Unity In Christ
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Who am I? It is my guess that everyone here has at sometime struggled with that question. You look out into the world and you just don’t fit. You feel like the only one who seems off or out of place. Maybe you have looked out at others and been like “Why can’t I be like them?” Have you ever searched for your identity?
When we use the word identity today, it is used as a way to describe the unique combinations of physical traits, behavioral patters, beliefs and social roles. When a person says “they identify as” they are communicating that I belong with this group. This is who I believe that I am.
What we see today is that people are identifying as all sorts of things because there is a deep desire to belong to something. It is heavily based on self perception.
When you start to look at the different categories that people group themselves in, you will find categories like; personal identity, social identity, cultural identity, and even interest. Each person finds their unique personal view of each of these and then proclaims to the world this is who I am today.
What is interesting is that a word that is used today to define where I belong ends up creating an infinite number of ways to define uniqueness.
It could be said that the world has always been in an identity crisis. Always seeking to find that place of belonging but never truly finding it. It seems that today is no different.
But what about the saint of God. A Christian. A disciple. A follower of God. Who are we? Does God have anything to say about the characteristics of our lives? Is there any truths in the holy scriptures that reveal where we belong? Are there any words from the heavenly breath of God that tell us who we are?
Let us turn to his word today and hear from him this morning.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Made New in Christ
Made New in Christ
When I call myself a Christian what do I mean? When you call yourself a Christian what do you mean? Have ever met someone who doesn’t have the same definition of Christian as you do? Do we have the authority to define what Christian means or does the right fall under God’s authority.
Today we are going to look at two words In Christ and see what the bible say about this group of people. “In Christ” a phrase repeated over an over in the bible. Who are those in christ?
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
There are thousands of categories that people place themselves in. Some are more important than others and some are sub categories of other groups. There are only two groups in the world that sit at the highest point of all distinctions of man. There are those that are “in Christ” and those that are still in the world. Those that need reconciliation and those who have been reconciled.
For if anyone is “in Christ” he is a new creation. A Christian has been changed, what they once were is no more, it has past away and the new has come.
This is a finished action. You have either been made new or you have not. There is no grey area in between. There are many religions that will put the work of salvation on the shoulders of a man or woman. They will say that you have to pray enough, or give enough, be selfless enough, you have to be moral enough. They communicate that you are still you, just get better.
But this is not what God’s word says
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Those that are new creations have been justified freely by God’s grace.
A Christian is one who has been made new by the grace of God though faith in Christ.
Everyone is filled with sin. Everyone cannot be good enough to get to stand before God and be justified before him to be found right before the moral law of God. But those that have been made new have been justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
To be a Christian is to be a person that will never see the condemnation that all sinners deserve. For being made new by God is not a reward for effort but a grace of God for those who believe.
18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
It is about faith and belief as we are justified by faith.
15 We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,” 16 and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
A Christian is one who is justified by faith in Christ
To be made right before God, by God, for God. When a person comes to see the depth of their sin before the Lord they will start to be burdened with an increasing realization of the result of their sin before a holy God. They recognize that their sin has separated them from God and that they are in need of a savior. In need of God to save them from the just punishment for their ungodliness. When they believe that God’s son, that the man on the cross died to reconcile them back to God they will confess to God their need to be made new. To be saved.
8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.
Nothing is of value compared to knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. A personal Lord that gives his own righteousness to those that have faith. Those that are grafted into the vine.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
The picture that Jesus paints here is of a growing vine that is being pruned by the heavenly gardener. The branches that remain in Christ and Christ in them will produce fruit. As there is life in the vine. There is no life without Jesus for he is life, he sustains all life, he gives live to the living.
22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Made alive because of the events of 2000 years ago when an innocent man, willingly went to the cross to pay the penalty that sinful men deserved. To save a people for himself.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
A Christian is one who has been made alive in Christ
For...
Reconciled in Christ
Reconciled in Christ
18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
Everything is from God. Everything that is created in this new creation is from God. Once again pushing out the “we must work for it” mentality.
It was God who reconciled us to himself. The Greek work for reconciled is a completed action that has been acted upon the recipient by God. It is over and done never to be changed. God does the work on the one who has faith through Christ.
To reconcile means to restore to favor or to bring into a right relationship. God restores a right relationship through the death of Jesus on the cross. Without the sacrifice of Jesus there would be no right relationship with God.
When we reconcile our relationships we have to be the one who acts. But here God acts of his own will to bring man into favor with himself through himself.
10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
We have recieved this reconciliation from God. The second distinction of a Christian is
A Christian is one who has been brought into favor and right relationship with God through Christ.
