My Past Has Been Altered

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.  Romans 8:11

Harry Ironside, one of the first pastors of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, said…“Christians are people whose past has been altered.”  Jesus has forgiven my sins and forever stripped Satan of his right to condemn me.  What power!  Without His death, my sins would have been enumerated and posted on my own cross.  I would have died the death of one condemned.  Hell would have been my end.

If my past has been altered, forgiven, then why does my past still affect me so much?  Why do old fears, old wounds, old default reflexes still rise up in me? That question matters. Because Paul speaks of the indwelling Spirit of Christ bringing resurrection life into the places in me that still feel like nothing much has changed. Aren’t there always tender places that seem like ‘same old’?

If I was raised by an angry person and still feel my body tense up in the presence of them, the resurrection power of Christ can make me calm and prayerful though others rage. If I was once compliant, easily controlled and raised to be someone’s puppet and never had a thought or dream of my own, Christ’s resurrection power can deliver me from the control of others.  I can be free to follow Christ and follow His plans for me., If I was criticized so often that I still hesitate, still play it safe, still fear getting it wrong, His risen life can make me brave. He can teach me to move forward with the quiet courage of one who is no longer ruled by old accusations.

How does this happen?  Not by a simple prayer and one-time event.  While Jesus washed away my sins through one event, His own death, the process of being made new on the inside is progressive.  It is the slow, holy work of resurrection life entering the old ruins and calling them back to life. I must keep bringing Him the grave clothes.

And that is what sobers me. What a tragedy it would be to reach the end of my life and realize how much more freedom was offered than I ever laid hold of. Not because Christ withheld it, but because I did not trust Him enough to let Him change me deeply. A radical disciple is not merely forgiven; she is being transformed. Little by little, she ceases to resemble the person she once was.

Lord, peel away what fear, shame, criticism, and old bondage have wrapped around my soul, and make me increasingly alive to You. Amen

If I Am Alive To God, Then . . .

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But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  Romans 8:10

If Christ lives in me, I have full access to everything that He is and everything that He has promised to give to me. He withholds none of it. He plays no games. I am not used for sport. He is not emotionally unavailable. He does not make me earn His approval. As my Savior, He opens His heart and lets me in without restrictions. This level of intimacy is to extend in both directions. I have been given full access to Him and He wants full access to me.

You’re familiar with the term, “He’s dead to me.” It is usually spoken by one family member regarding a relationship he has with someone he’s closely related to. The relationship over. Access is denied. The time for reaching out has passed. The heart is closed. This, unfortunately, can describe some of the dynamics that are in place between us and God. There is an offense taken when it appears God isn’t coming through in ways we believe He should. Disappointment sets in. We may not say, “He’s dead to me”, but the estrangement is similar. We are numb to His impact. It need not be.

  • If I am alive to God, His voice evokes a response.
  • If I am alive to God, His feelings matter.
  • If I am alive to God, His promises are lifelines and His warnings are heeded.
  • If I am alive to God, His words are a rudder in my decision making.
  • If I am alive to God, every obstacle that would cause me to be suspicious and distrustful of Him is addressed immediately.
  • If I am alive to God, I will offer spontaneous expressions of love and worship.

If I am alive to God, I cannot keep living as though He no longer matters. I may grow quiet for a season. I may even nurse an offense I do not know how to name. But if His life is truly in me, estrangement cannot become home. Sooner or later, His voice will reach me, His love will unsettle me, and the closed places in me will begin to ache for Him again.

Thank you, Lord. I know that the ache I’ve felt when I distanced myself from you was mercy. I knew the relationship was not dead. Amen

For Further Reflection – Romans 8:6

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For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6

This verse is clearly not vague. It asks what direction our thoughts naturally lean, what atmosphere our soul is breathing, and where we feel most at home. These questions are meant to help us slow down, come quietly before God, and let His Spirit search us with honesty and tenderness.

Reflective Study Questions

  1. Where are you experiencing the difference between life in the Spirit and the irresistible pull of the flesh?
  2. What once felt natural to you but now feels foreign because Jesus simply changed your appetites?
  3. When you sin, do you move quickly toward God, or away, and what does that pattern reveal?

Questions For Deeper Formation

  1. In what ways might you be mistaking distraction, self-indulgence, or spiritual fatigue for something harmless, when in fact it may be weakening your responsiveness to God?
  2. What is the difference between stumbling into sin and becoming inwardly at home in it?
  3. Is there any area where I have grown too comfortable with a divided heart—externally faithful, yet inwardly drifting?

Questions for Leaders and Shepherds

  1. How can I help women discern the difference between a tender conscience that struggles and a soul that is growing increasingly at ease with the flesh?
  2. In my leadership, how do I speak about sin in a way that is sobering without becoming harsh, and gracious without becoming vague?
  3. What signs have I seen in women who are spiritually wandering but not spiritually dead, and how can I shepherd them with both truth and hope?

