Identity in Christ

The concept of identity has been a significant subject in recent years. Even in recent news there has been much discussed of gender identity. And this has become for many people, the most important thing about them. Even to the extent that if you don’t affirm how they feel then you are a hateful bigot and you have oppressed them. For these people their identity, their pronouns are the most important thing about them.

Now identity is a good thing, but where you draw your identity from is also important. And where you draw your identity from will shape how you live your life.

Where do you find your identity?

There may be many different things that you use to define yourself. Maybe husband, or wife. Father or mother. American. Even your vocation may be an important part of your identity. But what is the most important aspect of your identity?

Colossians is a book that deals a lot with identity.

Most specifically: The identity of Jesus - that he is Lord of all creation, and he is Lord of the church.

That there is salvation in no one else.

But two weeks ago, we also saw The identity of the church - the church is a body, and Christ is the head of the Church.

The New Testament, identifies people in one of two ways:

dead in your trespasses and sins

or alive in Christ.

You’re either in Christ, or out.

And Paul begins this text with reminding the reader of who they used to be.

Our Default Identity

Look at verse 21

Colossians 1:21 ESV

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

“who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.”

Once, demonstrating that this is not the title of the Christian anymore. If you have turn from your sins and trusted in Christ - then you are not defined by you sins anymore.

Paul begins this section by demonstrating that the former identity that sinners had, has changed.

This is sort of the danger of recovery programs that indefinitely refer to someone as a “recovering alcoholic.” That is defining yourself by what you used to be. Rather than what you are now. I understand why they do this… but what does the Bible tell us?

If the King has set you free, then you are free indeed.

There is no condemnation left in Christ Jesus.

Make wise decisions, forsake your former sins, but do not define yourselves by what Christ has forgiven you of.

We are often so quick to condemn ourselves, and others, for things that Christ has nailed to his cross. If Jesus isn’t going to condemn them anymore than you have no place to do so either. If Jesus isn’t going to condemn you for that thing then let the guilt go.

This is an application of the gospel. Remembering that the former sins that you ONCE committed - no longer condemn you.

And this is key in the realm of Biblical Counseling. So many of the issues that are involved in counseling can be resolved for the Christian by remembering who Jesus is, and what he has done.

Guilt, anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD, and many of the other mental health issues of our day find their resolution in the application of the gospel.

We are only reminded of our sins so that we might glorify him for how much he has forgiven us. 

We are reminded of our sins not to push ourselves down, but only to lift him up.

Paul only reminds his reader of their former sins so that he might remind them of the wonder of what Christ has done for them. They were once those things… but Jesus has reconciled them. So that they might be presented as something better.

Colossians 1:21–22 ESV

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

But in order to present us as holy and blameless and above reproach something had to be done.

Our default identity before God is that we are sinners. Outside of Christ, we are alienated… separated from God because of our sins. God is Holy and hates sin, and sin must be punished. Outside of Christ we are dead in our trespasses and sins, bound toward hell.

Reconciliation was necessary because we were estranged. Reconciliation is the bringing back of two separated parties. That is what Christ does in his body of flesh by his death. The redeemer had to be truly man so that he might take the punishment that sinful humans deserved.

This is what Jesus did on the cross. The only man

I read a helpful illustration of this in the devotional that I am reading, Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung. He uses the illustration of an exam or a test in order to rate how well we keep God’s commands.

“We took the test of obedience to God’s law and we got an F. Jesus took to the test of obedience and God an A+. God is a fair teacher. He can’t give us an A+ just because he likes our smile. We have to get what we deserve. And an F deserves his wrath.”

DeYoung continues, “But that’s not the end of the story, because by faith we are joined to Christ. Consequently, instead of giving us the wrath we deserve for our G, God deserved that Christ’s A+ would be credited to us, and our F would be credited to Christ. He got what we deserved so that we can get what he deserves And in that way, God and sinners are reconciled.”

The punishment for our F is that we deserve death. But Jesus willingly took to the cross that he might reconcile us to God.

And in this reconciliation to God, Jesus gives us a new identity. If you are in Christ, if you have repented

Now to some of you this might sound like - yes, this is basic Christianity. But when we forget this we find ourselves overridden with guilt over past sins or we find ourselves feel the need to do more to earn our salvation… forgetting that it is a free gift of grace.

But for those who have placed their faith in Jesus and have turned away from their sins - they are no longer those who were alienated and hostile in mind and doing evil deeds.

Our New Identity

The Purpose for which Paul teaches reconciliation is because of how it shapes a new identity in us.

Though we were once hostile toward God, Jesus makes his disciples into a new creation.

So that we might be presented holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

That phrase “holy and blameless and above reproach” models the format of the old identity with three characteristics.

