Confident - Our Identity in Christ

Part 2 - Redeemed and Chosen

1 Peter 2:9-10

Recap last week

We are Living Stones. God is building us into a Spiritual Temple that is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.

We are not everything we are going to be yet, because God is still building us up into this Spiritual Temple

God is the One doing the building, however, there is some responsibility on our part of offering up spiritual sacrifices unto the Lord by being separated from the world and unto God

Your identity in Christ doesnt stop there though, Peter tells us in V. 9 that we are a “Chosen Generation” and in V. 10 that we are now the “people of God”. In other Words, we are Redeemed and Chosen in Jesus Christ! Lets dive into what that means

The word “Redeemed” simply means “to buy back”. All of you in here have probably redeemed a gift card or a reward from somewhere. In essence, when you are doing that, someone else has paid the price for it and you are simply claiming what has already been purchased. So when the Bible says we are Redeemed, it means that Someone else (Christ) has purchased us and He is claiming what He purchased.

I. Redeemed by His Blood (1 Peter 1:13-21)

V. 18 says that we were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold. What does that mean? It means that we were purchased, but not with money or anything that can be corrupted.

We were purchased by the precious blood of Christ! When Jesus suffered and died upon the Cross, the blood He shed was used to purchase our redemption from sin and make us free!

Because we have been purchased, it means that if we are saved, then we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ!

We are WANTED by Christ - you typically dont spend money on things you dont want. And what Christ spent was so much more valuable than money, it was His own blood, his own LIFE!

Why is His blood so valuable? Because it comes from a lamb without blemish and without spot. It came from the Sinless Son of God! If He was not sinless, His blood would be just as worthless as mine or yours.

Because of this truth, God calls us to a Higher standard of living. Jesus did not shed His precious blood so that we could continue to live like garbage!

“From your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers” = this carried the idea of trying to earn merit and favor with God by our actions. This is impossible! Nothing you or I can do or say will earn us any more favor with God than we already have as believers

Jesus pleased God FOR you. And if His blood has been applied to your life through salvation, then you have all the merit and favor you will ever need!

God is not like that girl/boy in school that you are trying to impress. He is already completely satisfied with you because He is satisfied with Christ!

V. 20 = The plan of redemption was not a last minute plan that God came up with after mankind messed things up in the garden of Eden. Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world to be this sacrifice for us!

This means that long before you or I or anyone else ever came into existence, God already had a plan to redeem us! He knew we would mess up and yet still loved and cared enough about us to come up with a plan to redeem us from sin!

We can take courage in knowing that even if no one else in this world wants us or cares about us, that Jesus was thinking about you before the foundation of the world and already planned to shed His precious blood for you!

II. Redeemed from the Law (Galatians 3:1-14)

Here in Galatians, the Apostle Paul is writing to a group of Christians who had started out right, but somewhere along the way had lost sight of their identity in the Lord Jesus Christ.

They began developing the mentality that Grace was not enough. That they needed to have faith in Christ AND works in order to be right with God.

When we get to Verse 11, Paul reminds them that we are justified by faith and NOT the Law.

Justification = Just if i never sinned. The cleaning of our record before God. Being found innocent of all counts. (Romans 3:24)

We can only find justification by FAITH, and not by our WORK of keeping the Law.

The purpose of the Law was to show us how we cannot live up to the standard of perfection and that we need a Savior. That is where faith comes in. Paul is reminding us that if we started out by faith, then we continue to live by faith. We dont get saved and then try to stay saved or try to earn more favor with God by our works.

Even the Jews themselves (who played a part in leading the Galatians astray) recognized that noone can be truly justified by following the law, and that is why they leaned so heavily on their lineage to Abraham. But Paul used Abraham as an example of Justification by Faith, not by works. And the TRUE children of Abraham are not necessarily ones born jewish, but ones that are part of the family of faith.

We are now free from the curse of the Law because Christ became a curse for us (v. 13) He took the curse of the Law and sin upon Himself so we could be free from it.

You dont have to work to stay saved or to stay right with God. If our journey began in faith, it will continue in faith. The Just shall live by faith!

The Just = the Saved are the ones who live this way. Unsaved people cannot live by faith because they do not possess it

Shall live = The saved live perpetually by faith. It is not a one time decision of faith but a daily walk of faith

by faith = not by works but by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For by Grace are ye saved through faith and NOT of works!

This is something I can relate to and sometimes struggle with. We beat ourselves up when we feel like we arent “good enough”. We feel like we arent doing enough for God and it causes us to be discouraged and maybe even feel like we arent even truly saved. But when we do that, we are basing our justification, our righteousness on what we DO and not WHO WE ARE!

IF we have been born again, there is no need to TRY to earn acceptance anymore! He accepts you just as much on your worst day as He does on your best day because the Righteousness of Christ has been placed upon you! Live in the freedom of that truth today and every day!

III. Redeemed into His Family (1 Peter 2:9-10)

We have been chosen. Meaning God CHOSE us to be His children! This doesnt mean that He pre-selected us to be His children and decided not to choose others. It simply means that God wanted us and He did what was necessary to make us His. And He wants everyone, but each person has to decide if they want to be His because He will not force them to be His.

Maybe youre the type that never gets chosen for anything or maybe youre always picked last, but the good news is that God chose you before the foundation of the World. The Creator of the Universe CHOSE you to be His child. That is some very encouraging news!

V. 10 = Before you came to Christ, you were “not a people”. You had no place in this world and had no true purpose, but now you have been adopted into the family of God where you are loved, accepted, and given purpose of life!

You were a spiritual “orphan”, but then Christ came and Chose you to be part of His family. Notice it does not say you CHOSE Him, because in our sinful hearts, we never would choose Christ. But Christ CHOSE us!

We love Him, because He first loved us!

Before you met Christ you had not obtained mercy, you were under the condemnation of God. But now you HAVE obtained mercy, now you no longer are under condemnation but under His blessing and favor!

To Put it as simply as we can, your identity in the Lord is this: You are His child!

And as His children we ought to act like Him, love Him, and live for Him

My son mimics my faces and sounds = he is trying to be like his daddy

I love my son with an indescribable love and would do anything for him = I am his dad

I also protect my son = I am his dad and he is my son

I want to give my son the best = I am his dad and he is my son

I sometimes have to punish my son = I am his dad and he is my son

The same thing applies to us and God. If ME, a sinful man, want all these things for my child, how much more does God, who is perfect, want for His children. (Luke 11:13 “13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” )

Now that you belong to Christ, that is the only thing you have to be... His!

Conclusion

To understand our identity in the Lord Jesus Christ we must understand these 3 things. That Christ redeemed us by His blood, That He redeemed us from the Law, and He redeemed us into His family.

You belong to Jesus, Let us live every single day with that in mind. Let us give God all of what He paid for, and that is our entire lives, not just a large portion of it!

If you are not saved or are unsure if you are, I encourage you to talk to myself before the night is over because the greatest thing that you can be is a Child of God! Christ shed His blood for you, He wants you to be free from sin and the burden of “trying” to be right with Him, and He wants you to be His child and be part of His family! Come to Him tonight!