I know many people, and I myself have been included in this list, who have viewed their relationship with Christ as a crutch; the idea of grace as merely a “go-to” when they’ve messed up. The Christian life, in the eyes of these misled men and women, is powerless and not that different to the life they had before Christ. Sure, there is thankfulness for the gift of a savior who they can fall back on or “lean on” when their life isn’t going too well or they’re caught up in some bad decisions. However, Jesus is placed in a box, their Christian walk also in a box only to come out in certain settings or around certain people, and there are areas of their lives labeled “off-limits.” These people are surprised when they can’t seem to get out of the addictions that have plagued them or continue to make the same bad decisions day after day or month after month. These people are stuck.

Jesus is not our crutch, He is our cure! A cure is defined as a means of healing or restoring to health and/or a remedy. Accepting Jesus into our hearts is not like buying insurance, it’s like open-heart surgery (Ezekiel 36:26). Grace is not merely a means of being forgiven by God, but a powerful force of change in our lives (Titus 2:11-14). The Christian life is not about covering up the old self but nailing it to the cross (Galatians 2:20). The call by Jesus is not, “I’m here whenever you need me,” it’s more like, “die to your old self and come after me and you’ll experience a life you’ve never imagined possible!” (John 10:10) Jesus came to make us new, to cure us of the old sinful desires, to help us overcome, to give us the power to be more than conquerors! We don’t have to sin, or be passive, or follow after the lusts of this world because Christ set us free from all of that!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

2 Corinthians 5:17