Identity - You are New in Christ
Who are you? If I were to take you out to lunch today after the service, and ask you that question, “Who are you?” how would you answer that question?
My guess is that a lot of you would try to tell me about what you do…
I’m a student…I’m a baseball player…I play in the band…or I’m a business owner, a teacher, or a software engineer…My guess is that a lot of you would define who you are by what it is that you do.
Now if you didn’t go there, the other way you might answer would be to tell me about a role you have… “Who are you?”
Oh, I’m a wife/husband, a mom/dad, a grandparent. Or you might say that you are a member of the school board or I’m a Sunday School teacher or member of a ministry team or something like that…you’d talk about a role or various roles you have.
But some of you, if you were asked the question, “Who are you?” you might even go back to your past…and you might not verbalize it, but in your mind you would think…
“Oh I’m a prom queen, or I’m a valedictorian, or a football captain from my high school state championship team. In other words, we would go back to things in our past that we are proud of and find value and worth in and we would identify ourselves and who we are with those things.
But for some of you, if you were asked that question, “Who are you?” you might not go to something that you were successful in from your past or even right now in the present but you would say things like…
“I’m a loser, I’m unpopular, I’m a failure, or something like, “I’m divorced/ugly/nobody.”
And these could be things you think about yourself b/c of ways you’ve performed in life…mistakes you’ve made, or b/c of things that have happened to you or things that someone has said about you.
And so there are a number of ways we each try to answer the question, “Who are you?”…which is an identity question. We are trying to define who we are.
But are we really what we do?
Are we really the things people say about us or the things we think about ourselves?
Are we really defined ultimately by a role we have right now in this moment or by one that is in our past or even by one we might be able to achieve at some point in our future?
I don’t think so…as a matter of fact I know so b/c Scripture communicates something different…
And this is something I’ve personally struggled with for a lot of my life, but when I finally began to see all of the wonderful truths about identity in Scripture…
I stopped wrestling near as much as I have before about my identity and found peace/rest.
But something else happened too…it began to change how I lived the Christian life, my actions.
And it did that b/c of this principle: We act out of what we believe. To put it another way…What we believe about ourselves is the greatest influencer of our actions.
So I am excited about this series…and the place I want to start is w/spiritual anatomy…
This slide reminds us of the consequences of sin in each one of our lives as a result of sin. Paul says in Romans 5:12…
12 Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death came to all people.
Sin results in spiritual death. We are all separated from a holy and perfect God who cannot be in the presence of sin… and that’s a problem b/c we as you can see from this next slide…
That leaves us all in a position where we are having to search for the life we are missing on the inside out in the world. Paul says in Eph. 2…
you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air
Because we’ve been separated from God who we were meant to be in a spiritual union with at the core of our being and drawing life and meaning from Him, then the only choice we have is to go looking for it in the world…
And this includes our identity…who we really are…how we define ourselves. We were meant to be defined by who we are in union with God but b/c we are separated from Him, now we have to go looking out in the world to define ourselves and to manufacture an identity…
And so we look out into the world and we see that we have to fight/crawl & perform to earn an identity…we have to land certain roles to define who we are…we have to use people and manipulate them to find worth and value…
It means that we are a slave to what other people think of us and say about us…and what we do and what’s been done to us b/c this is how we define ourselves and find our identity…
But it’s all a lie of course…it’s a lie from Satan that our identity comes from what we do or what we think or what other people think about us.
Because those things can’t change who we are…
I mean just b/c I bark like a dog doesn’t make me a dog. I mean I could perform all day long like a dog and walk around on my hands and knees and chase cats and eat dog food, but guess what? Every one of you would see me doing that and say, “But Jason, you aren’t a dog!” And you’d be right, b/c no amount of me performing like a dog, thinking I’m a dog, or even if someone else called me a dog would actually make me a dog!
But this is the lie that Satan has all of us believing…that we are what we do, what we think about ourselves, or what other people say about us…and we believe it b/c this is what we see out in the world and we are slaves to it.
But the good news of course is that Jesus came into this world and took all of our sins upon Him to pay the penalty for them through His death on the cross and rose from the dead 3 days later, defeating the power of sin/death forever…
and by grace, He offers us the forgiveness He purchased for us if we’ll receive it by placing our faith in Him as our Lord and Savior.
And when we do, not only are we forgiven but the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us as we see in this next slide…
13 …When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession (Eph 1:13-14)
And with the Holy Spirit coming into our lives, Scripture tells us that all kinds of things took place at the core of our being as we see in this next slide
In Gal. 2:20, Paul talks about having been crucified with Christ and that we no longer live but Christ lives in us…
In 2 Cor. 5:17, he talks about how we’ve become new creations in Christ.
And in Eph. 2:4, he talks about how we’ve been made alive in Christ… we were spiritually dead, but now we are alive and have new life in Christ.
