I love a good checklist. When my life feels out of sorts, I like to organize all my thoughts into a list and check off my to-do items. Each check is a small boost of dopamine, like I’m resetting my mind and my life one small task at a time.
But if I’m honest, a checklist can sometimes be my attempt to feel in control. Cleaning the house, tackling a project, or completing a task can sometimes be my way of ignoring the stressors around me and aiming to control my environment in the midst of chaos.
On the surface, these tasks don’t look so bad—they look like I’m taking care of things! But in reality, they may be keeping me from dealing with the deeper issues of emotional, physical, or spiritual pain in my life. They’re band-aids on deeper wounds. When this happens, the best thing for me to do is put down the checklist, slow down my mind, and spend time with God assessing the real issues.
Futile Attempts to Save
When it comes to our walk with God, sometimes life can feel out of sorts at times, too. Even though we’re followers of Jesus, we can be just as tempted to scramble and save ourselves from daily pressures by responding in our own way.
At times, our response to life’s pressures is evidently sinful. We somehow find ourselves retreating to old sin patterns as a way to cope, numb the pain, or completely ignore the deeper issues. And at other times, our scrambling may appear normal, even beneficial. We’ll complete “spiritual checklists” to give the illusion that we’re in control. This could look like attending all the church events we can, saying the right things in conversations with people, or even practicing spiritual habits like Bible reading because we know we’re supposed to.
But if we were to peel back the superficial layer of control, what we’ll really see is our desperate attempt to save ourselves by either our pleasurable indulgences in sin or our frantic attempts to do all the right things and look the right way.
And at the end of it all, we’re just exhausted.
In Christ, With Christ
When Paul wrote Colossians, he reminded the church of this same issue. We can’t save ourselves. In fact, he was so adamant about this reminder that he frequently used phrases like “in him” or “with Christ” to emphasize that we do not have what it takes to save ourselves from the brokenness of this world or the brokenness in our own lives. Only Jesus offers the salvation we need. Thankfully, He already took care of it all!
Paul gives us two physical images to demonstrate this spiritual truth. First, like an earthly circumcision, Jesus has removed our worldly nature from us and given us a new life in Him. Second, our submersion under water in baptism reminds us that our worldly nature is so dead that it has been buried in the ground and a completely new life has emerged.
How do both of those things happen? In Christ, with Christ—through His life, death, and resurrection on behalf of our sins.
Living Freely and Fully in Christ’s Salvation
Jesus demonstrated that He alone has the power to live the perfect life that we cannot, to die the death that we should have died on account of our sin, and defeat the power of sin and death by raising to life. On our own, we do not have the power to do any of those things. But in Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are graciously given new life just like His.
We don’t have to stay dead and buried in our sin habits or self-saving attempts.
If you’re scrambling today to save yourself, retreating to sin habits or checklists, what would it look like to trust that Jesus already saved you and is calling you to a new life? Is there a trusted friend who could help encourage you along the way? Is there Scripture you could memorize, like Colossians 1:11-12 or Ephesians 2:1-9, to carry you throughout the week as you seek to lean on Christ’s salvation? Could you ask the Holy Spirit for help to empower you, lead you, and convict you when you find yourself scrambling to self-save again?
When Jesus completed His work of offering His life for our sin, He sat down because the work was finished (Hebrews 10:10-14). No more salvation was needed. Jesus was enough then, and He’s enough now.
If He already did the work to give us new life, what’s keeping us from enjoying it? What do we think we can contribute through our sin and works that would offer a better alternative to the life He gives us? Our role as followers of Jesus now is to put down our checklists, let go of our sin, and live freely and fully in the salvation of Jesus alone.
