paul tripp

The Journal of Biblical Counseling Spring 2005 15

The Bible calls you to live a Christ-like life.But how can you do this in the midst ofseemingly impossible daily challenges? Everydayentanglements bind you or preoccupy you.Perhaps you struggle to get through each day.Worries, emotions, relationship struggles,financial problems, perhaps even addictionskeep a person in a constant state of anxiety. It isso easy to be too tired, too frantic, or too lazy toeven consider a closer relationship with Christ,let alone to live like Him.

How can you change? How can any one ofus even attempt to live Christ-like lives? Theanswer is that you cannot do it by yourself. Norcan you do it quickly. Instead, you are called toa personal commitment to a lifelong process oftransformation into the image of Christ.Personal change is not easy. Rather, changeoccurs over a lifetime as you learn to morefaithfully walk with the Lord. It occurs as youshift your focus from just getting through thefrustrations of each day to looking far into the

futurein fact to eternity.One of the many amazing things Christ is

doing right now is changing each and all of Hispeople by the power of His Holy Spirit intopeople worthy of honor in His kingdom.Someday we will receive a crown ofrighteousness, a crown of life, and a crown ofglory from His powerful and gracious hands.When the Chief Shepherd appears, you willreceive the unfading crown of glory (1 Pet. 5:4).When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, thenyou also will be revealed with Him in glory(Col. 3:4).

How People Change1Living a Christ-like life and discipling

others to do the same is more than a system ofchange or a set of techniques. The process ofchange rests on the presence and power of aliving, active Redeemer. The personalness ofthis process encourages you to look at yourself inthe mirror of Gods Word. To know and rely onChrists grace is no formula or strategy. Thepresence of your Shepherd enables you to stepout into life with renewed faith and courage.

God places many beautiful truths in thefoundation of biblical change. We will considerthree: eternity, union with Christ, and

How Christ Changes UsBy His Grace

B y T i m o t h y S . L a n e a n d P a u l D a v i d Tr i p p

M i n i s t r y P u b l i c a n d P r i v a t e

_______________________________________________

*Timothy Lane is director of Changing LivesMinistry, counselor, and faculty member at CCEF;and lecturer in Practical Theology at WestminsterTheological Seminary.

Paul Tripp is Director of Changing LivesInternational, counselor, and faculty member atCCEF; and lecturer in Practical Theology atWestminster Theological Seminary.

_______________________________________________1 This article is based on the curriculum How PeopleChange: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace, by TimothyS. Lane and Paul David Tripp (Glenside, Pa: ChristianCounseling Education Foundation, 2003).

2005, The Christian Counseling and Educational FoundationAll rights reserved. No portion of this publication should be reproduced, copied or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Inquiries should be made in writing, addressed to CCEF, 1803 East Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038.

The Journal of Biblical Counseling Spring 200516

community. We will look at these in turn.1. We Have Hope in Eternity

Eternity is our ultimate destination. Livingwith God in view gives hope and perspective inour daily situations and relationships. We searchfor meaning and purpose for the events andactivities in our lives: the shocking tragedy ofterrorist actions, a cancer diagnosis, racialprofiling, excessive work hours, and so on. Aswe suffer, struggle, achieve, or relax, we askourselves, consciously or subconsciously, Whatis the point? What is the purpose? What doesthis all mean? Why are we here? The answerswe give ourselvesthe meanings we give to ourthoughts and actionseither keep us on thesame old path or move us in radically differentdirections. Either we continue doing what wehave always done and suffer the consequences,or we choose to change. Either we focus onwhat is happening now, or we focus on eternity.

Whether in little everyday ways or inhugely significant moments, we try to makesense of our lives. We express dissatisfactionwith our lives the way they are right now. Weinstinctively know that things are not the waythey were meant to be. Whether it is thefighting between our children, the strainedrelationships with a spouse or family member,difficult work relationships, or hauntingmemories of terrible childhood abuse, we allsense and experience brokenness in our world.

