Those who remain unchanged after joining a church are likely never changed, holding onto their old selves hoping to have the perks of being with "church people" without ever confessing their sinfulness to be changed by Christ.
Christ will never change someone who does not want to be changed by Him.
Psalm 51:9-11 "…9 Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me."
2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!"
Romans 12:2
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God."
Titus 3:5
"He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."
If you tried to change yourself to take pride in what you have done, then you were never born again. It is only when Christ changes us that the change is real, lasting, and we are heaven-bound.
Many will think they are saved because they decided to be a Christian their own way, but were never saved. This is probably the most frightening passage in the Bible, the expectation of going to heaven only to be turned away by the Lord Himself.
Matthew 7:21-23
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
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