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Have you ever seen Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?

I love the heartwarming concept of that show: a family in need with a broken, rundown, nasty home unexpectedly has a team of contractors show up on their porch, ready to bless their socks off. They demolish the run down house to ruins and build something beautiful in it’s place. At the end, the family cries with joy as their new home is unveiled. Their lives are changed forever because of what’s been done for them.

This is a great picture for what God does in our lives. God is in the the Extreme Makeover business.

I’m not just talking about “getting saved.” I grew up as a Christian and yet my life was still a mess. I had a desire to know God and please him with my life, yet I found myself caught in a cycle of guilt and defeat. I wrestled with my sin daily and wondered if I could ever be “good enough” to please God. I would repent with heartfelt tears and then go right back into failure. I was powerless to change and felt like giving up.

It was then, that God, in his grace, showed up on the doorstep of my life and changed everything. It was quite literally an Extreme Makeover. I had a revelation in the book of Romans that swept through my life, changing how I saw God, how I saw myself and how I saw Jesus and his work on the cross.

I’ll be sharing these truths in a series of posts titled ”Extreme Makeover: YOU Edition.” I know that if you let these truths from God’s Word sink in, it will set you free to experience relationship with God, unhindered by guilt, addiction and fear. Are you ready?

Let’s start by picturing our spiritual condition like a houses from Extreme Makeover. We’ve got mold in our basements and skeletons in our closets and cockroaches running across the ceiling. We all have problems, failures and sin, even if we’re good at hiding it. These sins and imperfections separate us from a perfectly righteous and holy God. Basically, God is righteous and we’re the farthest thing from it. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 3:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;11 there is no one who understands;there is no one who seeks God.12 All have turned away,they have together become worthless;there is no one who does good,not even one.”Romans 3:10-12

That includes you and me!

“But Richard!” You might be thinking. “I’m not that bad. I may have some flaws but I also have good qualities. I do a lot of good things for people. I tithe, go to church and pray every night. I’m a good person!”

My friend, as great as those things are, no works or law-keeping we ever do can make us right before God.  Our good deeds don’t cancel out our bad ones. In order to have relationship with God based on our works, we would have to be PERFECT all the time and righteous like he is.

20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. Romans 3:20

Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to see something important. There is nothing you and I can do to make ourselves right with God. We are unable to keep God’s laws through our own efforts. We cannot please God or become right in his sight by “doing better” or even repenting with tears. We’re like a house with a broken foundation. You can throw paint on the walls, clean house, do whatever and at the end of the day, the house will eventually collapse. Why? Because it’s built on a faulty foundation.

Let me ask you a critical question: what is your relationship with God founded on? Is it based on your good works, your performance? Do you feel like your right standing with God changes from day to day, depending on what you do? My friend, this is a rotten foundation to build upon. This foundation of religion will keep you trapped in a cycle of guilt, failure and sin.

We need a total DEMOLITION.

I’m talking about a radical change in our beliefs. It wasn’t until I had exhausted all my efforts trying to make myself right with God, that God showed up on my porch and revealed to me a different way. Look at what Paul says next:

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.                Romans 3:21-24

Isn’t it strange that we often quote part of this verse, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, without the rest? How does that sentence end? “And all are justified (made righteous) freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” We are made right with God freely! That means we can’t do anything to deserve it, earn it or pay for it. How? Through Jesus Christ and the redemption he bought for us on the cross!

This is the best news in the world! That’s what the word gospel means: good news.  

Now here’s where most people get tied up. You see deep down, we don’t really believe this. Growing up with religion has taught us that we need to do certain good deeds in order to make God pleased with us: go to church regularly, tithe, repent piously and walk  old ladies across the street. By doing these good works we draw closer to God and balance out our sins and imperfections. But that’s just not true! It’s Christ and Christ alone that enables us to be right with God. And even after we’ve accepted Christ as our savior, it’s still all him. He”s the one who saves us and continues to keep us in right standing with God. He’s the author and the finisher of our faith!

Do you understand what this means? Because of Jesus, our relationship with God isn’t dependent on how good we are. It’s dependent on how good Christ’s sacrifice for us was! Our righteousness doesn’t fluctuate based on our performances. It’s given freely as a gift, bought and paid for by Christ’s blood.

This is why the foundation of our lives has to be what Jesus has done and not our own feeble attempts to be righteous. This is how Paul puts it:

 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.                     1 Corinthians 3:10-11

There is no other foundation for our relationship with God than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. If we try to build a relationship with God based on our goodness or our works, we will always come short. But through Jesus, God has made a way for us to be right with him.

Let me ask again: what is your relationship with God founded on? Do you trust that Righteousness (aka right standing with God) has been purchased by Jesus blood and given to you as a gift? Or are you ignoring that gift and still trying to be righteous by obeying the law and being good?

One of my favorite parts of Extreme Makeover is watching as the demolition trucks roll up and completely demolish the family’s old house. Why do they do this? Because in order to allow them to build something new, the old foundation and system has to be destroyed.

In the same way, we need to DEMOLISH every belief system in our lives that puts us at the center and pushes Christ out of the spotlight. This was the first step to freedom for me.  When I finally put all my faith in Christ and abandoned my quest to be righteous by myself, all the fear, guilt and condemnation that hindered me from growing close to God disappeared.  And with Christ as my foundation, it invited God to begin building something new and beautiful out of my life.

The same is true for you my friend. Put Christ as the foundation for your relationship God. Look to the cross every time you fail and know that you are still righteous because of Jesus. And begin to experience the freedom of a relationship with God, unhindered by guilt, fear and condemnation.

Have you made Christ the foundation of your righteousness? How does this truth impact your situation? Leave me a comment below and be on the lookout for Part Two of Extreme Makeover: You Edition, coming soon!

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