HEY CHRISTIAN -- Do You Know Who You Are?” - Part 2
July 11, 2023Read Ephesians 1:3-14
The late actor Kirk Douglas tells of picking up a hitch-hiking sailor in route to Palm Springs. The sailor got in the car, took a look at Kirk and said, "Hey, do you know who you are?” Hey, believer, do you know who you are in Christ?
We are Made Over and Marked Out as FATHER’S SPECIALS!
S-OVEREIGNLY CHOSEN – elected us
P-OSITIONALLY HOLY – justified and sanctified us
E-XPERIENTIALLY CHANGED – regenerated us
C-OMPLETELY ACCEPTED – reconciled us
I-NCREDIBLY SECURE – adopted us
A-VOWEDLY VALUABLE – redeemed us
L-EGALLY CLEARED – forgiven us
S-ECURELY MANAGED – sealed us
1. SOVEREIGNLY CHOSEN – 1:4a, elected, chose us in Christ -- You may feel left out, a little nobody, unnoticed and unwanted, but in fact as a child of God you’re sovereignly elected, selected, chosen.
A believer is a member of God’s family with all the rights and privileges involved, not because he chose God as a Father, but because God chose him as a son - and that choosing was done not only before the man concerned was born, but before even the world was made. The word for “chose” is in the middle voice which means that God choose us for His own self, for His own reasons, as a special object of His love before the universe had existence.
C.H. Spurgeon said, "God must have chosen me before I was born because He would never have chosen me afterward." He marked off the boundaries or horizons of our life (This is the meaning of the Greek word translated predestined) so that we can participate in His plan, and know that we were planned for; so that we can know that we are “on-purpose-persons”, irrespective of our natural births, and have a strategic place in Father’s Family! Why did He do it? So that we can experience His goodness, exhibit His glory and express His grace; so that we can see, savor and show forth the glories of Christ our Lord!
2. POSITIONALLY HOLY – 1:4 -- justified and sanctified us -- You may have been told that you were a miserable failure, unusable, broken beyond repair, but in reality, in Christ you’re a saint and a son!
People cannot consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with what they believe about themselves. "Am I as a Christian basically a sinner who is forgiven, or a saint who sins?"
"Miserable-sinner Christianity,” runs through Protestant confessional formulas and catechisms. Martin Luther's Short Catechism, for example, teaches the believer to say, "I, miserable sinner, confess myself before God guilty of all manner of sins." A Lutheran Confession of Sin reads: “I, poor sinful man, confess to God, the Almighty, my Creator and Redeemer, that I not only have sinned in thoughts, words and deeds, but also was conceived and born in sin, and so all my nature and being is deserving of punishment and condemnation before His righteousness. Therefore I flee to His gratuitous mercy and seek and beseech His grace. Lord, be merciful to me, miserable sinner.”
A similar expression is found in the prayers of the Church of England. After acknowledging sinfulness and declaring that "there is no health in us," the prayer closes with the petition, "But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders."
In the KJV, believers are called "saints," "holy ones," or "righteous ones" more than 240 times. In contrast, unbelievers are called "sinners" over 330 times. Clearly, the term "saint" is used in Scripture to refer to the believer and "sinner" is used in reference to the unbeliever. Although the New Testament gives ample evidence that a believer is capable of sinning, it never clearly identifies the believer as a "sinner." We live according to who we really are and born-again believers are really saints of God.
We are Possessed -- Being a saint has nothing to do with not sinning anymore than being a sinner is due to our sinning. A saint is a person who is rightly “possessed of God.” We are valuable because of who owns us and who now lives within us. We are a people who have been set apart from the old life and dedicated to life under totally new management!
We are being Processed – The position God has placed us in provides the perfect and perpetual outward covering for the ongoing internal renovation by the Holy Spirit. We are a people under construction so our labels should be BPWMGINFY!
We are Positioned – blameless before Him -- We are not prisoners on parole, subject to revocation and returning to the courthouse and death-house. We are now sons in the Judges house, who happens to be our Father in Heaven! We have been justified and are living by grace instead of works. This means we understand that, as believers, God has already given us an "A" when we deserved an "F." When God, in His grace saves us, we get an "A"! This means that legally we are made right with God. This includes past, present and future sins. The truth of grace declares that every true Christian has a forever "A" stamped upon their record! There is nothing that the Christian will ever do to cause their Heavenly Father to love them anymore or any less, because He loves them in Christ and with the same intensity of love with which he loves Christ.(John 17:23b...and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.")
3. EXPERIENTIALLY CHANGED – regenerated us -- You may feel unholy, ashamed, hopeless, and badly damaged merchandise due to your life as a sinner, but in fact as a child of God you have been internally, supernaturally changed!
The truth of the gospel is that an Eternal Love for us has birthed a New Life within us and Bestows a New Identity upon us! Titus 3:5, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,”
Regeneration literally means a "Second Genesis." This means that irrespective of what I was or did by the first creation of living in my fallenness, I can become and must experience a "Second Genesis," a new beginning. Regeneration isn't the reformation of the outward man, nor the education of the natural man, nor the purification of the old man, but the creation of a "New Man!" This means we are not what we used to be. Becoming a new creation in Christ means that old things have passed away and all things have become new. We are no longer strangers but Sons of God, no longer sinners, but saints! Therefore, we do not have to strive and struggle to find significance and worth. Finding our significance and worth in Christ, we discover all our needs are met! In Christ there is all sufficiency for all of life.
4. COMPLETELY ACCEPTED – 1:4d,6, before Him, accepted in the Beloved -- reconciled us -- You may feel unwanted, rejected, isolated and alienated, but as a child of God you’re highly favored, “in-graced”, completely accepted in Christ!
Col 1:21-22, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight;”
The Greek word for reconciled is "apokatallasso, (ap-ok-at-al-las'-so)" and originally meant to exchange coins. We use the term when balancing our bank statements at the end of the month. Used this way it means to bring into agreement with a specific standard. Sin has made us badly out of balance with God's books. Reconciliation means to change from a hostile to a friendly relationship; it means a re-connecting of the estranged; it means more than just a patching up of things -- it involves a complete removal of hostility. It means that enmity is overcome and unity is established.
Who am I in Christ? I was once far off, but now I've been made nigh; I was once a stranger to the household of faith, but now I am a part of the family of God. I was once a sinner, now I'm a saint! I was once a lost sheep away from the fold, but now I'm found of my Shepherd, feed and led by him to green pastures and still waters. I was once in the pig pen of the far country, but now I'm in the Father's house, where I've been clothed in the robe of Christ' perfect righteousness, given the ring of official Heavenly authority, and am wearing the shoes of Sonship. I was once lost but now I'm found. I was once dead in sin, but now I'm alive in Christ with a life that will make me more alive when I die physically than I've ever been before! I am an heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood! HEY! GOD SAYS THAT THIS IS WHO IAM IN CHRIST – I SAY YES! Thank you Jesus!
Don’t miss next week’s conclusion!
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