Alive On the Inside

“But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Romans 8:10

            When I got up yesterday and looked out the window, I saw a beautiful sight. The world had been covered in white! It looked so clean! Everything dirty and blah had been transformed into a glittering fairyland of pure-looking snow. I am often amazed at God’s creativity as show in His creation and this is just one example. Who else but God would think to cover everything in a pristine covering? When I see the snow-covered world, I often think of being clothed in righteousness. Just as the snow covers all the dirt, Christ’s righteousness covers the dirt of our sin. He’s willing to share His spotless garments to cover our unrighteousness, even though our sin was against Him. That’s love!

            What I realized this morning is that, like most analogies when applied to God, this one isn’t quite right. If I were to go outside and brush away the snow, I would see the same dirty world that was there yesterday. Nothing has really changed. It’s just been covered up and when the snow melts, it will be the same as it was before. This verse in Romans is telling us that that’s not how God operates. He changes what’s on the inside. He gives us life, true life, that is on the unseen with human eyes. Outwardly, our physical bodies are dead. Well, maybe they’re not dead yet but they’re in the process. Every year we are closer to the end of life on this earth. Every day our physical bodies age a little bit more. I’ve even heard it said that each breath we take is one less breath we have in this life. Unlike the snow that gives a new, fresh look to the world, our physical coverings of flesh and bone just get older and more decrepit.

            I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer here because there’s a very exciting truth. Our bodies may be dying, but our spirit, our inner self, is very much alive if we have Christ in us. When our physical coverings finally die, when the heart stops beating and the brain waves cease, that’s when the part of us that is the real us will be released to be who God made us to be. We will no longer be held back by sin. We won’t have to contend with the temptation of sin, nor the consequences of past sins. We’ll be free! And we’ll be beautiful because we’ll truly be God’s creation, not the distorted version we see now. As hard as this is to comprehend, we’ll be as white as new snow. But not just snow on top of the dirt. We’ll be clean through and through. Praise God that He is daily preparing us for the time when we will live with Him and be made pure and spotless!