God Doesn't Want to Use You
The bible clearly teaches in Romans 3:10-11, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no on seek for God.” In Ephesians 2:1 Paul told us that “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” This is bad news for all of mankind. Apart from the grace of God we are depraved. Why would we be useful...
God doesn’t want to use you, he wants to replace you. Those are the words I told a man I was counseling one day. He had struggled for 18 years with an addiction to crack cocaine. Nothing seemed to work. He had been to almost every type of drug program known to man yet continued to struggle. He just wanted to be a better person. He kept saying, “I just want to be normal. I just want to be like everyone else.” His problem was not that he was abnormal, but that he could not see how normal he was.
The bible clearly teaches in Romans 3:10-11, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no on seek for God.” In Ephesians 2:1 Paul told us that “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” This is bad news for all of mankind. Apart from the grace of God we are depraved. We are disgustingly selfish. Jesus even told the rich young ruler that “no one is good except God alone.” (Luke 18:19) We are truly sinful creatures.
For most of us, we can see this truth in the drug addict, murderer, or rapist but not in ourselves. Most people would probably not admit this, but would truly hate for someone to see our secret thought life. This lack of honesty creates a huge barrier for the “unrighteous.” However, the seemingly moral man is the same as the immoral man. Even the scriptures tell us in Isaiah 64:6 that “our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” If we were honest, apart from Christ, the goods deeds we do are done with selfish motives.
Why is this so important to understand? We need to understand that the answer is not a better me but a crucified me. As Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. but Christ who lives in me.” If we do not understand this truth, we will continue to try to fix ourselves. We will never stop seeking behavior modification which only leads to disappointment. The rapper Propaganda once said that this is like “putting cologne on dog poop.” We truly need help. We need to be replaced.