Closing prayer

Holy Spirit, show me where I’m drifting and turn my face again toward You. Amen

The Living Dead

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen3 Comments

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  Romans 8:6

To set my mind on the flesh is to be habitually consumed with things that offend God.  How can I focus all my attention, as a consistent way of life, on the very things enemies of God think about?  Doesn’t that make me God’s enemy?  I believe Paul is saying yes. ‘She who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.’  I Timothy 5:6  She is the living dead. A life set on the flesh is a life moving toward death. The body breathes, but the soul is estranged.

The unbeliever lives for himself.  He is consumed with getting his needs met on his own terms.  He has no thought of God except for the occasional ache in his soul that something is wrong.

The believer has been born again into a completely new reality.  God has become his father.  What once felt natural now feels foreign. What once charmed now disappoints. The mind and heart have been turned in a new direction. There is a new hunger, a new grief over sin, a new peace in knowing that all is finally well between his soul and God. He is not perfect, but he is no longer at home in sin.

If I wound my earthly father, I do not stop thinking about him. If the relationship matters, the rupture matters. In the same way, a true child of God cannot live grieving the heart of the Father without feeling the tear of it somewhere deep inside. He may wander. He may dull himself for a season. But if the Spirit lives in him, he will not be able to sin with settled peace. Something in him will ache for home.

Do not let me grow comfortable in anything that grieves Your heart. Amen

It’s Simpler Than I Think

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  Romans 8:5

Many believe that there are three categories of people; unbelievers, backslidden believers, and committed followers of Christ. But if we build our theology around the idea of a church full of carnal Christians, we may be dulling the edge of Jesus’ own words. We may all be surprised one day to see to whom Jesus says, “Depart from me.  I never knew you.”  Perhaps we are either ardent followers of Jesus (and have our minds set on the things of the Spirit) or we are hostile to Christ (and have our minds set on the things of the flesh.)  In a few more verses, Paul will soon say it plainly: the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. Hostility is not a small condition. It is not immaturity. It is enmity.

To take this further, if I sin today, am I still God’s child?  I have already sinned even though it’s now early morning.  The question I must ask myself is this, “Where was my mind set?  Did I sin with no regard whatsoever to the heart of God?  Did I sin without a conscience?  Will a line of sins follow today for which I will feel no tinge of remorse?”  The issue is not sinless perfection, but spiritual direction.

Let’s address the elephant in the room. What about those we love who once seemed alive to God and now appear distant and estranged. We once saw vibrant faith in them. We once heard their prayers and saw signs of Jesus-hunger. Now their lives seem turned in a godless direction. What are we to conclude?

We must be careful. Only God knows whether conviction still visits them in the night, whether their heart is still, in some measure, grieved by its distance from Him. The sheep may wander, but they still know the Shepherd’s voice. And those who are His cannot go on forever content in a foreign land.

Jesus, don’t let me settle for an appearance of faith. Keep my heart tender in conscience. I want to be wholly given over to Your Spirit. Amen

An End To Striving

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.  By sending His own Son in the likeness for sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  Romans 8:3-4

I grew up in a home with many unspoken expectations. The rules were rarely announced. You learned them by sensing tension, reading disapproval, and noticing what caused a parent’s stern look. My sister and I were expected to behave like little adults.

No running in the house. 

No loud voices. 

No leaving water spots on shower walls. 

Minimal water usage when you wash dishes. 

No asking to use the restroom while visiting someone.

That kind of upbringing leaves its mark. I desire for things to be ordered and calm. Some of that no doubt made its way into my parenting. Grace has softened me over the years, and grandchildren have given me a second go-around.

What I’ve come to understand is this ~ God did not reveal the Law to torment. Nor to be cruel. It was to be clear. I am not righteous and can not achieve it, no matter how hard I try. The Law was an act of mercy. It led me to the end of myself. It showed me that striving is useless. I needed a Savior.

Striving is no longer a way of life. Grace is not a theory; it is the atmosphere of abundant life. I no longer live under the old ache of failure. And that is the deepest mercy of all. In Christ, the ache of never measuring up is history. I no longer stand before God as a woman who disappoints, but as one who is beloved.

Oh, Jesus, because of You, I no longer have to bear the heaviness of inadequacy. Thank you. Amen.

Listening To Inner Regrets

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  Romans 8:2

Why do we speak to ourselves this way? If our self-talk became audible, it would shock the people around us. They would hear us call ourselves idiots, hopeless losers, liars, thieves, immoral men and women, disappointments to those who love us, people with no real future. They would hear us say our sins are beyond forgiveness. This kind of inward speech is a slow death to joy. It keeps our faces turned downward. We cannot lift our heads enough to look up.

This self-hatred did not begin with us. Satan accused us first before our Father in heaven. But Jesus silenced him, declaring that we are forgiven and made righteous in Him. Failing there, the accuser came to us with the same charges, and too often we did not answer him with the same truth. His labels clung to us, and our joy drained away.

