We are born innocent. The moment of birth is one of beauty and joy, it is miraculous. Everyone is happy as they jockey for position to touch, hold and make-over the sinless bundle of joy. As soon as the baby messes its diaper, someone volunteers to change it, removing any germs or defilement from its tender skin. It is bathed, fed, clothed, cuddled, attended to, and watched over with intensity. Cleanliness is next to Godliness with a new-born baby. A sensitive ear, smell, and awareness of danger is imperative for its safety and well-being.
Then the baby grows into a two-year old, and the first thing we notice is that baby-innocence is missing. Psyche doctors call two year-olds, ‘The Terrible Twos’, for a reason. It takes the patience of Job to train a two-year old to conform to the desires of the parents, without doing harm to his or her self. The child is naturally inclined to rebel against authority and to do things its own way. The law of sin has kicked into effect. If left to his or her self, the child will always defile their clothes and their bodies, by getting into things they shouldn’t and by putting things into their mouths that are not healthy for their bodies.
This becomes a problem when most homes are single parent homes, and the single parent has to work, requiring the Day Care Center to watch the child for eight to ten hours each day. The lack of proper supervision and training, for a group of two year-olds away from their parents, soon turns into pre-schoolers with some major misconceptions of self-worth mirrored in their lives.
When their parents do not attend church, nor open their Bibles to read to their children about God’s love for them, we have a generation growing up into young adults without a proper understanding of who they are on the inside. They soon learn to conform to the patterns of the world around them, and perform for other’s approval in order to feel good about themselves. Their performance and acceptance is based on the values of those around them, and not on their Creator’s love for who they really are on the inside. Their childlike innocence is defiled.
All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. All are born into a sinful nature by inheritance from our father Adam. Paul said what when he desired to do what was right, he always did what was wrong, because there is a Law of Sin working in the members of our bodies. He called it a body of death that only Jesus Christ can overcome.
Jesus, by dying and paying the ransom for our sins to the devil, has redeemed us from the curse of death and the Law of Sin. He gives us hope of a resurrected body likened unto His Glorified body at His second coming for His church. By believing in Him as the only way to the Father, and accepting His shed Blood to forgive and to wash away our sinfulness, we become regenerated and justified. Regeneration is a spiritual or moral rebirth. It is the process of being Born Again of the water and of the Spirit as Jesus told Nicodemus. Justification is being declared by God right and just, by the covering or propitiation of His Blood. It is ‘just-as-if-you-never-sinned’ in God’s sight. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you by the simple act of believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that He died for you on the cross.
When you believe you are justified, your are regenerated, but you are not sanctified. Sanctification means to set apart for a sacred act or purpose, to free from sin. It means to consecrate or purify yourself to God’s purpose and will for your life. This is where the church fails to teach its saints how to separate themselves to their God. This is where the world, and its emphasis on education and the pleasure of materialism, deceives people into conforming to New Age and Occult teachings that exalt self as a god. The flesh loves comfort and self adulation, and even though we believe that Christ died for us to regenerate and justify us from our sins, He did not set apart the flesh and carnal mind in sanctification. That is our personal responsibility to perform. God wants our love and service because we choose to yield and present our bodies and minds to Him, not because He demands it of us.
This explains why many Christians and many pastors are living just like the world today. They live double lives with one foot in the church and one foot in the world. They speak the Word and praises of their God out of one side of their mouths, while they speak the language of the world in their dress and behaviors out of the other side. The Laodicean church is upon us, and Jesus says He will spew this group out of His mouth unless they repent and do their first works. This is one reason I believe that there has to come upon America and the world a time of tribulation before His church will sanctify herself as His Bride. The church has defiled her wedding garments and soiled her purity with the idols of this world.
Part of the New Birth experience is to revive our conscience. Our conscience is our compass, directing us to true North, or to God our Father. The conscience shows our mind whether it is reasoning, imagining, or feeling in agreement with God’s Word, or not. The conscience tells us when we do wrong and when we do right before our Creator, when we listen to it. The Holy Spirit Baptism revives this voice of conscience within us. The Holy Spirit brings to remembrance all that Jesus taught us, as He convicts us of sin, judgement, and righteousness; guiding us into all Truth.
