Jesus, The Cornerstone of Our Identity 051025
Key Text: 2 Corinthians 5:14 -21
We’re living in a time where particularly Gen Z and Alpha are interested in identity. Gender identity, Sexual orientation Identity, Racial Identity, Political identity, Social identity. People now often identify themselves by these groups, characteristics or preferences.
Question: Let me ask you about your identity, how do you feel are you comfortable with it? Do you know who you are and how you identify yourself? This is a great question to answer because until you know who you are, you will be plagued by fears, insecurities, anxiety, lack of direction and you can inadvertently find yourself on a road to nowhere. But the good news is there a sovereign, almighty God who anticipated the questions of the heart and so provided answers to these significant questions of life.
One of the greatest lies told to those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus relates to our old and new natures. So many believers live under the oppression of the lie that God in His grace may see us as clean, but at our core we’re really not.
We live as if redemption in Jesus is like clean clothes covering up the dirt and filth that will always remain, and as if redemption is our get-to-heaven-free card. We hold fast to a belief that salvation was more of an illusion of redemption, than an actual transformation. And those lies act like weights dragging us back to the ways and sins of our former selves.
Scripture however, could not speak more clearly of the opposite reality. Read: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
If you are in Christ today—if you are saved—then you are a new creation. The old hasn’t stuck around until you die; ‘The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’
You see, the fact that you have been transformed into a new creation doesn’t have anything to do with your sins, failures and beliefs. Transformation in Jesus is based on His power, not ours. Truth is based on His sacrifice, not our actions.
You are a new creation totally and completely by the grace of God, apart from any of your works—as righteous or sinful as they may be. ‘For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.’ Our history does not define us and our sins are not final.
Don’t live today with our experience as our truth. Don’t see yourself based on your works but rather on the truth of what Scripture says about you. If you will begin to believe that God truly has already transformed you into a new creation and reconciled you to Himself simply by grace, then you will live and act on a foundation that births freedom and righteousness.
If However, you set your mind on the things of the flesh, which is in opposition to the reality of transformation already worked in you at the cross, then you will live chained to the ways of your former self Romans 8:6 For to set your mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Take time today to refect on the new nature in Jesus. Allow Scripture and the Holy Spirit to help you see yourself as one transformed and set free by grace. Commit yourself to live with grace as your source rather than your own strength. And experience freedom today that comes from living with a renewed mind.
Where does your life not line up with the truth that you are a new creation? What is entangling you to the things of the world? Where are you not experiencing the life of the Spirit?
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,[a] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:3-4
Confess any sin to Go and ask for His help in living by the Spirit. Ask Holy Spirit for a revelation of what it looks like to live with him as your source rather than your own strength. Ask Him for a heart-level revelation of your new nature. Foundational to living a life that lines up with the truth of who God says you are, is living by grace. In our own strength we can accomplish nothing. We have no power over sin in and of ourselves. We have no power to live free from the ways of the world when we try to live based on our works.
That’s why Romans 8:3 says, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” He fulfilled the requirement of the law that we might live by grace. He set us free from living in our own strength by filling us with Holy Spirit, our great Helper.
Stop living in your own strength and learn to live by grace. Learn to feel, think, and act on the foundation of grace.
Our heavenly Father who loves us has given us allow need to live as a new creation. 2 Peter 1:3 ‘His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.’
He has done it all. So take hold of who you are in Jesus and experience a life transformed by the reality of God’s power and love.
It’s not enough just to know what Scripture says. It’s not enough to be able to recite verses like 1 John 3:1 ‘See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are’
Until in our heart of hearts we believe the truth of Scripture, we will base our entire life on whatever it is we value most. If we value the opinion of man over God’s word, our identity will be founded on the fleeting ad fickle opinions of others. If we look to our circumstances to define us, then our identity will change with the passing of seasons.
But if the identity we believe in our heart is founded on God’s truth, then our self-worth, perspectives, decisions and beliefs will be unshakable and yield an abundant life.
Take time today to assess your own heart.
Look honestly at what you believe about self. Where are you looking for your identity?
Place your trust in the truth of God’s word that the identity held in your heart would come from your loving Creator.