Living on the Other Side of But
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Righteousness Enjoyed on the Other Side of But
“I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.”
Philippians 3:9
When we were little children, how fun it was to play dress up in our mother’s clothes or have special outfits like a ballerina or princess dress to put on. We would live in the land of make-believe and find joy in being someone different from who we were.
As we got older, we put away those dress-up games and exchanged them for another form of the dress-up game. We clothed ourselves with trappings of the world to disguise the things that were within. We put up walls and barriers so that people couldn’t see the real us. Pretending to be all put together, pretending to be that woman people would respect, fooled many people and gave us respectability; but it couldn’t fool us. We knew who we were: women filled with shame, regret, guilt, anxiety, fear, anything but righteous. We were threatened by the idea of transparency or vulnerability. It was out of the question, because with that came the real possibility of rejection. If they really knew who I really was they would …. So, we played dress up. We did anything we could for self-preservation. Nothing changed what we were on the inside or how we viewed ourselves. All the disguises only put us further into despair and hopelessness. The problem is that we tried to be righteous before we were made righteous.
But, then came Jesus, inviting us to exchange our dress-up clothes for the real thing, offering us a love that equaled acceptance, a release from guilt and condemnation and a new garment of righteousness. This is the good news of living on the other side of but.
First, just know that you were not alone in playing dress-up as an adult. We’ve all been guilty of thinking we could be good enough, do enough, pretend enough to make ourselves acceptable to ourselves and most of all to God. The Bible lets us know that it is impossible to exchange the fake for the real thing. Just think about actors and actresses who have become identified by a role they played in a movie or a TV series. It may be what they are like in real life, away from the cameras, but probably not. They have been labeled, identified apart from reality. They are not who we think they are, wearing clothes that don’t belong to them, ones they don’t deserve, ones that don’t clearly reveal who they are. I trust you are getting the picture.
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About the Book
Everyone has a story and, within that story, are pages that reveal failure, rejection, shame, guilt, and discouragement, to name a few. There are things that we did or were done to us that have held us captive. We struggle to see ourselves as Christ sees us because we have labeled ourselves or allowed others to label us.
As believers, the good news is that those chapters have been covered by the love and forgiveness of our Savior. We now have a new identity, a new life, a new freedom because of what Jesus has done and is doing in our lives. The challenge becomes embracing all he has provided and living in our new identity.
The message of this book is that God has a better way for us to live, as revealed in the Word. It is revealed to us in the little word “but.” Such a little word, “but” such a powerful truth. But for Jesus we would be without hope, without joy, without purpose, and without peace; bound by sin; living a defeated and fruitless life. Jesus makes it possible for all that to change. It is learning to live on the other side of “but.”
About the Author
Jan Schwiebert lives in North Carolina with her husband, Loren. She has 8 children, 18 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren. She is an ordained minister and a Bible teacher and has a passion for seeing women living in the fulness of their identity in Christ.