Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor 5:17)
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)
the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor 5:17)
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)
"CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"
God tells us in His Word that anyone who accepts Christ as their personal Lord and Savior has died; that we are a new creation; that the old has gone and the new has come. If only it were that simple! There are actually several problems at this point:
1. Our “old self” doesn’t want to die.
2. Our new connection with God is very weak.
3. Our connection with the world is still very strong.
TOTAL SURRENDER – “THE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE THING”
God only asks one thing of us, but it is a very difficult, “almost impossible” thing:
Christ says, “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked--the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.” Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
Many, perhaps most, Christians take the step of accepting Christ into their lives, rather than as their life. Because of our natural desires and human pride, we think we can handle things, so we try to live the Catholic life as defined in the Bible and the Catechism through our own strength and efforts:
As Lewis says, “What we are trying to do is to remain what we call ‘ourselves’, to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be ‘good.’” This results in legalism. The Bible turns into a list of rules of what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. In fact, in a recent study, the majority of Christians said that being a Christian meant trying to follow all the rules in the Bible. This is exactly the same thing that the Pharisees were doing, and Jesus made it clear that was not what He wanted.
THE HARDER I TRY THE WORSE I GET!
Like us, Paul tried to follow Christ in his own strength and realized it was hopeless:
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; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom 7:21-25)
“EXAMINE YOURSELVES”
So what about all the verses in the Bible that tell us to do one thing and not do another thing, or to be one way and not be another way? Paul tells us that it is a test to determine “whether we are in the faith.”
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. (2 Cor 13:5-6)
As we surrender to God and ask God to empty us and cleanse us of our old self and all its desires; as we strengthen our connection to God, so He can complete His work in us; as ask His help to sever the connection with the world—this is what allows the Holy Spirit to work in us to conform us to Christ. We need only have the desire and intention to fully surrender to God so we can be in His will, and He will change us!
THE MATURING IN CHRIST TEST
I took Paul at his word and developed a test that allows us to “examine ourselves” to determine how far along the path to total surrender we are:
WHAT THE SCORE MEANS
Your actual score is not important, and above all, do not compare your score on the test with anyone else's score. God has a very different path for each of us, so your score depends on how surrendered you are to God, how far along in eliminating the anti-Christian inputs from "the world" you are, and where you are in your journey to perfection and holiness. If you have a clear desire and intention to be fully surrendered to God, you should see a continuing gradual improvement in your score over time as the Holy Spirit conforms you to Christ. If you don't see any improvement, here are a few things that helped me on my faith journey:
- Focus more on opening yourself to God through praying the Prayers of Surrender suggested in these lessons and also available under the Prayers tab on this website.
- Seek advice from a trusted priest, pastor or Christian friend who seems to be fully surrendered to God and fully involved in the life of faith in the Church and in the community.
- I have also been greatly inspired by reading the writings of various Saints. St. Thérèse of Lisieux would be a good place to start. You can read an overview of her "Little Way" in The Spiritual Elevator.
- See Resources for other recommended books.
MY EXPERIENCE
I have found it very interesting to plot my gradual success in allowing God to empty me of my old self, and then fill me with the joyful fire of His merciful love, making me useful to Him in advancing His kingdom here on earth. For example, as a new Christian who had not fully surrendered to God yet, I was praying for God to help me avoid unwholesome talk and swearing (obscenity). As I have invited God to make me the way He wants me to be, God has changed me so those issues gradually ceased to be a problem. I obviously cooperated with God in this change, but it was not through my efforts but through the grace of God that it happened.
At the same time, I have noticed considerable progress in keeping the Sabbath Day holy and being kind, patient, humble, forgiving, etc. Again, it was nothing that I was able to accomplish through my own strength. Instead, it was through my surrender to God, allowing Him freedom to work in my life however He wants, and asking Him to do whatever it took to make me the way He wants me to be, that allowed Him to accomplish this miraculous change within me. Some people experience an almost instantaneous transformation, but for me it has been a forty year journey through many trials and tribulations for God to make substantial progress in my transformation. My gradual process seems to be much more common than an overnight miraculous rebirth, but we should praise and thank God for however He chooses to remake us into the image of Christ.
Consider/Discuss
1. Use the test to think back to the way you were before you consciously dedicated your life to Christ as your savior. What changes has He worked in you and your life since then?
2. How far along the path to total surrender do you feel you have come?
3. What has been most difficult for you on this journey to total surrender?
4. Pray about where God wants you to focus next.
Scripture Memory Verse
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Gal 5:16
Let's Pray!
Continue to pray the Waking Up With God and Praising God in the Morning prayers:
Guide me throughout this day Lord; Guide me every step of the way!
It is good to praise the Lord, proclaiming His love in the morning! In the morning you hear us, O Lord; in the morning we offer you our prayer. My heart is ready, O God; I will awake and greet the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations. For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth, and fill us with your love in the morning.
