Finding Success in Jesus
This article includes a brief testimony of how I arrived at where I am today—in Jesus Christ.
Born and raised as a missionary and Third Culture Kid (TCK), I’ve transferred 15 schools from kindergarten to college over 5 countries. I’ve been to private and public schools, from international to home school. Many people have told my family that I would not succeed in life; that, attending college would be a dream due to the social, financial, and environmental challenges my family faced.
Aside from being told that I have no future, I have been bullied and had depression.
Yet, in less than a month, I will graduate with my Bible degree at one of the best universities to study the Bible, heading towards my Master’s. I also didn’t pay for college as God paid everything for me. I am wonderfully married to a godly woman, in which our God-inspired story of purity has been shared across the world via Vice!
Goodness: His or Mine?
This was my biggest inner debate. The success I’ve experienced was not based on my goodness. I have been in and of the world and have lived a lifestyle that practiced sin and shame. My goodness produces death.
Yet, at the same time, after coming to salvation through Jesus—being delivered from sin and death (Eph 5:8; 1 Jn 4:4 etc.); reborn through the Spirit (Jn 3:5-6); and given a purpose (Titus 2:14; 1 Pet 2:9)—I have tried everything I can to glorify Him.
Spiritual-discipline-wise (prayer, Bible, fasting, worship etc.), I have tried to draw near to God with everything, shunning out the flesh. Through this, I have overcome and conquered sin.
I would honor my parents, especially during the summers by spending time with them and buying them gifts and food with the money I made.
I didn’t date around, though many opportunities arose in spite of the increasing urgency and eagerness for a spouse.
Admittedly, there were times of weakness and I praise God that even the former high priests would experience the same (Heb 5:2). Still, I can lift up my head and say: “Lord, I have tried to be faithful.” So, surely my faithfulness—which stems from His—meant something; but where do I find the balance?
Success found In Christ
The entire debate between my goodness versus His goodness is a false dichotomy. I don’t think Scripture presents the paradigm of “God’s faithfulness/goodness leading to our goodness.” This cause/effect relationship is summed up in Diagram 1:
God’s goodness and faithfulness does not function like a gas pump. The issue with this paradigm is that we (vehicle) can be separated from God (fuel). In fact, for most of the time, a vehicle is disconnected with the gas pump. The vehicle only goes to God when it needs fuel.
Yet, that is not biblical. We do not go to God only when we need Him. Rather, since God is united in His love and goodness , we experience it through remaining in Him. Consider diagram 2:
**This doesn’t mean we “fuel” God. (illustrations can only go so far…) My point is: “our lives (fuel) are only purposed and brought to success in God (vehicle).”
Since God is faithful (1 Cor 1:9), and He is love (1 Jn 4:8) and He is good (Lk 18:19), God cannot be separated from His attributes. This does not mean that “love is God”, but rather, love is characterized by (or “stems from”) God. It means that we cannot find faithfulness aside from Him.
Hence, the term “my success” is unbiblical. Rather, since I dwell in Christ, there is a natural, blooming success found in Him.
Consider 1 Corinthians 15:10:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
Paul says that he is an apostle (1 Cor 10:9) because of the grace of God. Since God’s grace has been shed on him, he has worked harder than all of the other apostles. If we stop here, it might point to diagram 1, where God’s grace leads us to our goodness, hard work. But if we look at the whole passage, Paul concludes the discourse by writing: “though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
It is not Paul who worked, but God’s grace in him. But why was God's grace in him? Because he was in God! This makes sense when Scripture writes that “Christ who is your life” (Col 3:4), “to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21 cf. Gal 2:20), and that we “remain in Him” (1 Jn 2:28 cf. Eph 3:12). Paul is not presenting a distinction between his goodness/faithfulness (hard work) and God’s, but rather the relationship in which he is in Christ, and Christ in him.
In fact, Jesus’ illustration in John 15, that He is the vine and we are the branches (Jn 15:5), and that we bear cannot bear fruit unless through abiding/remaining in Him (15:4), seems to point to the same conclusion.
Conclusion:
Success is not contingent upon the individual. I do not have success. Rather, by God's grace and His Spirit's power, I have been drawn to Him. And through remaining in Him, I have experienced academic, social, relational, and ministerial produced fruit—success.
Sin was overcome in my life through the same means. I did not have a formula. The Spirit compelled me to dwell in Him, particularly through fasting and worship, and the stronghold of addiction disappeared. I believe I experienced what David recorded in Psalm 16:11, that "in Your presence there is fullness of joy."
With all this mentioned, as we are now in a time where there is, perhaps, more opportunities to practice solitude, may we abide and remain in Him. If you are in a time where you want to experience a closer relationship with God, but you’re thinking “what do I do?” to have a deeper experience of God or to overcome sin, the answer lies not in the “doing”, but in the “being” (<--the greater spiritual reality; "being" encompasses "doing"; "doing" is the means to "being"). Are you being in Christ, communing with the Father through the Spirit? If we remain in Him, we shall definitely bear fruit and find spiritual success that comes from God.
-Barnabas
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