“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
There are people in your life who don’t know this. Who don’t believe this. But Jesus can change that. How?
Jesus changes you. He gives himself to you so that you’re no longer THAT you but THIS you. No longer the OLD you but the NEW you. Your identity is Him. Jesus! “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
You’re a loved person. A changed person. A new person. If you believe that, say “The life I now live in the body, I live by faith.” You live in a body, just like Jesus did when he came here, to be like us with skin on. To understand us. To relate to us. To save us. Jesus gets us.
There are people in your life who don’t know this—don’t believe in Jesus. How can that change? You. You are Jesus with skin on.
One of my favorite TV series is Undercover Boss. Producers work with a company CEO who gets a makeover and goes undercover to work in the real front lines, the gritty assembly lines, or listening to the leadership lines of company managers at staff meetings.
The CEO gains instant credibility because employees can relate to them as a real person who wears a company uniform like them.
The undercover boss asks good questions and makes great observations about how the people in the company—and the company itself—are doing. The bigger story at the conclusion of each show isn’t so much how the company can improve based on this unique assessment, though that happens.
The bigger story is how the CEO has the position and power to change the stories of these employees who have opened up to him about their professional dreams and personal dilemmas.
The final scene is when the employees are invited to meet with the CEO, who reveals the undercover boss experience, then bestows loving, life-changing gifts to them like a fully funded education for their 6 kids, or an all-expense-paid vacation for their family, or even a crazy company promotion.
Do you wish you had a CEO like that? You do.
Jesus is the ultimate undercover boss. But here’s the bigger story. CEO Jesus still shows up in people’s lives today, undercover in you.
People will relate to him in you. People will receive loving, life-changing gifts from Jesus through you.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, you became like us, like me, to love me as best you could. Help me relate to others better, and more often, seeking to understand them, so that I can show them what you are truly like. Amen.
WATCH THIS: I preached more about this on Sunday, right here https://crosslifepf.org/messages/jesus-with-skin-on/.