, is the kidnapped version of you. God has taken steps to cover the preborn, the newborn, the recently born (infants). This is why Jesus said, concerning little children, that they were part of the kingdom of God. (By the way, there are at least 16 passages which indicate that children are covered by the atonement).

There is a love factor, a trust factor, a joy factor, a submission factor in a small child (as well as a rebellious nature), which is more likely to turn to God in childhood than they will as they get older, when the powerful sway of the Prince of Darkness has a greater grip on them. As a child gets older, he will knowingly choose to do that which he knows to be (morally) wrong (in other words, he will willfully sin). Still, God loves the young sinner, though the young person is accountable for his rebellion. God gives the errant one, the lost one, the opportunity to have a new start and become the person God had intended for him to be.

The choice to be the "real you" is manifested by the one who humbles himself and seeks the Lord and follows Him into a transformational relationship with God. We are born with a tendency to sin and we follow that tendency. We choose to sin (willfully disobey God) and that adds personal corruption to the inherent corruption handed down from Adam. The corrupted you is not the you God intended you to be. The corrupted "you" has the opportunity to become the new you, which God intends for you to be, by choosing to believe, repent and follow Jesus. Without saving faith, you will be separated from God eternally.

But God has a better plan. Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Not only does God's grace forgive and cleanse us from our own personal sins, but He also purifies and delivers us from the corrupted nature we received from Adam. God miraculously transforms us into a new person and conforms us into the likeness of Jesus.

Conversion (forgiveness and the new birth) is the introduction to becoming the new (the real) you that God wants you to be, and then the purifying fullness of the Holy Spirit makes it possible to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. This will be the real you, the you that draws closer to God, the you that hungers and thirsts after righteousness, the you that walks in the light (even as He is in the light), the you that will spend eternity with Him. You make this choice. If you do not turn from sin and follow Jesus by faith, you will continue to be a committed sinner, choosing your true identity and destiny as a sinner.

Make the choice to accept God's offer of newness of life. Let Him change you into a new creation, where old things will pass away and all things will become new. In salvation God chooses not to remember our past against us. This is all made possible because His Sacrifice on the cross brings us into the real world of truth and righteousness. It is an invisible world to those who are blinded by sin and darkness, ignoring and rejecting their lost condition and their doomed future. They live in a make-believe world of smoke and mirrors. God shows us the futility of our sinful way, with the intent to enlighten and transform us from darkness to light, from death to life. But if a person holds on to a false hope he will be deluded even further until his lost self becomes his eternal self, separated from God forever.

I have yet to meet a person, who is walking in the light, love and life of Christ, regret the decision to turn from sin. In fact, redeemed people regret that they did not turn to Christ sooner. Life begins when we turn to Jesus.

Therefore, I encourage people to escape the fantasy world, the delusional world of spiritual deception and come into the real world of Divine grace and order. Become the you God wants you to become.