Repent! with No Condemnation

Years ago, I heard a fair bit of teaching about "Christ in you." I heard a lot about how your behavior won’t change until you recognize your true identity. Some of it made perfect sense, and a lot of it didn’t. What has struck me most forcibly, recently, is that I’ve not noticed any great successes—or even small successes—among those who taught and believed it.

I’ve concluded that there are three possible reasons for unsatisfactory results in these things: wrong doctrine; incorrectly applied doctrine, meaning doctrine that isn’t fully understood; or time, since very few things bring immediate results. It is also possible that a doctrine is, in itself, true, but that an equally true and essential element has been overlooked—perhaps entirely.

In the past year and a half, I have recognized a couple things that will change my life forever. The first is that until any truth is understood by the mind, and adopted as fact by the mind, it bears no fruit and has no impact. The second is that while the new covenant involves a new heart—and thus a new identity, or a "new creation," if you wish—it does not involve a new brain. We must "repent," or change the way we think; we must "renew" our minds; we must "think on these things." To the degree that we do, our lives will change.

Mind you, God loves us regardless, and we are His kids, regardless. The issue here is not our position in God; the issue is our position in the world. You are who you are in Christ even if your mind is in the gutter, but if your mind is in the gutter, you’re pretty likely to have a worldly position in the gutter, as well. That may be what you want, but, frankly, I’m not interested. I’m seated in heavenly places with Christ, and I’d be just as happily seated in high places here on earth, too.

One of the most amazing rights that we have in Christ is access to zero condemnation. In recent months, my brain has gone through some incredible gymnastics, trying to keep up with the truth that is being revealed to it. As truth comes, I have to recognize that I’ve believed a lie, and I have to adhere to the truth and abandon the old lie, which, in its turn, had been causing harmful attitudes and behaviors and results. While this process has been taking place, I’ve noticed a remarkable thing: NO CONDEMNATION.

You see, I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. Every time I recognize a false belief in me, or a truth I hadn’t been aware of, I must repent and hold on to the truth. With each new truth grasped, my life here in this world gets better.

As this process continues, day after day after day, there are wonderful constants in my life, which I can hold on to forever.

One of them is: No condemnation.

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