And this means that we have a new IDENTITY. In Romans 6:4, Paul says…
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Our old self died…was crucified with Christ (6:6)…and we’ve been raised with Christ into someone new…we have a new identity in Christ.
I’ve shared this before already I think, but it’s the difference between Batman and Spider-Man. Batman has an identity that comes from external stuff…He has cool gadgets and weapons and through his outward strength and external possessions he draws his identity as batman…but Spiderman is different. He was bitten by a radioactive spider and his nature was changed. He now has a new power in Him, that is a part of him now.
And in your union with Christ, you are more like Spider-Man than Batman. Something alien to you, from outside of you, has entered into you and changed your nature!
You now have a new identity in Christ, and God wants you to know it! That’s why He communicates all of the New Testament about who you’ve become and your identity in Christ…Let’s look at a few of them…
A child of God - But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name. John 1:12
Justified and redeemed - Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24
Righteous – 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17
Holy - Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved… Colossians 3:12
Loved - And this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10
Accepted - To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:6
A saint - Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. Phil. 1:1
Completely Forgiven - In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 1:7
Dead to sin - And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 1 Peter 2:24
A temple of the Holy Spirit - Do you now know that you are the temple of the God and that the Spirit of god dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16
A member of Christ’s body - Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 1 Corinthians 12:27
God’s workmanship - For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
A citizen of heaven - For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20
A royal priesthood - But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9-10
Joint Heir w/Christ – 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Romans 8:16-17
Complete - And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:10
Did you know that this was true about you if you are in Christ? This is your identity! This is who you are!
You are not defined by what you do, or what you think about yourself or by what other people say about you…You are who God says you are!
And you may not feel this way all of the time, but it’s true…And that is why we are told to renew our minds to the truth and to focus on things above, not on earthly things as Paul says in Col. 3:2…
And I want you to see why…Paul says this in 2 Cor. 4:18…
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
So in this verse, as you can see in this next slide, there are two truths that we see, Paul talking about here…
There is a seen, temporal realm and there is an unseen eternal realm. (btw, these diagrams are not mine…these all come from books or other people that I’ve seen teach on this)…
So I have put a line up here on the screen to represent this. Now of course there is really no such thing as a line…these 2 realms coexist but because we think in concepts it helps to separate these two realities with a line to understand them better.
But as we look at these, then obviously the eternal realm is changeless and timeless, it is the realm of ultimate reality, where completeness and wholeness reside.
While the temporal realm is the created realm of matter and appearances, it has a beginning and an end.
And out of these two realms, what Paul is saying here is to fix our eyes on the unseen, eternal realm…and here’s why…because this is now where you reside if you are in Christ.
We already read Phil. 3:20 where Paul says that you are a citizen of heaven, but look at Colossians 3…
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God
So, when we think about this, one way to visualize it, is what we see in this next slide…
If we are in union with Christ, and Jesus is eternal and sitting at the right hand of the Father, then you and I are spiritually already secure and seated there as well…
And so when we talk about our identity and who we are in Christ, this is changeless and eternal. We don’t have to worry about how we perform, what other people say about us, or what we sometimes think about ourselves in this changing world, because our identity is set in stone…
And so this is why it is so important to know your identity in Christ & what God ultimately thinks about you b/c it will make a difference in your walk with Him & the way you live your life. Listen to what Ralph Harris says in his book, “God’s Astounding Opinion of You.” He’s talking about resting in your identity and experiencing the abundant life of Christ, and he says…
It begins with knowing what God thinks of you. At a seemingly record pace, God is making new and fantastic sons and daughters, tremendous children of his glory through the new birth in Christ. How thrilling is the church, and how thrilling are you! One moment we're in serious trouble with God, and next were spot on perfect, and dwelt by God himself, residents of heaven already, the people of God's delight. What it change! Yet most days the change makes little difference to us. We've lost (or have never known) the wonder of the miracle that began with Jesus “the first born, among many brothers.” (Ro. 8:29)
Why? Because we’ve been deluded into making a lunatic argument with God. The argument is not so much about who he is and what he is capable of doing. It's about who we are and our role in his plan. While he thinks one thing: holy, righteous, blameless, and majestic sons and daughters walking the planet, we think something else - something way less. God’s opinion of us and our opinion of ourselves don't agree. With that disagreement as our starting point, it's not hard to imagine why our experience with God falls short of our inheritance…
But as He increasingly wins you over to His way of thinking about you, you’ll increasingly live as you really are because you’ll know who you really are. When your opinion of yourself matches up with God’s opinion of you, and when who you are lines up with how you live, the glory of God will be stunningly evident! And you’ll be living by faith.
So let’s learn more about who we are in Christ this summer and let’s believe what God says about who we are in Christ so that we can truly rest in Him and depend on Him and begin to live out who we really are in Him!
And if you’ve never accepted Christ but want to receive His free gift of salvation and the new identity He brings to you, then I’m going to pray and give you a chance to receive His free gift of salvation today.
