Should I give him some cash?<\/em> I had several bills in my wallet. And I wasn\u2019t hurting for funds.<\/p>\nAs the song continued, Catherine elbowed me and grinned. I smiled back, but I was no longer in the mood for fun.<\/p>\n
I turned to the window \u2014 not to look at the man but to look away from my friends. I had always thought of myself as generous. So why was it so hard to roll down the window and give this guy a few dollars?<\/p>\n
The light turned green. We pulled away from the intersection \u2014 and away from my opportunity to practice generosity.<\/p>\n
My friends continued to sing as we pulled into the parking lot.\u00a0When we piled out of the car into the church, I could already hear the guitar and keyboard. But I still wasn\u2019t ready to sing. I didn\u2019t feel like a child of God. I didn\u2019t feel that I was serving Him. And if I wasn\u2019t serving Him, I probably wasn\u2019t obeying Him or loving Him or abiding in Him. But I guessed I should swallow the pit in my stomach and raise my voice and my hands to Him anyway.<\/p>\n
What else could I do?<\/p>\n
Paul declares that anyone in Christ is a new creation, that the old is gone and the new is here (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are not who we once were. Because of Christ, we are fundamentally changed. His Spirit is at work, transforming us and enabling us to love Him and serve Him in ways we couldn\u2019t before. But that doesn\u2019t mean the change is finished. It doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re perfect.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re just not there yet.<\/p>\n
Sanctification<\/h2>\n
Theologians toss around terms like sanctification<\/em>, which is a fancy word for spiritual maturity. There are two types of sanctification: positional and progressive.<\/p>\nPositional sanctification<\/em> means that Christ died once on the cross, and this sacrifice was enough for all who believe in Him (Hebrews 10). He doesn\u2019t have to die again, and we<\/em> don\u2019t receive the punishment of God\u2019s wrath for our (many) sins. The atonement is complete. We are new creations, and the process is one-way: We won\u2019t become the old creations again.<\/p>\nProgressive sanctification<\/em> means that as we live on this earth and grow in Christ, He is continually making us more like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18; Colossians 3:10). This is a process, not a status. Yes, we are new creations, but we are not finished. Or rather, He\u2019s<\/em> not finished with us<\/em>. Each day, we can become more like Jesus in how we love Him and others.<\/p>\nYet we won\u2019t ever be completely like Christ. He won\u2019t be finished with us until He returns, judges the world, and gathers believers to Himself in eternal glory.<\/p>\n
Good works<\/h2>\n
Eternal glory. That sounds pretty good, doesn\u2019t it? But it\u2019s not ours quite yet. For now, for reasons unknown to us mortals, God wants us on earth. He has prepared good works for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), and these good works are an outpouring of our faith (James 2:26). His Word instructs us not to neglect them (Hebrews 13:16).<\/p>\n
Reading about all these good works God has for me creates enormous pressure. What if I miss them or don\u2019t do them? What if someone drops a sandwich, and a little kid picks it up before I can get there? What if I was supposed to help an old lady cross the street, but the car turning right cut her off? What if I was meant to donate to the homeless, but my friends distracted me with their singing?<\/p>\n
Or, worse yet, what if I didn\u2019t donate because my heart was hard?<\/p>\n
As someone with a sensitive moral conscience who struggles with guilt and shame, little things weigh heavily on me. No, I probably wouldn\u2019t have saved that man from starvation. But it\u2019s not just about helping him; it\u2019s also about doing God\u2019s will. He uses circumstances to soften my heart, unclench my fingers, and open my eyes.<\/p>\n
And yet when my heart is hard, my fingers are white-knuckled, and my eyes are screwed stubbornly shut, He still loves me.<\/p>\n
Good deeds gone undone aren\u2019t the end of the world. God alone has the authority to declare the end of the world. When I mess up, maybe I missed an opportunity. But that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ve ruined everything. God is way too powerful for my mistakes to put a dent in His cosmic agenda.<\/p>\n
Choosing well<\/h2>\n
I\u2019m not saying, \u201cDon\u2019t donate to the homeless, because God\u2019s taking care of them\u201d or \u201cGood works are optional\u201d or \u201cSomeone else will do it.\u201d Given the choice between guilt and a good work, I hope I\u2019ll choose the good work next time, for Paul says, \u201cLet us not become weary in doing good\u201d (Galatians 6:9, NIV). But I don\u2019t have to wallow in that guilt. Christ already died for all of the sins I have<\/em> committed and will<\/em> commit. Yes, I am guilty, but that\u2019s why He was condemned. My new identity in Christ is one of forgiveness, innocence, and even purity.<\/p>\nNext time, I\u2019ll give that man a ten or a twenty \u2014 or maybe a taco. But it will be because I want to show him Christ\u2019s love, not because I fear the alternative. I\u2019ve been adopted into God\u2019s family (Ephesians 1:5). Though I\u2019m not finished, I\u2019m not losing my status as His child anytime soon.<\/p>\n
Noelle Chow<\/strong> recently graduated from Biola University with a bachelor\u2019s degree in English and psychology. She serves in the youth ministry and on the worship team at her church. \u201cLiving the New Life\u201d in the September-October BA is Noelle\u2019s first published piece. She lives in Irvine, CA.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My friends and I sang along to a popular song on the car radio, giggling and swaying back and forth in the backseat. Catherine\u2019s left hip pressed against my right, and my left shoulder hit the side of the car on each downbeat. As we pulled off the freeway toward church, my gaze caught a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":30481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,2516],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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