We think, How wonderful life could be ifonly the boss were more patient. If only my husbandwere more caring. If only my father didnt drink somuch. If only my son would quit arguing and listento me. If only our neighborhood was more friendly.If only we had been able to get that house. If only Icould defeat my despondency. If only our churchunderstood my plight as a single parent. If only Icould enjoy good health, financial stability, or therespect of friends. If only. If only. If only.

Everyday we think about how life would beif things were different. We even evaluate ourlives and attempt to make changes. We envisionchange. We try various strategies to bring aboutchange, sometimes with a bit of short-termsuccess. But our best intentions for changealways fall short. Our desires for change are notwrong; they are just not deep enough. The Bibleconfronts us with a hard-to-accept reality: Thechange most needed in our lives isnt change in

our situations, circumstances, or relationships,but in ourselvesin our own hearts.

But there is hope. Despite our failings,God is still intent on rescuing us from ourselves.His view of change is vastly different than ours.We want to cope better, have more fun, havebetter relationships, have more money, have abigger house. But He wants to change us frompeople who live for themselves (2 Cor. 5:15)to people who are like Him. This is real change!God replaces our selfish, sinful natures with Hisdivine nature! God shapes us in His own image.In the middle of our struggles, He radicallytransforms our hearts by His grace, so that weare able to think, desire, act, and speak in waysconsistent with who He is and what He is doingon earth. Our desire for change begins to line upwith Gods purposes for change. Leaving behindgoals of personal comfort and self-fulfillment, wereach for Christ. We desire to be more like Himevery day. And as we do this, we become moreand more prepared for our ultimate destination:eternity with Him.

In the midst of our struggles, though, wedont naturally connect the ways we think, feel,and act with our ultimate destination of life inheaven with Christ. It takes the work of theHoly Spirit to help us bridge the gap andconnect our struggles to our future in eternity.But God meets us and changes our hearts in themiddle of our greatest joys, our most difficultrelationships, our problems, and our deepestsorrows. Positive personal change takes placewhen our dream of change lines up with Godspurposes for change. Paul expresses it this wayin his letter to the Philippians.

And this is my prayer: that your love mayabound more and more in knowledge anddepth of insight, so that you may be able todiscern what is best and may be pure andblameless until the day of Christ, filledwith the fruit of righteousness that comesthrough Jesus Christto the glory andpraise of God. (Phil. 1:9-11)

Keeping eternity in view as we go about ourdaily lives gives us a broader perspective. It givesus hope for change in the midst of our difficultsituations and relationships.2. We Are Married to Christ

In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul


describes the Christians relationship to Christin a profoundly intimate termmarriage.

I promised you to one husband, to Christ,so that I might present you as a pure virginto Him. But I am afraid that just as Evewas deceived by the serpents cunning,your minds may somehow be led astrayfrom your sincere and pure devotion toChrist. (2 Cor. 11:2-3)

Paul speaks of Christ as a husband andChristians as pure virgin brides. God reconcilessinners to Himself through Christ and welcomesus into this intensely personal relationship. Hedoes not simply tolerate us. He brings us close toHimself by giving Himself to us. Christ is ourhusband and we are His bride. We are in Christ,with Christ, one with Christ. Notice at leastthree profound implications of our union withChrist.

When you are spiritually married toChrist, the core of your present life is notyour own present personal happiness,but spiritual purity. Like any othermarriage, the big issue is yourcommitment to fidelity. The question is,Will you remain faithful to Jesus aloneand not seek fulfillment elsewhere?

Your betrothal to Christ gives thispassage a now and then structure. Yournow life is preparation for your thenmarriage to Christ in eternity. Nowmy life on earthis a time ofpreparation for that day. The completefulfillment of this relationship withChrist will take place in heaven, thoughwe do experience it in part now. SinceChrist is the ultimate reward, everythingelse that could draw me away from Himis no longer essential.

