Living According to Position
You have a new identity in Christ. Live by who you are in Christ. Memorize Galatians 2:20. When you give you life to Christ, you become his. You are given a new position, a new life, and a new job to do. Read 2 Corinthians 5:17. Your new life is founded on and in Christ. In fact, your new life in Christ gives you three things.
- Identity: Everyone is wondering who they are. People in the world find their identity in many things, occupation, economic status, materialism, religion, accomplishments, and so on. Yet all those things can give a false indication of who you were created to be by God. Only God can give you an identity. Picture the whole world as if it were filled with orphans. You wander around with no identity or family. Then God picks you up and says, “I’m adopting you. You are now part of my family. You now have my identity.” That is how God sees you. Now you are asked to live by who you are in Christ and not by what others may think of you or what your circumstances have called you. You are not what you do; you are not what your family was; you are not where you live; you are not what you wear. You are what Christ has made you.
- Direction: If you don’t know who you are then you won’t know what direction to choose, what path to follow, or what choices to make. But when God bring you out of the orphanage, he provides for you a place to go. You are no longer like a tumbleweed blown about by the wind, as Isaiah said, “but the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace, ‘says my God,’ for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:20,21). You now have a solid sense of direction.
- Freedom: Since God has given you identity and direction; you are now on your way toward freedom. One of the lies that you so readily believe is that God’s way leads to bondage and “my” way leads to freedom. Actually the reverse of that is true. The boundaries God sets and the rules he gives are to keep you free. Your desires, if left to themselves, would oppress you until you died. It is God who gives freedom. Being part of his family is a life of freedom.
Read Ephesians 4:17-20
- Where do those who don’t know Christ walk? What does that mean (put it into your own words).
- How is the direction of those who don’t follow Christ described?
- What consequences do you see in verse 18?
- What is the result of living a life without God?
Christ is a lifestyle as seen in verse 20. Christ-like living is a lifestyle, which demonstrates who He is and what He can do. Our position in life is founded upon the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
- Who are you now that you have Christ?
Matthew 5:13 I am the salt of the earth
Matthew 5:14
John 1:12
John 15:1,5
John 15:15
John 15:16
Romans 6:22
Romans 8:15-17
1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19
1 Corinthians 6:17
1 Corinthians 12:27
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 1:1
Ephesians 2:10
Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 2:6
Ephesians 5:30
Colossians 3:3
Colossians 3:12
1 Thessalonians 1:4
Hebrews 3:1
Hebrews 3:14
1 Peter 2:5
1 Peter 2:9,10
1 Peter 2:11
1 Peter 5:8
Because you’re in Christ, every one of those characteristics are completely true of you, and there’s nothing you can do to make them more true nor is there anything anyone can do to make them untrue. I suggest that you go back and read the list of who you are in Christ aloud as a prayer every week. Read it when you feel Satan is deceiving you. Read it when you are feeling low and the circumstances of life seem worse than ever.
There are other words you should be familiar with. Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. In those verses God warns that sinful people cannot inherit the Kingdom of God because of the sinful acts they commit. However, many in the church of Corinth were people who were steeped into those kinds of lifestyles. What Paul is saying here is that there is a break between lifestyles of who you once were to who you are now because of Christ. The two words that are important are found in verse 11.
Justified: Justified is a word that is used in the court system. A person who is charged with a crime is justified when the evidence against him proves to be invalid. You on the other hand are guilty, but because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross you are no longer guilty for the sins you committed. We have been cleared of all charges. You are now called and declared righteous by God through Christ.
Sanctified: This word simply mean holy. Holy means set apart. God has set you apart for his work and service. In the Corinthian church the members came from very immoral lifestyles, but Christ made them holy, as he did you.
- Can anything or anyone take away who you are in Christ?
Romans 8:38-39
John 10:27-29
- Knowing this, how can you then live?
Galatians 5:1,13
- What is it, then, that God wants you to do?
The Great Commandment. Matthew 22:34-40 is often referred to as “The Great Commandment.” When asked, of all the laws, traditions, and other rules that the Jewish people kept, what was the greatest, this was His response.
Matthew 22:34-40
The Great Commission. Just before ascending into heaven, Jesus gave us what could be called our “job description” or “marching orders”. We are called to “make disciples of all nations,” not just by telling them the good news of Christ and moving on, but by teaching them, helping them to mature, and then to reproduce themselves by making even more disciples in the same way.
What does Matthew 28:18-20 call us to do?
We believe Christ can! We believe Christ will!
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