Our Identity

Intro

Brief overview of last weeks message, this is a continuation of Paul addressing Peter on his hypocrisy in the gospel by reminding him that salvation is by God’s grace and faith, not by works of the law.

I pray this message reaches any that have not completely surrendered themselves to Christ, if you have not experienced true joy in Jesus, that today is the day that you surrender everything to Him and experience the life that God has for you.

A summary of these scriptures is such:

acceptance with God is affected through a simple act of trust in Jesus Christ and not through anything else.

Galatians 2:15–21 ESV

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

When you do trust in Christ, and completely surrender to Him, you are made new, these are two truths I want to share with you today:

When you do trust in Christ, and completely surrender to Him, you are made new, these are two truths I want to share with you today:

In Christ, we have a new identity.

Truth number one is this, in Christ you have a new identity. This is where starts off, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” ().

New Self, No Condemnation

There is a beautiful truth that we need to first focus on this morning, having a new identity means that your old self is gone. You have died to your old self. What does this mean for us?

There is a beautiful truth that we need to first focus on this morning, having a new identity means that your old self is gone. You have died to your old self. What does this mean for us?

This means all of our sins, past, present, and future, are taken care of in the person and work of Christ, so that if there is accusation against you, “No way this man deserves heaven. This man deserves hell. He deserves damnation. He deserves sorrow. He deserves pain.” Do you know the response from heaven? “Absolutely, he does. Absolutely, she does. See Jesus.”

This means all of our sins, past, present, and future, are taken care of in the person and work of Christ, so that if there is accusation against you, “No way this man deserves heaven. This man deserves hell. He deserves damnation. He deserves sorrow. He deserves pain.” Do you know the response from heaven? “Absolutely, he does. Absolutely, she does. See Jesus.”

“Hey, they’ve stumbled and fallen again. They’ve turned their back again. They’ve fallen again. Are you going to continue to love them?”

“Oh, absolutely. See, Jesus has already paid for it. Every bit of that is paid for.”

So here’s the confidence that you and I should be able to walk in. We are unmovable, unshakeable, growing into him, following him, getting to know him, falling more and more in love with him, and regardless of stumble or stammer, it’s been paid for. I’m going to blow it this week. Maybe you want a pastor who’s holier than that. I’m going to blow it. Maybe that’ll be verbal, maybe it’ll just be a thought, maybe it’ll just be a state of my heart, but I’m going to fall short, and here’s what happens.

If I’m living under the law, falling short could paralyze me and create space between God and me, severing the power of the Holy Spirit in me and the victory and joy I get to walk in in Christ, but if I understand that falling short has already been absorbed in the cross of Christ, and that what I have been given by God in Christ is Christ’s righteousness, then doesn’t that embolden me to just keep pursuing him, to get up, to repent, to be grieved that I have rebelled against such a holy lover of my soul and be set free to pursue him all the more?

There is no condemnation brought against you.

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

why? Because Christ has paid it all, he has taken your identity in sin and has destroyed it.

New Self, New Strength

As we have this new self, we need to remember that we live not of our own strength, but on the strength of God.

You will hit hard times, you will have times where you struggle, you may be in one of those times right now, I want you to reflect upon these promises and rely upon God’s strength to get us through whatever we have going on.

HAND OUT VERSES

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” ()

“My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” ()

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” ()

“‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” ()

“The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” ()

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” ()

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” ()

“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” ()

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” ()

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” ()

We need to memorize and trust these promises of God.

Never cease to ponder Paul’s words, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (). Not I. Yet I. By faith.

So we cannot allow guilt, or our own weakness excuse us from our calling in Christ. Because, our old selves are gone and the newly transformed us in Christ are here.

Christ sets us on a new path.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live…” (). He's proud of being crucified. Why? “Because Christ now lives in me.” It's a good thing to be crucified with Christ. The great exchange that happened at the cross.

you may wonder this morning, once I surrender to Christ, do i no longer have a will of my own?

On the contrary, it's not that you don't have a will, it's that your will is now lost in Him. It's not that Paul doesn't have a will anymore, but Christ lives in Him. It's Christ's will.

Paul is literally saying, “I have given Him all I have, all I am, all my will to Him and now it's Christ's will, and it's all that He is in me.” He's literally saying, “I've surrendered everything. I've surrendered my will completely to Him.” This is what it means to be identified with Christ, it means that Christ's will now directs me.

If you are a follower of Christ we've got to remember that we have sacrificed the right to determine the direction of our lives. You and I do not call the shots anymore. Our will has been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but He lives in us. We don't determine the direction of our lives anymore, and this is a very good thing. This is where we miss it. We have this hesitancy, even a fear when we start talking about really giving God all of our lives, I mean really saying, “God, me and my family, whatever you want us to do, we will do it. Wherever you want us to go, we will go.” We say, “What a hard thing to do, and I don't know if I'm ready to do that,” and it's almost kind of a scary thing. Where do we get that idea? I think it's because we forget who we're surrendering our will to, to Christ, to God our Father.

I mean, think about it. Dads in this room, what would you do if one of your children came to you this week, today and said, “Dad, all week long, this week, all week long, I want to do exactly what you want me to do. Every single thing you say I should do, I will do it completely.” What would you do? Would you rise up and say, “I'm going to make this the most miserable week in my son or daughter's life”? No, absolutely not. You'd say, “I'm going to guide you. I'm going to give you direction that will show you that you can trust me, show you that I do love you, and I'm going to lead you to what is best for you.” “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit [give guidance] to those who ask him” ().

So why do we exist?

we can see one precious implication for why God created us. We are spreaders of God’s glory. To be made in God’s image means, at a foundational level, we were created to show the world how precious and deeply satisfying God is.

Piece-by-piece, we are beginning to tell the world, through our lives and our words and our affections, that God alone is awesome. The praise of God’s glory will one day fill the globe, through us, and nothing will give us greater joy.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.