Feel Like You Need an Extreme Makeover? Develop your spiritual gifts 2000x600 image from Chip's Blog

Feel Like You Need a Makeover?

By Chip Ingram

Feel like you need a makeover? An extreme makeover, perhaps?

Go to Wikipedia and type in “makeover TV shows.” You might be amazed. The original “Extreme Makeover” has over the last decade spawned countless spinoffs and copy-cats—some you probably don’t want to watch! (I’m going to bet there’s more to come, too. “Extreme Makeover: COVID Home” edition, anyone?)

Why are these reality shows so popular? Why do millions of viewers watch as big money gets tossed around to take something imperfect and damaged and recreate it into something whole and beautiful?

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First, I think people love to see positive change. We enjoy watching something old get turned into something new. Secondly, it’s fun to see what skills and creativity can make it happen.

A third and biggest reason, though, is this: I believe we all secretly long for an extreme makeover in some area of our lives or relationships.

I know I do. I’d like to be different. I’d like to take something broken in me and make it whole. I’d like to be made over into something magnificent.

I don’t think this is a case of not “accepting yourself.” I believe it’s a God-given imprint on our hearts. It’s rooted in the spiritual DNA of your Creator, whose image we are created in. We want to change because we know we’re not 100 percent who God created us to be.

I’m going to suggest that the ultimate extreme makeover artist is Jesus Christ. And the ultimate extreme makeover is His work in a human heart.

In fact, it’s God’s desire is to do an extreme makeover in the heart of every single person on this planet. And boy, do we all need it.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

I notice three truths about how you used to be before Christ—or where you are at right now if you don’t know Him personally.

First, it says we were dead in our transgressions. That’s what happens when sin blocks us from a life-giving relationship with the God who made us.

Second, we were prisoners of the world’s system—imprisoned by the evil power that manipulates our culture; and to the resulting materialism, selfishness, dysfunction, temptations, and addictions.

And third, we were deserving of wrath. Because justice is part of God’s nature, there are consequences to living in a way that hurts people.

But notice: in Christ, who are you now? How have you been transformed?

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-8)

  • You used to be dead; now, you are alive.
  • You used to be a prisoner; now, you’re delivered from sin’s power, from Satan’s grip, and from past mistakes.
  • You used to be an object of wrath; now you have a new standing with God. You are righteous. You’re cleansed. You have a new identity. You have new power. You have a new future, a new purpose, a new family, new privileges. And then, very excitingly, you have a new inheritance.

This is the ultimate extreme makeover!

Through the infinite love and sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus, the ultimate makeover artist, you have a new heart, a new life, a new future, and a new peace.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

For more resources on living out your supernaturally extreme makeover, visit the Your Divine Design Group Study & Resources page.

Written By

Chip Ingram

Founder & Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram is the CEO and teaching pastor of Living on the Edge, an international teaching and discipleship ministry. A pastor for over thirty years, Chip has a unique ability to communicate truth and challenge people to live out their faith. He is the author of many books, including The Real God, Culture Shock and The Real Heaven. Chip and his wife, Theresa, have four grown children and twelve grandchildren and live in California.

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