For Paul, the heart of Christianity isremaining faithful to Christ in a worldwhere many lovers seek yourallegiance and affection. PaulsChristianity is intensely relational.Christ is at the center of your life. It is somuch more than such religious practicesas having devotions, giving money, andparticipating in ministry. Certainly theseare not wrong. But they are not the

primary focus of our relationship toChrist; they are fruits of thatrelationship.

Our life changes when we are wed to Christ!That change is much more than change in ourcircumstances, relationships, or status. Webecome different at the deepest spiritual level.Our inner spiritual natures are transformed bythe power of Christs grace. Our hearts wereonce totally enslaved to sin and now they havebeen freed. The changes that result from ourunion with Christ are so fundamental that theBible says that in Him we become newcreatures (2 Cor. 5:17). Because we are unitedwith Christ, the power of sin has been broken.Sin is progressively eradicated from our lives!

This is what the Christian life is about.With joy we affirm that we are new creatures inChrist. With humility, we confess that there isstill sin in my heart.

We need Gods grace today as much as Idid when I first believed. The Savior who madeus new calls us to be committed to His dailywork of renewal. And this personal renewaltakes place in the midst of our circumstancesand relationships.3. We Are Part of the Christian Community

When the apostle Paul discipled newbelievers, he repeatedly reminded them thatthere was help in Christ and in Christs people,the church.

You are no longer foreigners and aliens,but fellow citizens with Gods people andmembers of Gods household built on thefoundation of the apostles and prophets,with Christ Jesus Himself as the chiefcornerstone. In Him the whole is joinedtogether and rises to become a holytemple in the Lord. And in Him you tooare being built together to become adwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.(Eph. 2:19-22)

Our personal relationship with God links us toother believers. Our transformation is workedout within the family of God. This is notnecessarily the simpler way: being involved withother people can be inefficient, complicated,and time consuming. So many things can gowrong in relationships. But this is why

community is such a big part of Gods plan totransform us into the image of Christ. The morewe understand our own hearts, the more we seethat it takes a work of Gods grace to transformus from self-absorbed individuals into acommunity of love.

Do you get a sense of how big the love ofChrist is? The love of Christ is so long and highand deep that we cannot see this love orexperience it all by our finite selves. We have tograsp it together with the saints (Eph. 3:18).As isolated individuals, we cannot reach thelevel of maturity that God has designed for us.This fullness happens as we live in a loving,redemptive community with one another, as westruggle together, and as we grow together.

These three major points form thefoundation for biblical change: knowing whereGod is taking us; knowing that as a Christian,we are married to Christ; and knowing thatchange occurs with community support.

Life as God Sees It; Change as God Does ItDo you ever feel lost in the middle of your

own world? Perhaps you know a lot aboutyourself, God, and others, but you are not surehow to put it all together. You struggle, but youdont know why. You are depressed, but youdont know why. Your teenage son is adversarialand you cant understand what he wants. Yourpicture of life seems out of focus. Your life seemsout of your control. You are lost in a muddle.

But look at it another way. If you are lostin the middle of a big city, you need an overviewof the whole citythe big picture, a helicopterviewto give you a better orientation. With thebig picture in mind, you have a clearer idea ofwhere you are and where you need to go. TheBible doesnt always seem to give you this clearhelicopter view of life. Scripture sometimesseems like a haphazard collection of stories,poems, teachings, and commands unrelated toyour everyday concerns. Yet when carefullyexamined, the Bible does provide the essentialelements that give an overall picture of life asGod sees it and change as God does it. Whenyou begin to see this overall picture, you canbegin to sense what God is doing in the detailsof your life. Understanding how God typicallyuses daily life to change our hearts is an essentialpart of this growth and change process.

The Bible typically uses concrete images toillustrate spiritual truths. Jeremiah provides agood example.

This is what the LORD says: Cursedis the one who trusts in man, who dependson flesh for his strength and whose heartturns away from the LORD. He will be likea bush in the wastelands; he will not seeprosperity when it comes. He will dwell inthe parched places of the desert, in a saltland where no one lives.

