The Best Self-Help


Psychology Today discusses self-help in this way:

 Most of us wish we could improve certain things about ourselves. Lasting change is difficult: Many of our habits are deeply ingrained, and certain core personality attributes may be immutable. But even the oldest of habits and character traits can be altered to varying degrees, as it's never too late to change; with effort and determination, it is possible to be the person you want to be.

I truly want to change things about me. I believe we all do -- that we all have a deep desire to grow and improve on who we are. Psychology Today is saying that some things may be immutable, but that it's never too late to change, so long as we apply effort and determination, we can become the person we want to be. Articles on the Psychology Today website offer us insight into the ways we feel we can change, with titles such as, "Reinvent Yourself," and "Dare to be You." These messages constantly bombard us, and they are telling us that with enough work on our part, we can change ourselves.

The message of the Gospel contrasts this cultural ideal.

The Gospel tells us that we were created in the likeness, the "image" of God. We were meant to be a mirror to reflect His glory. However, man sinned, and in a sense, the mirror was broken and we all turned to seek our own glory. We no longer showed the likeness of the glory of God. This definition of being in sin is true of everyone according to the apostle Paul, who writes in Romans 3:23, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." When I first started learning about Christ, I had the hardest time accepting that I was a sinner. I was a good person! Yes I made mistakes and hurt people at times,  I always defended myself and said that I was a good person. As I grew to know the love of Christ, however, I realized how deeply I had sinned and turned against God. I was (and am) a great sinner.

 But the good news of the Gospel is that even though we are sinners, we have a great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! 

We know we can be saved because we learn that God does not leave us in our sin if we trust Christ:
"But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved." (Ephesians 2:4-5)

And now we get the best self-help of all! Because Christianity does not tell you to fix yourself, to work on yourself, to be determined to change and you will change. Christianity tells you that you can't change your deepest nature on your own, but that when you come to Christ, he gives you his Spirit and he will change you! He will help you renew your mind and put on the new self! (For further reading, Romans 8 ESV)

But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
(Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV)

If you place your trust in Christ, your old self then belongs to your former manner of life. That sinner you once were, that person is dead. The corruption you had because of deceitful desire is wasting away. You are renewed (and being renewed) in the spirit of your minds! You have received the "spirit of Christ," the promised Holy Spirit. You were once walking away from God, but now you have been and are being renewed with the Holy Spirit, your helper at work within you.

You have put on the new self. Now, it is God "who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13 ESV)." Your "new self" is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. This is the truth for those who are in Christ - they have put on Christ! For Christ is the true image of God. We are again made in the likeness of God, because of His grace in making us new creations in Christ Jesus.

This is why the Bible is the the best self-help book of all, because you get a new self!

However, I don't want it to seem that this is only a "one-and-done" deal. The phrase is "to be renewed." The person who trusts in Christ does become a new creation. They are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. This is all true, but, the Christian life is a lifelong walk of repentance. The Christian life is one where we continually seek the renewal of the spirit of our minds. We are new creations who remain sinners saved by grace, and we spend our lives trying to be more and more like the new self, more and more like Christ Jesus our Lord, because we have been "born again to a living hope." As Jesus says in Luke 8:15, the Christian who has been made new lives a life holding fast to the word with an honest and good heart, to bear fruit with patience.

To conclude by using the image above, Jesus doesn't tell you to be a better caterpillar. Jesus gives of himself to make you a butterfly. Drink deep of the nectar of his word, the streams of living water.
That's the best self-help.


Paul Stiver






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