Christian Living

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A Free Man with a Heart of Bondage (Your Identity in Christ)

The world looks at you and you look at the world, with you wondering what to do, as the world’s gaze bore into you, wanting you to take the pleasures and the stuff that it has to offer, and promising you the fulfillment that you desperately seek. But as you receive some of the world’s stuff, not really thinking of its consequences, you look toward your Savior, seeing Him mouth the words, “you will get hurt.” As you have the worldly things in your hands, the world is suddenly gone and in its place is Satan, grinning at you and accusing you, “You knew you sinned, and you keep sinning.

Since your sin is deep, how can God love you? How can you be a son of God when you don’t even do what your Father says? Don’t you know that you’re only acceptable and loved by Him when you do good? Remember you always had to work for the love of others, remember your parents? If they are unbelievers and you had to work for their sense of acceptance, how much more do you have to, since He is holy and since you “supposedly” are Christ’s? Grace may have saved you before, but don’t you know it’s a onetime deal? Just accept the fact you’re not loved, not accepted, and you never will be.” You look at your hands, the pleasures suddenly turned into burdens, and as Satan assigns the demons of hopelessness, despair, and insecurity on you, and the conviction you feel is overwhelming. You can’t see Jesus anymore, and that kills you inside, and before you know it, you stray off the path, believing your adversary.

Many Christians fall to the lies of the Devil, and the story above is my own, and the way I felt, but the great news is, what the Devil tells you is so far from the truth! Your identity in Christ is so much more than good works, and better yet, it isn’t based on it! I’ve been looking at the book of Ephesians, and just the first chapter has a treasure trove for us!! So if you feel down and out, feeling unloved, let’s look at how God views you as a Christian, your positional view. The Word tells us that we have some specific keys to understanding who we are in Christ, and the list is:
1. Blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
2. He chose us before the world was made
3. We are holy and blameless before Him in love
4. Predestined us to adoption as children
5. Made us accepted in Jesus
6. We have redemption of sins
7. We know His plan for salvation
8. We will all be united with Christ in the time to come
9. We have an inheritance with Christ
10. We have the Holy Spirit as a seal of promise, promising us the redemption of our bodies in the times to come
11. We have the power of Christ and a personal calling in our lives

These are just some of the promises that He has given us! So in order to fully understand where Christians stand, even though they sin, let’s look at these promises more closely. The first one deals with God blessing us with all the good spiritual things, like the Holy Spirit, and the heavenly places isn’t the place heaven, but the realm of joy, peace, etc. The second one is that He chose us before the world even existed. It’s not like God needed you for anything, He didn’t and still doesn’t, but He wants you to be part of His family, because He is thrilled with you! Third one: We are holy and blameless in His sight. When we accepted Christ into our lives, we were made holy, forgiven, accepted, and redeemed(also 5,6). Heck, we were adopted by God, and we have the rights and privileges as God’s children, even though we don’t deserve one iota of it (4). We know how Christ saves, we will share all of what Christ has because of His sacrifice, and we will be united with all be united (believers) when the new world comes, dead and alive (7, 8, 9). As a seal of guarantee, He has given the Holy Spirit, and we will someday get rid of these fallen bodies and get new ones, and he curse will no longer be on us, and for this world now, we have the Holy Spirit’s power to help us live holy and follow the calling that God has for each and every one of us (10, 11).

Here is the Scripture that says it: “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power”(Ephesians 1:1-19).

So you see, that’s who we are as Christians, even though we sin. I got caught in the lie that in order for God to accept you, you have to try to stay holy, but the thing is, we can’t. We will sin and God knows this, and He accepts, loves, and cherishes us even though we still sin! God’s love is unconditional, which means it is not based on your deeds, it’s based on Himself, so the weight of the lie of trying to keep your salvation through goods is pulled off, God is always going to accept us, because we are justified in Jesus! It’s not on us, it’s on Him. It’s such a relief! After some spiritual warfare with my mentors, demons were pulled away, I saw the reality anew of Christ’s love for me, and the moment I realized the truth about me to Him, I wept with relief and joy.

So you start to realize the truth of God’s Word, you start to turn toward the path again, and almost instantly demons appear to stop you, but now you have back up. As your brethren pray for you and attack the demons head on, the demons on you start to come off and suddenly you see a Light. The demons come off completely and the darkness surrounding you disappears, and standing before you is Jesus with open arms. His truth, His love, His acceptance pierces you heart and you fall to your knees with gratitude, joy, and utter relief, and you weep. He gets on His knees, looks you straight in the eyes, wipes away the tears, smiles the most warming smile to you and says “You are Mine.”

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