No Longer A Fugitive

NO LONGER A FUGITIVE

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 • by Steve May

About 15 years ago the Department of Homeland Security passed the REAL ID Act, which goes fully into effect in October 2020. The REAL ID act is designed to establish minimum identification requirements for certain federal related purposes — most significantly, being able to board an airplane. The idea behind it is that each person — that means you — will be required to provide documentation to verify that you are who you say you are, and who Uncle Sam has confirmed you to be.

So if you haven't yet gotten your paperwork together, make a mental note to start doing it ... after the sermon.

As I have been seeing the ads and notices for the REAL ID requirement, I have been thinking about the significance of this term as it applies to knowing our true identity as children of God, and how this affects our self-image — what we think about ourselves, what we feel about ourselves, and how we relate to others.

Today we're beginning a new series called REAL ID. The purpose of this series is to help you discover who you are in Christ — how to fully become and how to fully live as the person he made you to be.

Every now and then you hear the story of someone who isn't at all who they appear to be. Like Sara Jane Olson. She was born Kathleen Soliah during the post WW2 baby boom. In the sixties she moved to the west coast to attend college and pursue a career in acting, and eventually became involved in the radical politics of the Symbionese Liberation Army, where she participated in various bank robberies and acts of violence, including murder.

After she was indicted for her crimes, before she could be arrested, she went underground, fled to Minnesota, adopted an alias, and lived as a fugitive for more than 20 years. During this time she married a doctor and raised a family and became active in community projects and lived a life of affluence.

And then her past — her true identity — caught up with her. In 1999 she was arrested and ultimately sent to prison.

From time to time you hear stories such as these, of a person who spends their entire life pretending to be someone they're not in an effort to avoid coming to terms with who they really are.

I don't know how it was for Ms. Olsen during those years. Did she feel like a phony every day of her life? Did she live in constant fear of being found out?

Though her story is somewhat extreme, there are many who live their lives in a similar fashion. They're not fugitives from justice, but they're fugitives from themselves, from the past, from the sins of the past, and their failures, and their hurts, and the pain they've endured and the shame they've experienced. And on the surface they may seem to be living a normal life — even a charmed life — but underneath it all they know they're just one slip-up away from shattering the facade.

We all have an image of ourselves — an image that we try to project on ourselves, or an image that we allow others to project upon us. Sometimes the image is accurate. Some times it is not.

Today I want you to see that it's not who think you are, or who others think you are, that matters most. This isn't how you determine your REAL ID. Who you are, who you really are, is determined by what God says about you. This is what this series is about, and it's the focus of today's message.

This morning we'll look at one passage of scripture that is foundational to understanding who you are in Christ. There are three characteristics of your life in Christ that I want you to see. These are true whether or not you feel it, and whether or not others recognize it. You are who God says you are, and he will help you become who he made you to be.

Three characteristics we'll look at. First of all, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ ...

1. You are a new creation in Christ.

Becoming a Christian is not about turning over a new leaf. It's about being given new life. You're not upgrading old software; it's a whole new installation.

This is something that book publishers and music publishers have known for more than a century. If you re-release a book or an album with a new cover, there's likely to be a surge in sales — especially if the new cover is more attractive than the old. The text between the covers hasn't changed, the music hasn't changed, but the new cover makes it seem new.

You also see this with "new-and-improved" products ... which often means little more than new-and-improved packaging.

Christianity is the opposite. It changes you on the inside. It makes you brand new through and through. Salvation is not a tune-up of the old self. It's a whole new operating system.

Before Christ, You were dead in your sins. And when you received him as your Lord and Savior you were made new, in him. Listen to what Paul said...

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When you accept Jesus Christ, a new person — a new creation — takes up residence inside of you. This person is the new you. You may look the same on the outside, sound the same, and even — at times — struggle with the same old stuff. But you've been made new, which means the direction of your life has changed, your potential has changed, and your reason for being here has changed. You are a new creation.

Speaking of still looking the same on the outside, I remember hearing the musician and songwriter Chuck Girard tell a funny story. He got saved in the sixties, out of the counter-culture, and back then there were many in the church who just couldn't come to terms with the idea that a long-haired hippie could really be a Christian. He sang one evening at a church, and afterward a lady came to him and said, "I'm so glad God cleaned you up on the inside. Now I'm praying that he will clean you up on the outside."