But blessed is the man who trusts inthe LORD, whose confidence is in Him. Hewill be like a tree planted by the water thatsends out its roots by the stream. It doesnot fear when heat comes; it leaves arealways green,

It has no worries in a year of droughtand never fails to bear fruit. The heart isdeceitful above all things and beyond cure.Who can understand it?

I, the LORD, search the heart andexamine the mind, to reward a manaccording to his conduct, according towhat his deeds deserve. (Jer. 17:5-10)

The metaphors of this passage form a model:desert heat, a thorny bush in the wasteland,streams of life from God in Christ, and a fruitfultree. We will organize our thoughts through apicture of The Three Trees. (See figure 1.)

Heat describes life and all that comes uponus in a fallen world. It represents a personscurrent situation with all of its difficulties,temptations, and blessings. God knows thedetails of our lives and worlds and He seeshow we respond in these situations.The Thorn Bush, the first tree in thewasteland, represents ungodly responses todifficulties, temptations, and blessings. Goddoes not just look at our behavior and ourreactions to our trials, He searches ourhearts mastering intentions, beliefs, anddesires.The Cross of Christ, the second tree, isthe source of living water. This capturesthe redemptive activity of God on ourbehalf. He brings comfort, cleansing, andthe power to change in the midst of lifeschallenges.



The Fruitful Tree, the third tree,represents the person who trusts in theLord, who learns to respond in a godlymanner to his problems. Gods redemptivepower at work in the heart renewed bygrace enables the person to respond in agodly manner to all circumstances. Godproduces a harvest of good fruit in ourlives.

Now look more carefully at these elementsintroduced by Jeremiah.1. Heat: What is Your Difficulty?

Scripture always locates people in a lifesituation. The letter of James is quite interestingin this regard. He begins by saying, Count it alljoy when you meet various trials. He doesntspecify the kind of trials, but leaves us to fill inthe blanks.

For James, a trial is an external situation(heat) that reveals the hearts intentions. A trialcan lead to significant growth at the heart levelor it can lead to temptation and sin. In otherwords, a trial can produce fruit or it can produce

thorns. It all depends on what is happeninginside a person. And both difficulties andblessings present opportunities for temptationand sin, or for testing and growth. If the trialleads to temptation and sin, it is because thepersons heart has been dragged away andenticed by his own evil desires. Nothing inthe situationthe heatmakes you sin, ormakes you loving and wise. You either choose tosin or choose for God in every circumstance.2. Thorns: What Sin Entangles You?

All ungodly behavior grows out of a heartthat has been captured by something other thanChrist. We are fruit trees by the grace of God,but we still have thorn bush responses to life.We all tend to respond sinfully to thecircumstances of life. We bend and twist thetruth. We harbor anger and bitterness. We shiftblame. We manipulate others to get what wewant. We communicate in harsh andjudgmental ways. We numb ourselves withbusiness, substances, or material possessions.We attempt to get our identity from otherpeople or from our performance. We give in to

FIGURE 1. THE THREE TREES (JER. 17:5-10)


lust. We give way to vengeance. We getdefensive and self-protective. We respondselfishly and thoughtlessly. The list could go onand on. All of these responses are thorns on thebush. Facing the ways we are like thorn bushesis one of Gods chief ways of transforming usinto fruit trees.

God calls us back from the wide-anglehelicopter view to zoom in and humbly take aclose look at ourselves. He calls us to believeand act upon the gospel promises of forgiveness,restoration, wisdom, strength, deliverance, andpower by acknowledging our responsibility forour thorn-like responses. Developing into fruittrees always starts with recognizing andremoving the sinful thorns from our lives.3. The Cross: Christ Brings New Identity andNew Potential

I have been crucified with Christ and I nolonger live, but Christ lives in me. The lifeI live in the body, I live by faith in the Sonof God who loved me and gave Himself forme. I do not set aside the grace of God, forif righteousness could be gained throughthe law, Christ died for nothing! (Gal.2:20-21)

