If we are honest, many believers today are saved but remain in bondage to sin, addiction, shame, and a host of other hindrances to their walk. The truth is that other than church attendance, a large percentage of believers look just like the people they work with or go to school with who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. Divorce rates in the church rival divorce rates in the culture at large. Christian teens seem to have little power over the cultural pressure to drink, experiment with drugs, or to be sexually active. A significant number of believers live on antidepressants, tolerate marriages dominated by anger and rage, live with bitterness toward the past, and are crippled by an overpowering sense of unworthiness and rejection. I’m not scolding these brothers and sisters for not being “the Christians they should be” because I have struggled with many of those issues as well. These believers are desperately looking for freedom, but in many cases have not been shown by their churches how to access the freedom that Jesus promises.
A gospel that only gets us to a place of forgiveness but that does not radically change us so that we stand out in contrast to our culture is not the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached. Paul pointed to this truth when he said, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life” (Phil. 2:14-16). Stars stand out in stark contrast to the darkness. Jesus himself declared that his followers were to be the light of the world. Those who wear the name of Christ should stand out in the crowd by their sheer “differentness.” Jesus spoke of being “born again” not as figurative language for trying harder but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. After a while, that essential difference should become apparent, not a as a reflection of our efforts but as a reflection of the power of God working in us and Christ being formed in us. (Excerpt from Born to Be Free by Tom Vermillion, Morgan & James Publishing, 2013, Page 11).
