What is the goal of self-help? Simply, it is to become a better you. Most people, if not all people, desire to improve themselves. They wish they could be a better communicator, friend, athlete, chef, student, or even better looking. What might we as Christians say to a person outside of Christ who seeks to better themselves?

Image of God

It may be best to begin by framing the whole discussion of self-help under the image of God. In the beginning God created humans, male and female, in His image. We are not exact copies, but are nonetheless representatives of God that bear the marks of knowledge, righteousness, and holiness just like God.¹

Thus, if we desire to improve ourselves, we need to know what we are and where we came from. Self-help needs a baseline understanding of its nature. How can you improve upon something if you don’t even know what it is you are working with in the first place? How can ship makers take materials and build them into a ship if they don’t know what the materials are made out of?

Marred

Once self-help is framed under the truth of the image of God, it needs to understand what happened to that image. This good creation of God has become marred. The image has entered into a hopeless state of brokenness because of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden.

Now the image, of which we all still retain, is enslaved to sin and death. Thus, no amount of self-help can fix this problem. Indeed, you can help yourself by understanding principles of communication, by engaging in more physical exercise, or even by employing helpful technology. But none of those things can fix the root of the problem of sin that all humanity remains under.

Self-help in the face of our sinfulness becomes painfully limited and overshadowed by a much bigger problem that needs to be fixed. A person recognizes the house is in need of improvement, so they buy new paint and fixtures for each of the rooms. However, with a cracked foundation the paint and fixtures only help the house to look a little better, but they do not deal with the true issue. True self-help has to deal with the problem of sin. Everything else is a temporary band aid to this problem.

Born Again

With the reality set that we are all image bearers stuck under the bondage of sin and death, we can discuss true self-help. And true self-help or true biblical help is ironic, for it is not self-help at all. It is self-surrender. The Bible declares adamantly that all have sinned against God and fall short of His glory (Rom. 3:23). Not one person is good—not one (Rom. 3:10). No one seeks God and no one understands Him. There is nothing we can do to fix our condition, to please God, or to escape the judgment that is due all of us because of our sins.

But then God sent Jesus Christ on a rescue mission! And He became our only true help! By His perfect life of obedience under God’s law and His substitutionary death on the cross, we may now be forgiven, declared right with God, and born-again by the Spirit of God, whereby the image of God will begin to be restored in us.

True self-help is not self at all, but the grace of God making us new creations by faith in Jesus alone. Thus, true self-help begins by repenting of our sins and trusting in Jesus Christ as resurrected Lord. True self-help is turning from the self to Jesus and saying, “I can’t do this”. “I cannot make myself better; I cannot make myself righteous in your sight.” “I need your Son Jesus!” “I need the power of your Holy Spirit to change!” A person can no more truly help themselves before God than a leopard can change his own spots.

The Image of Jesus as the True Goal

Now that the image of God in us has been redeemed in Jesus, what is it supposed to improve to? The answer is Jesus. God predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). Therefore, self-help is not to create the image of ourselves that we want, but to be transformed into the likeness and character of God’s holy Son. We, by the power of the Holy Spirit, put off the old man (its attitudes and ways) and put on the new man (made to be like Jesus).

The image of God is important as a framework for self-help because it details the origin, the problem, the solution, and the goal of humanity. We were made to reflect God in all we do. And now, in a faith union with Jesus, we may actually begin to accomplish that by the sole grace of God. And one day God will accomplish this goal in His people, for John says (1 John 3:2), “[W]e know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

True Self Help

Self-help can be a noble effort to fix problems and do so with limited success. However, true self-help is found only in Jesus Christ, where He does what we could never do. The next time you run into self-help, frame the conversion around the image of God in creation, in the fall, in redemption, and in the consummation that is found only in Jesus. The gospel of Jesus Christ will be center stage!

Application: Commit the true self-help road to memory (like the Romans Road of old).

• You were made in the image of God - Gen. 1:27
• That image has become enslaved to sin and death - Rom. 3:23
• That image is redeemed only by faith in Jesus Christ - John 3:3
• The image is to become like Jesus Christ - Rom. 8:29

Let us as Christians “[T]rain…for godliness; ⁸for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Tim. 4:7–8