Our Identity in Christ

Sacred Selfies: Our Identity in Christ

Introduction

Start with a selfie. Talk about fixing it to look correct … Maybe use a few before and after photos …

Segue into labels … how we identify ourselves … how others see or identify us … it would be so much easier; so much better if people would identify us, not as the world sees us, but as our heavenly Father sees us … Not as black or white or brown or yellow or male or female or tall or short or young or old – but as His child, a child of God.

Before we can begin to walk in a healthy consciousness in the Christian life, and to help our brothers and sisters in their own struggles, we must first understand how important our identity in Christ is.

Merriam-Webster defines identity as “sameness of essential or generic character in different instances,” also, “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual”. To be identified with something is to be one with or regarded as the same by association.

1 Corinthians 6:17

Jesus stated His own identity in John 10:30

There was a lot said about Jesus during His time here on earth. Many of those things were vicious. But J was secure in His identity in the Father. Have you ever let cruel words, slander from others, define you? Maybe there are negative names that you, yourself, have associated with yourself. Maybe you’ve called yourself unworthy. As a result, you never considered yourself as able to accept that date from that good-looking girl or boy or that really great job. Perhaps you’ve failed and made some personal mistakes in life and now you feel rejected.

If, however, you define yourself in Christ, knowing you are free from the power of sin and worthy of love, you will have absolute freedom in moving on from your failures or mistakes and have the confidence to live life fully. If every Christian truly understood their identity and position in Christ, Christianity would be a force to reckoned with in the world. It would change the way we proclaim the Word of God, the way we worship and the way we relate to each other as the body of Christ. If we never realize who we are in Christ and what our position is with Christ, we are powerless against Satan and his evil strategies. If you take a few minutes to look around, you can see this played out in churches, throughout or nation, today. A powerless church against a cunning enemy. Why are we powerless? Because we have never come into a spiritual maturity.

Follow along with me for a moment … as babes, we are identified by our parents, they give us a name and a gender (our first labels). People speak of us as so-and-so’s child (You know, Walter and Gloria’s son). As we grow and our personality comes out, we become known by our own character as we develop from a babe to an adult. In the book of Ephesians, we are called to get off the spiritual milk and, on the meat, and potatoes of spiritual maturity. As we walk through this 1st chapter of Ephesians, Paul calls us to do that. He takes by the hand to show us what that Christian maturity looks like.

7 Things Every Christian Needs to Know About His/Her Identity in Christ

You Are Blessed with Every Spiritual Blessing in the Heavenlies (v3)

1. This is not behavior based.

a. No where in scripture will you find that these spiritual blessings are contingent upon your behavior.

i. You are blessed with every spiritual blessing – PERIOD

1. “has blessed us” eulogy – to speak well of; to invoke a benediction upon

a. God has spoken good things upon you; invoked good things upon you

b. What God has spoken or invoked upon you is beyond your ability to imagine, it is beyond your ability to number (1,2,3…)

i. You can’t count all the blessings God has invoked upon you because you can’t imagine it all.

2. What are these “spiritual blessings”?

a. Let me 1st tell you that spiritual blessings ARE NOT earthy blessings

i. God does not owe you a multi-million-dollar home

ii. God does not owe you a luxury vehicle

iii. God does not owe you that new motorcycle you want

b. It is our human response to make a quick assessment of our earthly situations and circumstances.

i. If we like them, it must be a blessing from God

ii. If we don’t like it, it must clearly be a punishment or curse or a work of our enemy.

iii. Sometimes God allows undesirable circumstances to bring about His good and perfect will. He can see the end from the beginning. We can’t.

c. These spiritual blessings are not sitting around in heaven waiting on you to arrive. These are blessings that are available to you, right here, right now, in this lifetime.

i. Let’s read on so I can show you some of those blessings:

He Chose Us (v4)

1. God chose you. You ARE NOT an accident.

a. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did, and He did it BEFORE He created with world

i. Before Gen. 1:1 – In the beginning; Before Adam and Eve; Before anything, God had already chosen you

b. Why did God choose you?

i. To love you.

ii. To be holy and perfect before Him

iii. He chose to prove that love by sending His Son to dye, in your place, to make you holy and perfect

iv. He chose you for a purpose and did all that was needed to accomplish that purpose.

