What does a Christian look like?

Question: What does a Christian look like?

Answer #1:
A Christian tries hard to be a "good person";
they try to change themselves;
they try harder and work harder to be better people for God.

Or

Answer #2:
They "give up";
They realize they are not a "good person";
They allow God to change them.

Which is it?

For most of my life I would have told you, a Christian is someone who "Tries". Someone who tries to be a better person, they try to change themselves, they try harder and work harder for God. But this is not what the Bible says, it is the person who "gives up", the person who realizes they are not "good" and the person who allows God to do the changing.

These thoughts are so foriegn to our minds, we live in a culture that says those who "Try" the hardest, work the hardest, change themselves are the ones that are admired.

The Kingdom of Heaven is completely backwards or upside down from mans ways. "Give up" that sounds crazy. But Jesus said, "Come unto me all you who labor and who are heavy laden and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Think about it what is Jesus saying? Give up enough of the self trying, enough of you working on your own, come into me I will do the work and give you rest.

The kingdom of heaven is not about our self trying but about surrendering to God and allowing Him to work through us. Jesus taught us to pray this way and life this way. Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10) and "Not my will but thy will be done" (Matthew 26:42).

It is the Spirit of God that He puts in every believe that is at work, but not human self effort that gets the job done. Ezekiel captured this thought when he recorded what God had to say about this. "Thus says the Lord GOD, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name" Then the Lord GOD says "I will... and I will... and I will... and I will... Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes" (Ezekiel 36:22-27).

God is the one working. He is the one saying, "I will". Notice the Lord GOD does it for His name sake, He gives the new heart, He puts His Spirit within you, and He causes you to walk in His ways. He does all the work saying, "I am about to act". We receive His action and believe in the name of Jesus and by this we are born into His family by His will (John 1:12-13).

This is about self denial and allowing God to work in and through us. Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24). If you wish to come after Me, first deny all the self trying. The cross is the place where our self will dies.

This is sometimes hardest when we are in the toughest times of our lives. Isaiah wrote; "Yet those who wait for the LORD" Those who give up with all the self trying. Those who lack personal strength but wait for the LORD. Those who put faith in God and not in themselves. "Those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get weary, they will walk and not become faint" (Isaiah 40:31).

We don't work hard to become like Christ. It's by believing in Jesus and receiving what His Spirit wants to do in and through us. This is veiled to the world. "But whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:16-18).

God is the one who is transforming. He makes all things new. His Spirit does the work, we just turn to Him and allow His Spirit to transform us from glory to glory into the image of the Son. Paul wrote that he being the least of all the apostles said "I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God within me" (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). Paul says its not me, but God in me. May God work in you today!