Austin Braasch is the RUF Campus Minister at Arkansas State. You can check out what RUF at AState is up to here.
“I believe and trust in the Gospel,” Blake murmurs in the student union as his head droops low. “But I also know myself. I know that I am just going to get in my own way again as I try to follow Jesus.” Blake is exhausted from carrying the shame of considering himself a bad Christian that has a history of drinking one too many, returning to that one website, or struggling with that one sin without experiencing victory. His frequent prayer mirrors the line in Freebird, “Lord help me, I can’t change.”
How do we change? Most of my students, including Blake, would wholeheartedly affirm that salvation comes from grace alone, but those same students also mistakenly believe that it is their responsibility to sanctify themselves. The problem that results from this belief is that many of my students live under the illusion that God eternally loves them but is presently disappointed in them. For God to like them, they think, “I must change. I have to stop sinning.”
But is this really what the Scripture teaches about what it looks like to follow Jesus day by day? I don’t believe it is. In fact, I believe that as long as we believe it is our responsibility to change ourselves, following Jesus won’t ever feel like the easy yoke he promises. The biblical understanding of personal transformation doesn’t come from primarily an individualistic pursuit of personal holiness. Change mostly comes through experiencing the love Jesus offers in relationship with him. As a case study for this, I want to contrast the stories of two interesting characters in the Gospel of Luke: the Rich Ruler and Zacchaeus.
The One Who Tried to Change Himself
In Luke 18:18-30 we find the famous story of Jesus’ conversation with the Rich Ruler. Most of the time when this story is taught the conversation centers on how, in his interaction with this man, Jesus exposes the insufficiency of our own righteousness to save us. You can be a “good” person and still be far from God. That’s true.
However, I find something fascinating about Jesus’ response to the Rich Ruler’s questions. Jesus doesn’t answer the man saying, “Don’t you know that salvation comes by grace alone, you dummy? Just repent and believe!” Jesus’ answer, instead, is about discipleship. Verse 22 ends with Jesus giving the man an invitation to follow him. What is so interesting about this?
As we know, the Rich Ruler was the mascot of Team Personal Holiness. He was a prime example of a “goody-good,” as my students would say. Nevertheless, he still had a sneaking suspicion that he was still in need of further personal transformation in his life if he was to inherit eternal life. His guilty conscience assaulted him with the terror that God might be disappointed in him, despite all his moral achievements. Perhaps this teacher named Jesus, he thought, could give him some other objectives to hit on his campaign to impress God. To his surprise, Jesus doesn’t offer him a five step guide to personal holiness. He offers him a relationship.
As I thought this over, I wondered if it wasn’t just the prospect of financial ruin that kept the man from following Jesus. Perhaps it was also a fear of following Jesus that kept the man from following. For this self-made Rich Ruler, following Jesus in a relationship was a threat to his personal control. Receiving love is always an invitation to vulnerability. Not to mention, Jesus doesn’t just love. His very being is love (1 John 4:8). The fear of the Rich Ruler is the fear of all humanity after the fall. We are allergic to being loved. We would rather have personal control than share relational love. This is quite obvious in our current cultural moment that has made virtues out of words like independence, self-sufficiency, and individuality.
The Rich Ruler wanted salvation and transformation, but he didn’t want a relationship with the One who brought it. He valued his independence, self-sufficiency, and individuality more. His allergy to being loved kept him from experiencing true change.
The One Who Embraced Love
It’s interesting to read the story of the Rich Ruler in Luke 18 as a contrast to the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10. Here we have a man with a similar bank account but with much less personal righteousness to boast of. A tax-collector who by self-admission was defrauding the poor for his own personal gain. Nevertheless Jesus, like with the Rich Ruler, also invites Zacchaeus into a relationship. This invitation (or really an imposition on Jesus’ part) was of course surprising not just for Zacchaeus but for every witness.
However, the most surprising part of the story is Zacchaeus’s reaction. As Zacchaeus opened himself up to being loved by Jesus, change naturally poured out from him. He repented of his sins, and took proactive steps to make reparations to the ones he had sinned against. Obviously, this was at a huge financial cost to him. A cost that the Rich Ruler was not willing to pay. So why do we see such radical change in Zaccheaus’ life and such stagnation in the life of the Rich Ruler?
Dr. John Cox once said, “The way to stop being bad is not to be good. The way to stop being bad is to be loved.” The contrast between these two men displays this well. The Rich Ruler’s allergy to being loved left him unchanged. Zaccheaus’s openness to being loved radically changed him.
As Jesus ended his interaction with Zaccheaus he explained why this was the case. In verse 10 he said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” Jesus revealed in this message the core of what exactly he came to do. Man and woman were created to live and participate in a relationship with God. Participation in this relationship of love would produce goodness and beauty. Post-fall man and woman became isolated, lonely, and lost. Cut off from the love between the Father, Son, and Spirit humans are incapable of being good and incapable of change. Why? Because true goodness, beauty, and true change can only come from our participation in the love shared within a relationship with the Triune God. This love creates goodness. This love fuels change. This love is not self-generated. This love is only something that can be shared in a relationship.
The Gospel is a message about the reconciliation of a relationship (Colossians 1:20). The God who is love suffered loss so that he could redeem his beloved. As Jesus put it himself, he came to seek and save the lost. Through the cross, we have been reconciled and united with God again. Change is possible only because love is available.
Personal change begins with enjoying Jesus as your lover. Christ does call us his bride, remember? While pursuing personal holiness is commendable and beneficial in some ways, we must be aware of the temptation to use it like the Rich Ruler, as a means to avoid the love of Christ. Christ invites us to follow him, not to impress him. He invites us to be loved by him, not perform for him. It’s by receiving the perfect love of Jesus that personal change begins to take place.
As Blake considered what it would take to change his sinful ways and break his self-destructive habits, the question Jesus asks Blake– and the question Jesus asks us– is not “How are you motivating yourself to stop sinning and do good so Jesus will be happy with you?” The real question Jesus asks is: “What would your life look like if you embraced the love I am presently offering you?”