A Created Being
Identified: Who I Am Because of Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction: As we look back into history we find that people were often given names in order to be associated with a certain identity. For example, Esau was identified with the fact that he was hairy while Jacob was identified with the fact that he was a deceiver. As time went on people began to be associated with their vocation and eventually this vocation even became attached to them as a surname. Back in the day you might have entered into a conversation about John. “Well,” you might think, “ which John?” “The John who is a Carpenter,” was the reply. Eventually this was shortened to just John Carpenter. Many surnames that exist today came about in this way. For example, consider the following list: Mason, Taylor, Hunter, Tanner, Baker, Archer, Bowman, Carter and etc . . . .
Even today, although our surnames are now given to us by our families, we identify ourselves with that part of us that is most prominent or that we consider to be most valuable. In a few years you will likely head off to college and when you meet people for the first time you will undoubtedly ask them what they are studying. If they are a guy and they are studying art you will then automatically assign certain attributes to them based on the stereotype of what you believe a male art major looks like. So, based on that identification you might conclude that they are going to dress a little funny, you will randomly find them staring at inanimate objects as they plan their next sketch, if they happen to be your roommate you can expect them to turn on the lights at 5:00 am in order to finish their sketches for class that they likely procrastinated on, etc . . . .
More seriously, someone who struggles in school or sports might identify themselves as a failure, or someone who is the best athlete out of a twenty person high school might label themselves as an athlete, and even though we might identify ourselves with these labels and attributes that is not who we are.
Though we all have a tendency to label ourselves based on our own experiences, as Christians our identity is to be found based on the truth of what our relationship to Christ is. Over the next eight weeks it will be our goal to become aware of what our position and identity is in relationship to Christ so that when we answer the question, “Who Am I?,” our answer is based on what it means to be in Christ.
When we look to begin to answer the question of who we are in Christ we must start with the most basic truth about ourselves: we are created beings.
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
As we consider what it means to be a created being two realities will come into sharp focus: as created beings we are both dependent on God and accountable to God.
Dependent on God
Dependent on God
All creatures are dependent on God.
Food
Food
Psalm
The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And You give them their food in due season.
You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Although the Bible tell us that we are totally dependent on Him for our food God has also ordained that man work for his own food.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
Since man has been working for his own food for so long man has come to a point where he believes that he can be independent from God. Just as the men at the Tower of Babel believed, we, as a society, believe that we can meet our own physical needs through our own hard work or our own business savvy which provides us with the money we need to buy food.
God has always been fully aware of this danger in the hearts of men.
Deuteronomy
who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’
“And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’
“And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Today, just as it was true for the Israelites, God provides for our daily food. Yes, we might have refrigerators and we stock up on food for maybe a week or so at a time, but we are dependent on God to keep those things running as well.
Example: Hurricane Sandy
Life and Breath
Life and Breath
Even more basic and moment by moment than our need for food is our need to breath.
Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
My times are in Your hand;
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies,
And from those who persecute me.
Example: Dallas McCarver
Plans
Plans
As much as some of us like to control every detail of what goes on in our lives, the reality is that we are totally dependent on God to help us accomplish our goals and plans.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
Now something to observe here is that James is not saying that we shouldn’t make plans, however he is condemning the mindset that assumes that we can accomplish our own plans in our own time and by our own power apart from the provision of God.
Abilities
Abilities
We are dependent on God for our spiritual gifts and our physical talents.
For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
We have all heard stories of those who are self-made professionals who pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and made themselves from nothing into something, yet every ability we have is due to the graciousness of God. The world rejects this truth but it is a truth that we must accept if we are to live well and live honestly with ourselves.
We are Physically Fragile
We are Physically Fragile
All of us know the reality of being physically fragile.
How many of you have ever gotten injured?
How many of you have every gotten sick when you didn’t want to?
Proverbs 27:1
Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.
Because we are fragile we must come to the realization of how dependent we are on God.
Accountable to God
Accountable to God
In addition to being totally dependent on God we are also accountable to God. Because we have the ability to know right from wrong we also have the ability to obey or disobey.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis
Once Adam was informed he then knew that eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was wrong and with that he had the option to either abstain and obey or eat and disobey - making him accountable to God. Later we see Cain being held accountable for the murder of his brother and Israel being held accountable for the keeping of the Law, etc . . . .
Psalm 119:
You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.
The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
So, we see that from the creation of the world all the way to the very end of time that man is held accountable before God.
In 1991 a book was published called The Day America Told the Truth. In the book James Patterson and Peter Kim record their findings from traveling the United States and interviewing people about their private lives and moral standards. In the end, Patterson and Kim concluded that each person in America has developed their own Ten Commandments in order to escape their accountability before God. It is obvious that this is the attitude of the world we live in. As Christians, we need to be careful to remember that we are accountable before God or else it can become easy to begin to think that as long as we don’t kill anyone or commit open adultery that we are righteous on our own.
Conclusion: So, what does this mean for us? 1). The realization that we are totally dependent on God should produce humility in us. When we live according to the truth that we are created beings who are totally dependent on their creator then their is no room whatsoever for our lives to be dominated by pride. The thought that we are accountable to God for every action and every thought and the realization of how often we fail to honor God should also produce humility. 2). The realization that we are dependent on and accountable to God should produce in us a deep and profound gratitude to God. Thankful that we exist and are given talents by God, and also thankful that Christ has taken on Himself the accountability for all of our sins and has paid the penalty for our every disobedience.