Pauls emphasis here is that the cross defines ouridentity and potential right here and now. Frombirth, each of us was under the control anddominion of sin. But in His death, Christ brokethe spiritual dominion sin had over us. Hisdeath on the cross permanently alters who weare now and who we will continue to be. Wehave been forever changed. We no longer liveunder the weight of the law or the dominationof sin. Christs death fulfilled the lawsrequirements and broke the power of sin. We donot have to give in to sin. We can live in newways amid the same old situations

Then Paul says something even moreamazing. Our hearts, once under thedomination of sin, now are the dwelling place ofChrist, the ultimate source of righteousness,wisdom, grace, power, and love. Our hearts canrespond to life in brand new ways because weare no longer dominated by sin, but we areliberated by the gracious rule of Christ. We baseour lives on the fact that because Jesus lives inus, we can do what is right in desire, thought,word, and action, no matter what specific

suffering or trail we face. Our potential is Christ!4. Good Fruit Comes from Real HeartChange

What will my life look like if I measure mypotential based on my union with the indwellingChrist? As we say yes to the indwelling HolySpirit, His living water produces new fruit in ourhearts: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These character qualities arentunrealistic standards that God holds over us.They are gifts the Spirit produces in us. Thischange within us changes the way we respond tothe things and people around us.

The Christian life should be a state ofthankful discontentment or joyfuldissatisfaction! We live every day thankful forthe amazing grace that fundamentally changesour lives, but we should not be satisfied. Whynot? Because, when we look at ourselves,honestly, we have to admit that there is stillneed for personal growth and change. We arenot yet all that we could be in Christ. We arethankful for the many things in our lives thatwould not be there without His grace, but weshould not settle for partial inheritance. Weshould want nothing less than all that is our inChrist! In this sense, God does not want us to becontent with less than what He wants for us. Hecalls us to continue to wrestle, meditate, look,consider, watch, examine, run, persevere,confess, resist, submit, follow, and pray until wehave been completely transformed into Hislikeness.

The life of self-examination and joyfuldiscontent should not be confused with a life ofparalyzing self-condemnation. God does not callus to self-loathing, but to a willingness toexamine our response to life while holding ontoour hope as new creatures in Christ. That hopeis not based only on the promise of forgiveness,but also on His promise of personal deliveranceand restoration as well. That same God that hasforgiven us is now in the process of radicallychanging us. We must not be satisfied until thatwork is complete.

God Changes Us in the Middle of Our ToughestChallenges

The Heat-Thorns-Cross-Fruit picturerepresents how God changes us in the middle of


the toughest challenges of life.

Heat: Trials, pressures, temptations, anddifficulty surround our lives.Thorns: We respond in sinful ways towhat we face in life. We have inner reasonsfor our sin.Cross: God meets us in our sin with Hisheart-transforming grace.Fruit: We respond in new ways to our olddifficulties as our hearts are transformed.

Two first-person case studies, Self-CounselingProjects, follow this article and give practicalexamples of how a person can analyze his or herspecific struggles using this model. You, too,choose a personal struggle in your own life andwork through it using this model. Do you getangry with other drivers on the road? Do youyell at your children? Do you overspend and liveabove your means? Are you a workaholic? Doyou procrastinate when important work needsto be done? Do you resort to grumbling andcomplaining when things dont go your way? Do

you gossip about your work acquaintances? Doyou envy the material possessions of others? Doyou speak unkindly to others when they dontmeet your needs? Do you blame God for yourproblems? Do you eat too much? Watch TV toomuch? Work too much?

First read these stories about pride andabout worryand then insert your own story.God calls you to come to this point. He calls youdown from the wide-angle helicopter view tozoom in and humbly take a close look atyourself. He calls you to believe and act uponthe gospel promises of forgiveness, restoration,wisdom, strength, deliverance, and power byacknowledging your responsibility for your ownungodly responses to lifes difficult situations.Getting to the fruit tree always starts withrecognizing and removing the thorns.

Whatever the heat of your currentsituation, we challenge you to work through itusing this model. May God bless you as yougrow and change under His guidance and in Hispower.

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