This was a common sentiment back then ... but we can't make the mistake of thinking that salvation is merely a whitewashing of the exterior. No, it's an inside job.

This is why Paul said...

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 3:13-14)

This leads us to the second foundational characteristic of your life in Christ that I want you to see.

2. You have been reconciled to a relationship with God.

This means that you have been made right with God — not of your own doing, but of his doing.

This is how Paul said it...

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

We'll talk about the ministry of reconciliation in a minute, but right now let's focus on the reconciliation we have received. The Bible says we were dead in our transgressions, and now we have been made alive in Christ. He canceled the debt that stood against us. As the old youth group song goes ...

He paid a debt he did not owe I owed a debt I could not pay I needed someone to wash my sins away...

I realize there are some who will insist that they owe no debt, that they have never done anything that requires forgiveness. I've heard people say that ... but when you look at the brokenness of their lives, something doesn't quite add up. There are some who say, "I don't need a God to forgive me..." See what their ex has to say about that. Or see what their children have to say about it. Or their friends and co-workers.

We are all in the same boat — we have all sinned — and it is beyond impossible for us to redeem ourselves. It is beyond impossible for us to fix our fallen nature. Regardless of the image that we may have tried to project to the world around us, the fact is that without Christ we were all fugitives. And, like Sara Jane Olson, we might have been able to fool those around us, but when we looked deep into ourselves we knew: I can't escape who I am. I owe a debt I cannot pay.

For this reason, Jesus took your place. The apostle Paul said...

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Here's what I'm saying. You have been made right with God. All the mercy you need, all the forgiveness you need, all the grace you need has been poured out upon you. Lavished is the word Paul uses in Ephesians. You didn't deserve it, but it was given to you anyway. You didn't earn it, but you were given the opportunity to receive it.

His love knows no limit, and his mercy never ends. The Bible says that it is new every morning. [Lamentations 3:22-23]

This means that every day you can wake up and say, "Today I am right with God ... not because I am good, but because I have been made right through Jesus Christ." In the past you may have been a fugitive from justice, a fugitive from the past, but in Christ you have been reconciled, through his sacrificial death on the cross.

As Paul said...

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If you've ever said, "I'll never be good enough to make up for all the wrong I have done." God says, "I've paid that debt. You are in a right relationship with me."

Here is the third foundational characteristic of the Christian life.

3. You play a vital role in the purpose of God.

In verse 18 Paul said that God has gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In verse 19 he says that God has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. And then he says...

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

He's talking about his ministry and his message — the message of reconciliation — and he's talking about you and me, as well. This is our work, our ministry, our message — to let those around us know that God is ready to be in a right relationship with them, no matter what may have happened in the past.

He used the term ambassador. We know what an ambassador is. An ambassador is someone who is sent to live in a foreign land, to represent their home country and their home government. And, in that context, they speak for their leadership of their homeland.

God is saying to you and me, "I want the world to know about me, and to know about my Son. I want them to hear about love, and mercy, and grace, and redemption. And I want you to take this message to them. I want you to be my representative, my ambassador."

In many ways, we're like strangers in a strange land. We're like visitors on foreign soil. This world is not our home, we're just passing through. Our citizenship is in heaven ... but while you are here, you are God's ambassador. You have been given a part to play in his eternal plan. He has invited you to represent him, to speak on his behalf, so that all may know that there is God who loves them, and who gave his life for them.

When you open your eyes early each morning, not only can you say, "Today I am right with God," ... you can also say, "Today I have a position to fill, a role to play, a job to do. Today, through my words, and my actions, and even my attitudes, I will represent Jesus Christ. I am his ambassador, because that's what he made me."

CONCLUSION

This is your true identity. This is who you really are.

You may feel like you're a fugitive, trying to hide from a checkered past. Others may even try to place that label on you. But I want you to remember what God has said about you, because this is your Real ID.

That person that used to go by your name in the past is no longer there. In Christ, you have been made a new creation. Jesus called it being born again, being born from above.

You are a new creation. You are right with God, and you have a role to play in his kingdom. Sometimes the past keeps calling our name, but through Jesus Christ God has put the past to rest. And, as we will see in the weeks to come, he will empower you to put the past to rest as well, so that you may fully become the person he made you to be.

It begins with knowing who you are: God's creation. God's friend. God's ambassador. God's very own.

This is your Real ID. May we learn to see ourselves as God sees us.