You Need to Change

There's a moment every parent knows well. Your child walks out in an outfit that makes you stop and say, "Where do you think you’re going dressed like that? You need to change."

Some people think that all there is to Christianity is affirming some facts and believing some things about Jesus. Others think that all the change begins and ends at the moment of salvation. But the gospel announces something radical: Jesus Christ not only forgives you—He remakes you.

You need to change!

Receiving Christ is just the beginning of a change that continues throughout our lives. We are continually called to “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Augustine, the 4th-century African bishop, lived a deeply immoral life before his conversion to Christ. In his own writings, especially Confessions, he openly described his bondage to lust and sexual sin. There is a well-known story told from the years after his conversion. Augustine was walking down the street when he encountered a woman who had once been one of his lovers. Recognizing him, she called out flirtatiously, “Augustine, it is I.” At first, he kept walking, but when she repeated herself, Augustine turned and replied, “Yes, but it is not I.” In other words, “You may recognize my face, but I am no longer the same man.”

That is the power of the gospel. Christianity is not merely turning over a new leaf—it is becoming a new creation. The desires, loves, and identity that once controlled us no longer define us because Christ changes people from the inside out.

So, what needs to change?

• Is there an area of your life where you have quietly made peace with a pattern that the Spirit of God keeps disturbing — and what would it look like to finally name it, bring it to Christ, and stop negotiating with it?

• When you examine your daily habits, what are you feeding your mind most consistently — and is it shaping you more toward the old self or the new?

• What is one specific thing you could put off this week, and one specific thing you could put on — not as willpower, but as an act of faith in the new nature Christ has already given you?

Jesus doesn't only invite you to come just as you are — He is relentlessly changing you into who you were always meant to be.