He Predestined Us to Adoption as Sons & Daughters (v5-6)

1. Hot button topic. Many a Christian has found themselves in the theological weeds on this topic.

a. I’m opening a can of worms and I already know what the topic of conversation is going to be for the next six weeks at lunch.

b. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I can’t pretend the word doesn’t exist in the text.

i. Instead of running, I’m making a choice to address it directly.

ii. I don’t believe it is really that difficult to comprehend.

2. What exactly is “Predestination”?

a. Let’s break it down …

i. Destined simply means that something has a purpose

ii. Pre is a prefix that means ahead of time

iii. God purposed ahead of time to adopt us as sons and daughters

b. Doesn’t mean some have that purpose and others don’t. Let me help us out

i. 2 Peter 3:9

1. God planned ahead of time for all mankind to be known as His son or daughter.

2. God did not create someone that He predestined to eternal death and destruction

a. Calvinist – God has chosen those that would be saved and those that would not be saved prior to the creation.

b. Dates back to the 17th century debate between Calvin and Arminius

c. My stance – To believe that God created some for His pleasure and others for destruction goes against the eternal qualities/character of God (grace, mercy, love, kindness, compassion)

i. 2 Peter 3:9

ii. Hebrews 10:31

iii. Matthew 25:41

1. Never created for mankind

2. Created for Satan and his angels

ii. Mankind was made in GOD’s image, that has never changed. God never meant for His image to be tarnished in sin; to be reprobate – He destined each of us before the creation of the world (pre) to be adopted, to be identified as His sons and daughters.

1. Why? Because it gave Him great pleasure

2. And so, we who belong to His Son (J) praise God for His grace

a. Eph. 2:5

b. Consider this – God made this decision before sin ever entered this world.

c. God to keep moving if we’re going to get this this … 2nd spiritual blessing

He Redeemed Us (v7)

1. There are 3 words in the Greek for redeemed found in the NT, they are:

a. Agorazoo – to go to the slave market and purchase something for the purpose of owning

i. Rev. 5:9

b. Exagorazo – to buy up or buy back to freedom, to deliver someone

i. Gal 3:13

ii. Gal 4:5

c. Apolytrosis – to pay the full ransom, to liberate and make free, never to be sold into slavery again

i. Eph. 1:7

1. Through His Son, God has ransomed us from the slave market, having redeemed us with that purchase and we can never be sold back into slavery again. You and I, having received J as Savior, are 100% FREE!

a. Note for myself: Exodus 21:1-6 and Deut 15:12-17

He Has Revealed a Mystery to Us (v9-10)

1. God is not keeping something hidden from us but rather revealing to us and in us

a. The truth of salvation … You’ll need to read through Eph. 3 to get the revelation

i. Eph. 3:6 NLT/MSG

1. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or what label the world wants to pin on you. We are all the same, across the board, Jew and Gentile alike.

b. When all the fragments of times and ages in history have been dispensed and delegated, God will gather them all up together in Christ – who is the fulfillment of them all

2. All of human history is just a revelation of God’s plan for mankind: Jesus Christ

He Has an Inheritance for Us (v11)

1. You and I have received something we do not deserve.

a. God purposed since the beginning of time our inheritance that is in Christ

i. It is in the overall purpose and plan of God that believers should have a part in Christ’s inheritance.

1. We will inherit with Christ because we are in Christ

a. Romans 8:17

b. 1 Cor. 3:21-23

He Has Sealed Us (v13-14)

1. John Wesley calls it:

a. A full impression of the image of God upon their souls

b. A full assurance of receiving all the promises, whether relating to time or eternity

2. When you received Christ, the Holy Spirit took up residence inside of you as a constant reminder that this life isn’t all there is

a. God has promised to redeem you

b. God has promised to take you to heaven to live with Him

c. Through the HS, we have been given the power to live a victorious life – it is the same power that raised Christ from the dead – living in you.

Close

Our enemy does not want us to understand Eph. 1. He knows that if we comprehend what Paul is saying, what the Holy Spirit is saying to us, we would become a powerful force to plunder hell and populate heaven. If the church were to understand the power, the authority, the spiritual blessings we have – in Christ – we could empty hell; we could take back what the enemy has stolen from us and populate heaven.

God has chosen us to be the physical manifestation of Christ here on earth (that’s some big shoes to fill), He has put at our disposal all the blessings and the very power that raised Jesus from the dead – the Holy Spirit living in us.

I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. John 14:12

Child of God – that’s your label; that’s your identity and position in Christ.