By I’ll never forget sitting in church, hearing messages that felt more like a funeral than freedom. Things like:
- “You’re a sinner.”
- “Your heart is wicked.”
- “You’re just a dirty worm saved by grace.”
And I believed it.
Every day, I reminded myself how broken I was. I thought it was humility. But it was misery.
Then someone said something that stopped me cold:
“You’re not a dirty worm. You’re a new creation.”
I’d heard 2 Corinthians 5:17 before, but never let it sink in. I guess I thought it was poetic. Symbolic. Aspirational.
But it’s literal.
God didn’t just forgive me. He washed me, justified me and sanctified me. All of me. (See 1 Corinthians 6:11.)
That day, I stopped regarding myself according to the flesh. And I stopped calling myself what God never did.
That led to thinking clean, then acting clean(er).
Not by trying harder, but by believing I am new.
So if you’ve been living under the label “dirty worm,” it’s time to rip it off.
You’re not what religion said you were. You’re who God says you are.
And that’s not a worm. That’s a wonder.
If this message stirred something in you, then you’ll love my series The Turning Point. In it, I unpack how Jesus’ death and resurrection didn’t just change history… it changed you. Get it for your donation of any amount.