Resting In A God-Given Identity

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak on the topic of discovering our identity as children of God. The whole process of writing the message and creating the presentation was incredibly humbling and really empowered me to live out my message daily. The main takeaways were:

• The identities that we make for ourselves are not sufficient enough to bear the weight of our full identity in Christ. This includes our job titles, accomplishments, failures, sexuality, and personality, among other things. What we construct for ourselves will surely pass away and change as our lives, emotions, and circumstances change, however, who God says we are will never change despite all these things.

• Our view of God is mainly shaped by how we view ourselves, which makes it imperative to have the right, biblical view of God in order to redefine not only who we are but also who God says He is. If we view God as a angry, wrathful judge who seeks to destroy us for our sins, we will live in rejection of him for fear of being judged or live in fear of his judgement and carry the weight of sin and shame. However, if we discover that God loves us to the point of death and deeply desires intimacy with us, then we will approach God with a boldness and vulnerability that we've never thought possible.

• Finally, God has called us His children, who He adopted through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. Jesus paid the ultimate price for A L L of our sins. A L L of them. Including the ones that we don't or won't admit we commit. He bore the greatest spiritual suffering that no man on the face of the earth had to endure: separation from the Father. In his death, our sins were buried and three days later when he resurrected and defeated the power of death, we celebrate new life and a new identity: co-heirs with Christ.

God truly loves us. He really does. THAT'S the Gospel. THAT'S the good news. THAT'S grace! The more we put our faith in Jesus and his victory, the more victorious we are in our circumstances. No, the road is not easy, but we must remember that there is a road at all. He made the way for us to endure. Because He has overcome the world, so can we. We are co-heirs of not only the promises of heaven but also of his victory. That is our inheritance: freedom for the chains of sin and death. We win not by our own works, but because of the work already done. Take on the identity that God has given us. It's greater than what we could ever make for ourselves. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holynation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 4:9-10).