worm theology

One of the first blogs that I posted on here was a copy of something that I had written and put on my facebook account. It dealt with what I termed worm theology. The basic gist of it was that as christians, we have this mentality that we are worthless because of our sin nature and that we are "lucky" to be saved by grace. The picture that comes to my mind that depicts this is that of a beggar who grovels in gratitude that a passer by tossed him a coin or two. And I never really thought that that was a proper interpretation.

Not to say that any of the above is not true. We do have a sin nature and this is turn kept us separated from God. And it is by His grace and His actions on the cross that we are able to enter into His presence. The cross is a central component to what we believe. However, it doesn't stop there, although most Christians seem to think that it does.

I am going to borrow from a book that I am reading titled Classic Christianity written by Bob George. He illustrates it far better than I could. Additionallly I will also be drawing from a sermon that I heard at my church. Thanks Yvette.

Whereas most Christians think that our journey ends at the cross, in all reality, the cross is the beginning. We were created to be spiritually alive but the fall entailed that we become spiritually dead. The cross is what allowed us to be REBORN and brought back to spiritual life. God dealt with our sin at the cross once for all. And it is through the cross that we now are ALIVE. This process is much like when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. It starts out as a caterpillar (also referred to as a worm). Through the process of metamorphosis (defined as a change from one state to another state) the worm becomes a butterfly. Now here is the funny part, when we see a butterfly we dòn`t say "Guess what! I saw this good-looking converted worm." No. We see and recognize and call out the beautiful creature that it is. We say "Hey! I saw this butterfly!"

That is what the cross has done for us. Christ's act of taking on the sin of the world once for all, allows us to become metamorphosized (changed from one state to another) to that beautiful butterfly and that is how God sees us. As fully redeemed perfected people. That's what Christ's blood bought for us. God doesn't look to Jesus and say "hey! see that good looking converted person?" No. He says "hey look at that beautiful perfected creature I made."
The problem lies in that we still see ourselves and each other as converted worms. We don't or we refuse to see the beautiful creature that we are. We don't check in wiht our God to see how He sees us. We devalue ourselves and others, we don't call out the treasure that is within each of us, that God designed us to be. Rather, we remain stuck in this worm theology and we continue to see ourselves as the beggar on the side of the street, grateful for the meager coin tossed to him. It really is something akin to the vicitm mentality and it definitely holds us back from walking in the freedome that the cross bought for us.

I think that we need to look at the cross not as the ending point and the end goal, but rather as the starting point for our LIFE! The cross is the beginning, not the end. It is the starting point. It's already been done and taken care of and instead of looking toward the cross, the cross is where we come back to and we venture forward from the cross into the freedom and life that Christ bought for us.

Let's remember to check in with God as to how he sees us and walk in that vision. I know that for myself this is a huge struggle right now. And I also know that there is huge warfare around me doing so. For when I see me as God sees me, when I accept that for what it is, I will walk with a different level of authority. I will walk with a different level of confidence that will bring about a whole new level of freedom for me and for those aroudn me. Satan doesn't want that. He doesn't want me to understand how it is that God views me and that is something that I am warring right now. It's been a grueling process and it still is. And my hope and prayer is that one day soon I will be able to own that vision........