Friday, July 23, 2010
One of the keys to spiritual victory in every area of your life is knowing who you are. To understand that, it is vital that we turn to the Word of God and believe what God says about us. Satan attempts to defeat believers by getting them to believe something that is not true. For example, if your identity as a person is rooted in your performance you will always mis-define yourself. Even if your successful you will mis-define yourself. Ask anyone who Michael Jordan is and they will tell you, "One of the greatest basketball players ever." Is that who he is? Did he cease to exist because he doesn't play anymore? No. So, even a successful person that bases their identity on performance can mis-define who they are.
The key to our identity is always linked to our birth. Peter wrote, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Then he adds, "You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." (1 Peter 1:3, 23). Notice it is our new birth as Christians that gives us hope and determines our destiny. It is not what we do that gives us this new birth, but what God has done for us. All of us are physically born with the sin of Adam attached to us. We are born in a lost condition. We are born with a problem that cannot be solved by performance, no matter how good we try to be. What we need is to be "born again" - not "good again" or "better again". We need a new birth that radically changes our identity and places us in the family of God. When it comes to where you will spend eternity, God relates this to a birth or a lack thereof. Jesus told Nicodemus that he would not see the kingdom of God unless he was born again (John 3:3-5).
Birth determines identity on a human level too. I am a Wood by birth. I will always be the son of Weldon and Alice Wood. Even if I were to embarrass the name of Wood, I am still a Wood. I did not perform to get that name, I didn't struggle or work hard, I was born a Wood.
The same goes for your spiritual birth. You are a Christian because you were "born again" by the mercy of God, through the work of Christ.
My wife is a Native American. She has her "Indian Card" from the Choctaw nation. She doesn't act like an Indian though. She's pretty much Californian. She likes California food, music, weather, activities, people...pretty much everything about her is Bay Area, California. However, when she fills out paperwork that inquires about her race, she marks Native American. Again, it's birth, not performance, that determines identity.
Here are two verses that help explain the essence of our identity as Christians:
"God granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2Peter 1:4).
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away, behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
When we are born again God deposits in us a new nature, a nature that wasn't there before. Peter calls it a "divine nature" because it is the very life of God. We have a new identity. The old one is gone.
So, changing our actions starts with clarifying our identity. We are new people in Christ. If that is true, why are so many believers controlled by their old way of thinking? Their old habits? Because Satan has fed them the lie that they're the same old people they used to be. And we act in accordance with the way we perceive ourselves.
Our identity is determined by our birth. We are children of God because of our new birth. Let that permeate your thinking. Let that truth saturate your soul. And watch as God frees you up to be what He created you to be.
You shall know the truth...and the truth shall set you free!
Pastor Tim
The key to our identity is always linked to our birth. Peter wrote, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Then he adds, "You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." (1 Peter 1:3, 23). Notice it is our new birth as Christians that gives us hope and determines our destiny. It is not what we do that gives us this new birth, but what God has done for us. All of us are physically born with the sin of Adam attached to us. We are born in a lost condition. We are born with a problem that cannot be solved by performance, no matter how good we try to be. What we need is to be "born again" - not "good again" or "better again". We need a new birth that radically changes our identity and places us in the family of God. When it comes to where you will spend eternity, God relates this to a birth or a lack thereof. Jesus told Nicodemus that he would not see the kingdom of God unless he was born again (John 3:3-5).
Birth determines identity on a human level too. I am a Wood by birth. I will always be the son of Weldon and Alice Wood. Even if I were to embarrass the name of Wood, I am still a Wood. I did not perform to get that name, I didn't struggle or work hard, I was born a Wood.
The same goes for your spiritual birth. You are a Christian because you were "born again" by the mercy of God, through the work of Christ.
My wife is a Native American. She has her "Indian Card" from the Choctaw nation. She doesn't act like an Indian though. She's pretty much Californian. She likes California food, music, weather, activities, people...pretty much everything about her is Bay Area, California. However, when she fills out paperwork that inquires about her race, she marks Native American. Again, it's birth, not performance, that determines identity.
Here are two verses that help explain the essence of our identity as Christians:
"God granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2Peter 1:4).
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away, behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
When we are born again God deposits in us a new nature, a nature that wasn't there before. Peter calls it a "divine nature" because it is the very life of God. We have a new identity. The old one is gone.
So, changing our actions starts with clarifying our identity. We are new people in Christ. If that is true, why are so many believers controlled by their old way of thinking? Their old habits? Because Satan has fed them the lie that they're the same old people they used to be. And we act in accordance with the way we perceive ourselves.
Our identity is determined by our birth. We are children of God because of our new birth. Let that permeate your thinking. Let that truth saturate your soul. And watch as God frees you up to be what He created you to be.
You shall know the truth...and the truth shall set you free!
Pastor Tim
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