To be Holy and blameless is to be set apart, called out of our sinfulness. If you are in Christ, you should live a life that is marked by doing good deeds in response to the gospel message that you believe. Because Jesus died and rose again, because he was punished for your sins - so you preach the gospel to others, so you love your neighbor as yourself, you pray for your enemies, you volunteer your time to help others, you give to the poor, you care orphans and widows, your bring food to the sick… you do good for the least of these as if you were doing it unto Christ.

The language of holy and blameless here connects to the language of the levitical law. The reason for why Old Testament sacrificial system was in order for God to dwell in the midst of the people of Israel, their sins had to be punished. Either

Simul Justus Et Peccator

Martin Luther coined a useful phrase “Simul Justus et Peccator”…

And while that’s latin, it is much closer to our language that you might think

Simul - simultaneously

Justus - just, justified, righteous

Et - Yet, and or also… consider Julius Caesar’s words to Brutus when he was betrayed… Et Tu Brute

Peccator… this means sinner… the word impeccable has this root… though obviously that is the opposite of how it is used here.

Simultaneously justified but yet a sinner. Paul does not latch to the identity of sinner but rather of one who was once a sinner, now holy and blameless.

So more helpfully in english that would mean:

Simultaneously Righteous Yet a Sinner

Both a Saint and a sinner.

In one sense, all of us are still sinners even if we are in Christ Jesus. We still sin each and every day, and we still ought to look to Christ in repentance for each of those sins.

But also we are already forgiven in Christ Jesus. We are declared righteous because of his work of reconciliation on the cross. We are granted the perfect righteousness of Christ through the imputation of Jesus righteousness on us. In the gospel our sin is imputed on Christ - it is the placing of our sins on Christ, and his righteousness is imputed, or placed, upon us.

Already/Not Yet… We are already declared righteous - but we are not yet removed from our sinful flesh.

importance of once. If you are in Christ this is not your identity anymore.

But there is still a condition that Paul gives here for our new identity in Christ. And that condition is endurance.

On One Condition

Colossians 1:23 ESV

23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

1:23 - the only way believers will be presented holy faultless and blameless is if they do not abandon their faith as presented in the gospel. 

Paul is encouraging them to endure in the gospel, and yet also warning against what we today might call “Easy Believism”. The idea that someone can half heartedly say a prayer they don’t really believe, and it serves as fire insurance.

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone not by works so that anyone may boast. However, the faith that saves is never alone. The good works of the gospel include endurance… and not shifting to other gospels. Not shifting to believe in other things that are of higher importance than Christ. We previously read in Colossians that Jesus is preeminent - that Jesus is first in all things.

Shifting from the hope of gospel…

True saving faith is proved by a life of faithful endurance in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

or as JI Packer stated it “The only proof of past conversion is present convertedness.”

To draw this to an example very close to home - I have heard many examples of someone in the community who was raised in the church or who grew up going to AWANA but they have wandered far from the church. They learned all their verses, they got awards. Maybe they said a prayer, or made a decision… but then they disappeared… and when you run into them the little interact you have with them is far from Christian.

(Youth Group… Travis… skirt)

This might even apply to some of your own children, or grandchildren… we want to believe that the faith that they showed there was sincere… but we know that their life does not match up to it. It may be possible that they never had true saving faith at all, it may be that they need to be rebuked and called back to church, and reminded of the gospel.

Unfortunately, in my experience with the American church there are scores of men and women who “grew up in church”, but no longer attend but have 0 understanding of the basics of the Christian faith.

Faith is not a one time thing… but rather a change of identity, a lifetime surrender marked by daily submission to Christ.

As we have seen previously, Paul loves this church dearly. And he is concerned for the members of the church in Colossae that they are wandering away from the true Gospel in to something other than true faith in Christ. This is the occasion for this letter they have a deficient view of Jesus. And Paul is encouraging them to stay the course. He wants them to have a correct doctrine of Christ, and to endure in that sound doctrine. It is a matter of life and death.

If they do not understanding Jesus, if they do not understand the importance of Jesus as the Lord of Creation, and the Lord of the church, then they will not understand the reconciliation that Jesus provides through his death, or why it is necessary.

And to truly know Jesus, is to live a life that is marked by obedience to his commands. Obedience to love your neighbor as yourself, obedience to make disciples, to proclaim the gospel, obedience to be baptized.

In verse 10, Paul speaks of walking in a manner worthy of the Lord.

Colossians 1:10 ESV

10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

True saving faith that endures is marked by walking in a manner worthy of the Lord bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

You cannot know Jesus and not have your life changed, you cannot know Jesus and continue to abound in sin. Someone who knows Jesus will seek to live their lives in a manner worthy of him.

You cannot know Jesus and not have a change of identity. But also important to that is that if you know Jesus you are not defined by your old self anymore.

So the questions that I would leave you today are:

Does an appropriate biblical understanding of Jesus shape the way in which you live your life? If you are a Christian it absolutely ought to.

Where do you draw your identity from?

What does it look like for us to walk in a manner worthy of one who in preeminent in all things?

And what does gospel endurance look like?