Sanctification is our part. We have to choose to pray, to read the Bible, to study Scriptures which relate to our personal problems, to seek the counsel and prayers of others for freedom from our enslavement to addictions and unnatural affections and lifestyles. As we draw nigh to God, He draws nigh to us. As we separate ourselves unto Him, He gives us power to stay free from worldly patterns of living. He is not far from any one of us as we ‘feel’ after Him. The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Our righteousness is not our own filthy defiled rags, but that of Jesus Christ as His Blood covers our uncleanness as we confess all that offends to Him.
Satan has deceived us into believing that our self-worth comes from our performance and the approval of others of that performance. Our whole education system is based on this trap. Our work system is also based on this deception. We are only as good as the score on the last test, or only as good as the last performance review or promotion or raise. We are trained to be performing circus animals jumping through constantly changing hoops for the applause of the audience, while receiving a ‘token’ from our teacher or supervisor. Is it any wonder that so many dislike school and hate their jobs?
When we fail, or when others contribute to our failures, or when we are injured or insulted in some way, anger is the normal response. We look for someone to blame. Believing ourselves to be diminished because of our failures, we try to shift that responsibility to someone else. Then the anger and resentment really begin. Question: ‘Of the people you are angry with, how many are associated with some failure about which you feel bad?’
Anxiety and fear of failure are often the source of self-condemnation and the disapproval of others, both of which are severe blows to your self-worth based on success and approval of others. An inflated view of ourselves leads to pride. The self-confidence that most of us try to portray is only a facade to hide our fear of failure and insecurity. You can be preoccupied with success by showing it, or by taking pride in what you do not show. There is nothing quite as miserable as being angry at yourself, or having self-hatred. This does nothing more than isolate, alienate and destroy the potential hope that you could receive something from God.
God provided the ‘worthiness’ to be able to stand in God’s Presence. Neither success nor failure is the basis of our self-worth. Christ alone is the source of our forgiveness, freedom, joy and purpose. Some people have difficulty thinking of themselves as being pleasing to God because they link being pleasing so strongly to performance. They tend to be displeased with anything short of perfection in themselves and suspect that God has the same standard. We may even look upon those who have failed and consider ourselves above those failures. Many times when we judge others for their sins, such as divorce, we will find ourselves facing those same sins in our own lives. “Judge not that you be not judged”, are the words of Jesus to us.
Many cannot stand not to be in control. However, if we are going to base our self-worth on what Christ did for us, we have to experience a loss of control. The love of God and His acceptance for us are based on Grace, not on any works that we are able to do or not do. This is unmerited favor, strictly based on the legality of the ransom price of His shed Blood on Calvary. His love gave His only begotten Son for the sins of the world, not your works, not your righteousness, not your way of asking for forgiveness, not the number of hours you spend in prayer and reading of His Word, but solely on His Love for you and the world. There is no respecter of persons with God. Each will stand before Him, to give account of the deeds done in this body, at Judgement Day. If we receive His regeneration, justification, and sanctify ourselves to Him in obedience, He will not only give us self-worth today and for the rest of our lives, but He will judge us daily, so that we have nothing to declare before Him on Judgment Day. If we judge ourselves, we have no need of being judged.
Sanctification removes the defilement of our souls in the same degree that we allow the Light of His Word to wash us clean day by day, hour by hour, until we stand before Him without spot or wrinkle or stain on our wedding garments. It frees us from the trap of having to have the approval of others in order to feel good about ourselves. It sets us free from having to be our own god with superior intelligence and behavior, possessing the right words, the right things, and the right actions in order to be judged as a success. Paul said not many wise or noble are called, for God has chosen the base things of this world to confound the mighty. The way up is down with God, and only as we acknowledge with humility our need of His help, will we begin to experience the exaltation of our spirits over our carnal minds. Self-Worth comes from separating ourselves unto Him and allowing Him to change us from the inside out. Self-Worth comes only from His performance and not ours.