But there is a cure for regret. There is a cure for crippling guilt. There is a cure for self-loathing. It is this: my sins no longer belong to me. They were laid on Jesus two thousand years ago. Is He bowed down under their weight today? Heaven forbid. He bore them fully, paid for them dearly, and declared the work finished. He is in heaven now, not crushed, but reigning—and rejoicing that I am free. Why, then, should I live bowed down as though the cross accomplished nothing? The heaviness is real, but its authority is a lie.

For every one today who suffers for nothing, remind them through Your Spirit that we are forgiven. We are free. We are loved. And we are dressed in Your perfection. Amen

Romans 8:1 – For Further Reflection

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Romans 8:1 is not a narrow doorway into freedom; it is an open gateway. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” But, we don’t walk into freedom as easily as we quote the verse. We carry old accusations and well-worn habits of self-sentencing.

Romans 8, as a chapter, is so incredibly rich that I want to linger on each verse for several days.  If you missed the last two devotionals on condemnation, you can find them here. 

Now on day three, these questions are meant to help us linger here a day long—not merely to admire the doctrine of no condemnation, but to ask whether it has truly reached the hidden places of our soul where accusation still speaks.  Good questions that make us dig deep end up changing us.  Know that I am reflecting on these along with you today.

Reflective Study Questions

  1. In your lived experience, what is the practical difference between conviction and condemnation? Where have you seen the enemy counterfeit one with the other?
  2. Where are you still relating to God as though your standing before Him fluctuates with your recent performance?
  3. In what ways have you unconsciously built a spirituality that still includes self-punishment?
  4. Where do you most often “send yourself back to death row” after Christ has already opened the cell?
  5. Which is harder for you to believe at the deepest level: that Christ has fully canceled your guilt, or that He still delights in you after your failure?

Questions for Deeper Formation

  1. What accusation against you has lasted so long that it now sounds like your own inner voice?
  2. What part of your story still feels “less redeemable” than the rest, and what does that reveal about your actual theology of grace?
  3. Where are you asking Christ to forgive you again for what He has already fully justified?

Questions for Leaders and Shepherds

  1. How can you tell when the women you lead are living under conviction that leads to repentance, versus condemnation that leads to hiding?
  2. In your ministry language, do you make it easier or harder for wounded women to believe that grace is stronger than their failure?
  3. Where might your own unresolved shame be shaping the tone of your counsel, teaching, or expectations of others?

When I Fear I’m Still Condemned

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

If I’m no longer condemned, then why do I sometimes feel like I am? Because Satan entices, then he prosecutes. He reports my sin to the Father and demands that the sentence of the Law be carried out against me. Oh, how he dreams of justice without mercy!

But when he arrives in heaven to accuse me, He meets Jesus, clothed in righteousness, standing in the presence of His Father. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” Hebrews 4:14

And my Savior is ready with my defense. He does not deny that I have sinned. He answers with something greater. He lifts His wounded hands and says, “She’s forgiven. She’s justified. She is Mine.”  This is the moment when the accuser loses his footing.

Satan is a sore loser. Having lost his legal case in heaven against me, he’ll then come to me directly to voice the same accusations.  If I forget my defense and my Defender, I am vulnerable to condemnation. Satan is cunning. He knows how to mimic the voice of my conscience. But the blood has spoken, once and for all, at the cross.  So what is my strategy when the accuser comes?  I do not answer Satan with my feelings, because my feelings fail me. I answer him with this ~  I have been bought, cleansed, pardoned, and declared righteous before God.  Condemnation is relegated to my history.

No More Self-Condemnation

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Romans 8:1

An old German commentator, Spener, once said that if the Bible were a ring and Romans its precious stone, then chapter 8 would be “the sparkling point of the jewel.” I believe it. It is the gospel gathered into one blazing chapter.

At times I’ve watched documentaries about prison life. Even from a distance, you can feel the weight of it as the bars close—the loss of freedom, the constant danger, the awful realization that your life is no longer your own. But the most unforgettable scenes are the pardons. The gates open. A prisoner steps out stunned, hardly able to believe it. Then comes the embrace, the tears, the disbelief that a life once thought lost has been given back.

That is the atmosphere of Romans 8. Except, I was the condemned one. I sat on death row with my guilt piled high and no argument strong enough to save me. Then the door opened. And not because I had found a defense, but because Someone else stepped forward and paid my ransom. Not a stranger. Not a neutral party. But the very One I had resisted, ignored, and sinned against. Jesus became my Savior.

That is the scandal of grace. There came a day when I understood that because of Jesus, I no longer had to live as though I were still in prison. I could entrust myself to His mercy. I could walk out of the cell and into the wide country of His love. And with time I would see that His work did more than cancel my sentence. It broke the power of my bondage. My worst sins do not get the final word over me. My failures do not have the authority to drag me back behind bars. And even when I grieve Him, I cannot be sent back to death row. The sentence was carried out ~ in Christ.

Lord Jesus, keep the sound of those prison doors opening fresh in my soul. Do not let me grow casual with mercy or forget the darkness from which You brought me. Teach me to walk in the clean air of grace, to lift my face like one set free, and to live each day astonished that the arms waiting outside the gate were Yours. Amen.