Who Are You? Part 2

Crisis of Faith is an Identity Crisis
Often, people with a weak identity in Christ will struggle to believe that God loves them, or that He cares for them personally. They may feel that they have lost their salvation, because of sin in their life or because of troubles that have come. “Oh, sure”, they say “I believe Jesus is The Savior – I know He died for my sins and that He rose from the dead. But, I don't think God cares about me, and I don't really count in God's Kingdom”. Others live in fear, while believing and wanting Jesus to be their Savior, they think maybe they have committed something unforgivable. Still others think:  "I tried to live the Christian life, but I had a moral failure and now God has cast me off forever." This always comes from having a mistaken view of Salvation and a mistaken view of God's stated commitment to His people.

God has given us a new, direct, personal relationship in Christ: He calls us His children. This is not the same as the relationship that anyone had with Him under the Old Covenant of Moses; no, this is the New Covenant, the Eternal Covenant in Christ. This is different, it's better.

Consider 2 Timothy 2:19-20 "...19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use." (that word for "special purposes" is where we get the concept of "holy" – it means set apart for special things). So, God our Father calls us to live righteous lives, because He is calling us to live out what He has already granted us – because he has declared us his special (holy) people by our faith in Christ.

Many people reject that idea and say that you must live a righteous life before you can be saved, before you can be God's holy (special) people. But the Bible is filled with references that God calls us holy before we have proven ourselves to be righteous. Consider 1 Corinthians 1:2 "...to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people..." this was written to Corinth? Yes, that sinful church in Corinth that needed so much correction.

We must learn to see Him as our Father, Jesus as our personal Savior and the Holy Spirit as our indwelling divine presence; because God is the only one we truly worship and the only one we adore; So that we may live out the call to be righteous, because we have been declared His.

Changing the Story, to His Story
Therefore, we cannot accept how others define us to shape our opinion of ourselves either. We must require ourselves to define ourselves by Christ and that "adoption of sonship" spoken of in Ephesians (1:5), Galatians (4:5) and Romans (8:15). It is when we come to realize that we were once darkness, but are now light, that we were once dead in trespasses but are now made alive, that we were once enemies of Christ but have been made his friends that we can now define ourselves by this new relationship. Because we have received Christ, we have received God's best and he has given us his name.

This makes you, dear believer in Christ, a chosen vessel for His name sake, chosen by the Father, sanctified by Jesus and filled with His Holy Spirit. Consider 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “...19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

The real believer has a cry in their heart to discover the real Jesus and to discard all of the falsehood they have learned, to disregard what the world says, to reject what the flesh says and to resist what the devil says. We want to know what Jesus says about us and reject anything else. As we seek Him and draw near to Him, He heals and renews us by transforming our identity – so that we may live out the new identity that has been given us.

Be Transformed in Christ (your new identity)
As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 “...17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation...” 

Start seeing yourself as having a call from God, in Christ, and being honored as His chosen vessel to a new and wonderful purpose as an adopted heir! It will transform your life, your identity and your purpose. It will give you a hunger to know Him. It will give you an unshakable identity, for you are a chosen heir, In Christ.