Death Aint So Bad

By: Taft Ayers

Saw a bit of teaching this week from John Ortberg about the themes explored in his new book, The Me I Want To Be. Ortberg always has great stuff to say.

The point of the book is this: When God gets a hold of you, His goal is not to change you into someone else. It’s to restore you to what you were always meant to be. He doesn’t just want to make you holier, He wants to make you “you-ier.”

So true.

But this is, admittedly, a complicated reality.

Take, for instance, the way Scripture describes God’s intent:

“We know that our old self was crucified.” (Rom. 6.6)
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Cor. 5.17)
At first glance, it seems like God intends to scrap me and make something better in my place. I stop being who I am. My personality, my skills, my interests, they’re all deleted and typed over.

But this isn’t true. Not exactly, at least.

As Ortberg points out, God does want me to die. He wants the person I’ve been to pass away. But the death He desires for me is actually death to a false self.

A false self.

The “me” that goes away wasn’t really “me” anyway—it was a messed up version of me. A me that had missed out on innate potential. A me that had traded a fabulous mission for ridiculous distractions. A me…that wasn’t me.That’s the self that dies at God’s hand. A false self.

And the me that remains and is nurtured by Christ is not some identity-less carbon copy of every other Christian, but a hand-tailored, absolutely unique creation that’s existed in God’s mind for ages now and is finally being realized.

God transforms me into the best version of me possible.

Makes dying sound pretty good.