What does it look like to be in a right relationship with God? Our relationships tend to be estranged, struggling, filled with conflict, unreconciled, and unhealthy. So what does a right right relationship with God look like? Who am I in Christ?
We are children of God.
12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.
Each child is a part of a family and who that family is means something. Back in the past who your parents were, what your lineage was played a large role in your life. Those that have recieved the son, he gave them the right to be children. Believe and become. Born again not by flesh in natural birth, or by any action of man, but because God himself chose to make them his children.
4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.
Adopted into the Father’s family. The other father is the father of the world,
44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
Which family does a person belong too. For there are only two.
10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.
In the family there is an inheritance that is passed down from the father to his children. Those that are of the family of the devil will inherit the same punishment as he will receive in the end.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
But those that are of the family of God will receive the inheritance as an heir of God.
6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Christians are not only brought into the family of God as heirs but also brought into the kingdom as fellow citizens.
19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords has made you a citizen of his heavenly kingdom. He has taken you from an enemy to being at peace with him.
This is why we are ambassadors of this message of reconciliation, for we have seen the savor, he has washed away my sins, brought me into his house hold and into his kingdom.
There isn’t enough time today to go through all of the ways in which he has changed our position. As he is building us into a holy temple, a place for his Spirit to dwell.
22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
A Christian has been adopted into the family of God through Christ.
Forgiven in Christ
Forgiven in Christ
19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
God is reconciling people the forgiveness of trespasses and sins. This is a continual action of God. One who is in Christ is continually having their account of sin not counted. He has become sin so that we might become the righteous. God laid our punishment on him in our place.
6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
He bore the wrath we deserved so that we might live.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
By his wounds we have been healed. That we might have our debt of sin put on Christ as we are forgiven of our sin of our transgression.
A third distinction of a Christian is
A Christian has been forgiven of their sin against God in Christ by bearing it on the cross.
Righteous in Christ
Righteous in Christ
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We have spoken here in great detail about the righteousness of God as we have examined to book of Romans. That no one is righteous not even one. That God does not ask that we clean up before he reconciles us. He doesn’t make us pass a test, or perform a great feat of morality. We couldn’t do it. We would fail and falter if is was up to our own effort.
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
What a great mystery that the holy God would make sinners righteous by dying on the cross for them. So that they would have a righteousness that is not their own.
… so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.
A Christian has been made righteous by God in Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I asked this at the beginning if you like me have ever wondered or struggled with who you are. What is my identity? Where do I belong?
There one question a person must ask themselves before any other. Am I “In Christ?”
Why is this the first question? Because it is the dividing wall of those that are reconciled or separated, redeemed or condemned, dead or alive, sons and daughters or orphans, sheep or goats, wheat or tares, righteous or unrighteous, redeemed or not, lost or saved.
Are you “in Christ” or not. Do you believe that God saved you from the punishment of your sin by sending Jesus to die on the cross to save you from your just punishment?
Those who attempt to find who they are in their fallen sin will find that there will be more and more separation. More and more categories, more and more identities. More and more division.
But those that are in Christ will find a different experience. They will find that the more the come to understand who they are as sinners and who God is as savior and how God work in those that he has saved, they will find that what comes is unity with others and with God.
62% of our country professes to be a Christian but when you look at the word of God and how they live many times we come to the conclusion that “I don’t think you know the meaning of that word”
We must know what that word means. Just today we saw the following.
A Christian is one who has been made new by the grace of God though faith in Christ.
A Christian is one who is justified by faith in Christ
A Christian is one who has been made alive in Christ
A Christian is one who has been brought into favor and right relationship with God through Christ.
A Christian has been adopted into the family of God through Christ.
A Christian has been forgiven of their sin against God in Christ by bearing it on the cross.
A Christian has been made righteous by God in Christ.
As Christians we are to grow to look more and more like the one who saved us. We are to mature and grow in likeness of Jesus.
28 We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
We will find that we are being built into something greater than ourselves.
4 Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, 5 in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
It is interesting that the word that is used to describe uniqueness in our culture today comes from a root that means sameness or consistency. It was first used in science to describe the laws and rules of science that are constant and unchanging like Newtons Laws or in mathematical identities.
They are equations that are always true and never change. This is the true idea of our identity as Christian. We look to see where he has acted on our lives and changed us in Christ. These are never changing and create sameness among believers.
As we grow in our God given identity we will find a sameness and a consistency in who we are as we look more and more like our savior every day.
Prayer
Benediction
5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.