God tells us in His Word that anyone who accepts Christ as their personal Lord and Savior has died; that we are a new creation; that the old has gone and the new has come. If only it were that simple! There are actually several problems at this point:
1. Our “old self” doesn’t want to die.
2. Our new connection with God is very weak.
3. Our connection with the world is still very strong.
TOTAL SURRENDER – “THE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE THING”
God only asks one thing of us, but it is a very difficult, “almost impossible” thing:
Christ says, “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked--the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.” Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
Many, perhaps most, Christians take the step of accepting Christ into their lives, rather than as their life. Because of our natural desires and human pride, we think we can handle things, so we try to live the Catholic life as defined in the Bible and the Catechism through our own strength and efforts:
- We don’t want to let our old self die.
- We don’t want to sever our connection with the world.
- We therefore can’t and don’t strengthen our connection with God.
As Lewis says, “What we are trying to do is to remain what we call ‘ourselves’, to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be ‘good.’” This results in legalism. The Bible turns into a list of rules of what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. In fact, in a recent study, the majority of Christians said that being a Christian meant trying to follow all the rules in the Bible. This is exactly the same thing that the Pharisees were doing, and Jesus made it clear that was not what He wanted.
THE HARDER I TRY THE WORSE I GET!
Like us, Paul tried to follow Christ in his own strength and realized it was hopeless:
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; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom 7:21-25)
“EXAMINE YOURSELVES”
So what about all the verses in the Bible that tell us to do one thing and not do another thing, or to be one way and not be another way? Paul tells us that it is a test to determine “whether we are in the faith.”
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. (2 Cor 13:5-6)
As we surrender to God and ask God to empty us and cleanse us of our old self and all its desires; as we strengthen our connection to God, so He can complete His work in us; as ask His help to sever the connection with the world—this is what allows the Holy Spirit to work in us to conform us to Christ. We need only have the desire and intention to fully surrender to God so we can be in His will, and He will change us!
THE MATURING IN CHRIST TEST
I took Paul at his word and developed a test that allows us to “examine ourselves” to determine how far along the path to total surrender we are:
- In the left column you will find the behaviors common in the world that we are instructed by God not to do, so the less you do those things, the higher your score.
- In the right column, you will find the behaviors common to people who have allowed God to empty and cleanse them of their old self, so the Holy Spirit can fill them with the joyful fire of God's merciful love, allowing Christ to live in them and through them. Thus, you get a higher score the more you demonstrate those behaviors.
WHAT THE SCORE MEANS
Your actual score is not important, and above all, do not compare your score on the test with anyone else's score. God has a very different path for each of us, so your score depends on how surrendered you are to God, how far along in eliminating the anti-Christian inputs from "the world" you are, and where you are in your journey to perfection and holiness. If you have a clear desire and intention to be fully surrendered to God, you should see a continuing gradual improvement in your score over time as the Holy Spirit conforms you to Christ. If you don't see any improvement, here are a few things that helped me on my faith journey:
- Focus more on opening yourself to God through praying the Prayers of Surrender suggested in these lessons and also available under the Prayers tab on this website.
- Seek advice from a trusted priest, pastor or Christian friend who seems to be fully surrendered to God and fully involved in the life of faith in the Church and in the community.
- I have also been greatly inspired by reading the writings of various Saints. St. Thérèse of Lisieux would be a good place to start. You can read an overview of her "Little Way" in The Spiritual Elevator.
- See Resources for other recommended books.
MY EXPERIENCE
I have found it very interesting to plot my gradual success in allowing God to empty me of my old self, and then fill me with the joyful fire of His merciful love, making me useful to Him in advancing His kingdom here on earth. For example, as a new Christian who had not fully surrendered to God yet, I was praying for God to help me avoid unwholesome talk and swearing (obscenity). As I have invited God to make me the way He wants me to be, God has changed me so those issues gradually ceased to be a problem. I obviously cooperated with God in this change, but it was not through my efforts but through the grace of God that it happened.
At the same time, I have noticed considerable progress in keeping the Sabbath Day holy and being kind, patient, humble, forgiving, etc. Again, it was nothing that I was able to accomplish through my own strength. Instead, it was through my surrender to God, allowing Him freedom to work in my life however He wants, and asking Him to do whatever it took to make me the way He wants me to be, that allowed Him to accomplish this miraculous change within me. Some people experience an almost instantaneous transformation, but for me it has been a forty year journey through many trials and tribulations for God to make substantial progress in my transformation. My gradual process seems to be much more common than an overnight miraculous rebirth, but we should praise and thank God for however He chooses to remake us into the image of Christ.
Consider/Discuss
1. Use the test to think back to the way you were before you consciously dedicated your life to Christ as your savior. What changes has He worked in you and your life since then?
2. How far along the path to total surrender do you feel you have come?
3. What has been most difficult for you on this journey to total surrender?
4. Pray about where God wants you to focus next.
Scripture Memory Verse
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Gal 5:16
Let's Pray!
Continue to pray the Waking Up With God and Praising God in the Morning prayers:
Guide me throughout this day Lord; Guide me every step of the way!
It is good to praise the Lord, proclaiming His love in the morning! In the morning you hear us, O Lord; in the morning we offer you our prayer. My heart is ready, O God; I will awake and greet the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations. For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth, and fill us with your love in the morning.