In Christ, I Am

Accepted, secure and significant.

In Christ, I am accepted …

John 1:12 — I am God’s child.

John 15:15 — As a disciple, I am a friend of Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1 — I have been justified.

1 Corinthians 6:17 — I am united with the Lord, and I am one with Him in spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 — I have been bought with a price, and I belong to God.

1 Corinthians 12:27 — I am a member of Christ’s body.

Ephesians 1:3-8 — I have been chosen by God and adopted as His child.

Colossians 1:13-14 — I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins.

Colossians 2:9-10 — I am complete in Christ.

Hebrews 4:14-16 — I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ.

In Christ, I am secure …

Romans 8:1-2 — I am free from condemnation.

Romans 8:28 — I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances.

Romans 8:31-39 — I am free from any condemnation brought against me, and I cannot be separated from the love of God.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 — I have been established, anointed and sealed by God.

Colossians 3:1-4 — I am hidden with Christ in God.

Philippians 1:6 — I am confident that God will complete the good work He started in me.

Philippians 3:20 — I am a citizen of heaven.

2 Timothy 1:7 — I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind.

1 John 5:18 — I am born of God, and the evil one cannot touch me.

In Christ, I am significant …

John 15:5 — I am a branch of Jesus Christ, the true vine and a channel of His life.

John 15:16 — I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit.

1 Corinthians 3:16 — I am God’s temple.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 — I am a minister of reconciliation for God.

Ephesians 2:6 — I am seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly realm.

Ephesians 2:10 — I am God’s workmanship.

Ephesians 3:12 — I may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Philippians 4:13 — I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

The God Of New Beginnings

God offers a fresh start for his people that will never end.

Genesis 8:1-4 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. 2 The underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped. 3 So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days, 4 exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Genesis 8:15-20 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Leave the boat, all of you--you and your wife, and your sons and their wives. 17 Release all the animals--the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground--so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth." 18 So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat. 19 And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.

---

Ever wish for a new start? Imagine living in a world without another family that goes to church, where nobody else agrees with your views of morality or politics, a world that is so full of evil that even God wants to start over.

It is easy to read through Genesis real quick and fail to realize the difficult circumstances that Noah lived under. This one man's faith stands out in in a world where no one else has any concern for God or about having his favor.

We don't know how God's favor was displayed or whether his neighbors knew that Noah had favor but I imagine there was a lot of peer pressure for Noah and his family to join in and live like everybody else. When Cain knew that God's favor was on his brother Abel it made him furious so I imagine that Noah's neighbors probably didn't like him or his family.

Just to make things really interesting God asked Noah to do crazy things that would test his faith. To put his faith into action Noah had to build something that has never been built for an event that has never happened before. (Hebrews 11:7)

Noah Teaches Us:

We should be obedient even if nobody else is. The pressure to be like everybody else must have been intense. Their sons must have wondered "why can't we do what our friends do?" We should have faith that can be seen and heard by our neighbors. Noah's faith in what was unseen caused him to be obedient in ways that can be clearly seen by his neighbors but they were also warned by Noah as he told them why he was building something so crazy. We should wait on God despite the circumstances. It looked good outside after the flood, the birds proved that there was dry ground, but they didn't leave until God told them to. We should worship God because he has given us favor. How can you not worship when you realize how many people were killed and the fact that you are just as sinful as they and deserving of the same judgement yet God spared you? We should be aware that things are going to get much worse. The wickedness on earth was probably greater than it is today. There is a greater percentage of people that have God's favor on the earth today than there was in Noah's day. We should not forget how prone we are to do wrong. Even the best of men are weak and liable to fall, when those eight people got off the boat sin came along with them, Noah got drunk and one of his sons disrespected him and made fun of his shameful behavior. We should look to the sky for only one sign. Many people look to the stars and planets for information but the rainbow is the only thing that God put in the sky that we need to look to. We should be ready for the day of final judgement. Noah was protected from God's wrath as a reminder to us that God's people will be out of here before the final judgement that will be by fire.

Noah and his family would get to live in a fresh environment that had been cleansed from man's wickedness, it sounds like a dream come true but these eight people knew that while they escaped punishment there were millions of lives that were lost outside of the ark.

Their fresh start wasn't perfect, the floods washed away sin from the earth but it didn't cleanse the heart of mankind, the eight people that got off the ark still had a sin nature that would continue to challenge them as they tried to live to please God.

2 Corinthians 5:15, 17 He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

Jesus left the glory of Heaven to have a new beginning with us, this was certainly not a fresh start, he endured life in this broken world so that we could have a new beginning in this life and in the next.

My first new beginning is in this life. It is very much like Noah's do over, he experienced God's mercy and grace because he had favor with God. God's grace and mercy have given me favor with him through my belief in Jesus as my only way to get to Heaven.

If God's purpose was to fill the earth with the glory of his righteousness, then we must conclude one of two things: God is a failure or God is preparing for something greater in the future.

-John Piper

My next new beginning will be the last. Unlike the other new beginning in the Bible, this one will be final and the changes that it brings will last forever. God's purpose for creating man will finally come to pass, man will fill the earth with God's glory and worship him with pure hearts for eternity.

God will take up his bow and judge the world. We need to share the good news that God has given us a season of mercy, he has put his bow in the sky pointed away from us, but this season will come to an end without warning.

God's people will be taken away to a new beginning in a glorious kingdom and Satan and his children will begin a new existence separated forever from God. Are you ready?

RELATED ARTICLES

Life and Death in the New World (gty.org)
God's Covenant With Noah (desiringgod.org)

Say Amen

It's only by God's grace I'm standing here today.

Video: Matthew West "Amen"

Hey hey preacher man

Do you mind if I borrow that mic? (Uh-huh!)

You been talking 'bout

How everybody got a story

Here is mine

I was so lost, I was so lost

But now I'm found, yeah, yeah

Hey hey preacher man

Let's take a walk down by the river

Let the holy water wash over me

'Cause now that I've been delivered

I want the whole world

To know that I'm a new man now

And it's only by God's grace

I'm standing here today

If you're feeling what I'm feeling

Let me hear you say amen

If you're a new creation, amen

If you got that feel good in your soul

That hope that won't let you go

If you're feeling what I'm feeling

Let me hear you say amen

Every time I look back over my shoulder

I can see the life He saved me from

Every time I look back over my shoulder

I can see the life He saved me from

Thank God

Hey Church, now you see

This little light of mine

Well, my question is a simple one (Who's next?)

Come get it loud

I'm talking one by

I'm talking one by, one by one

Gonna testify

That it's only by God's grace

We're standing here today

If you're feeling what I'm feeling

Let me hear you say amen

If you're a new creation, amen

If you got that feel good in your soul

That hope that won't let you go

If you're feeling what I'm feeling

Let me hear you say amen

If you're a new creation, amen

If you got that feel good in your soul

That hope that won't let you go

If you're feeling what I'm feeling

Let me hear you say amen

New Life From Nothing

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

God took my nothing and created a new life, I didn't have anything good to help him out, what you see now was done completely on his own. My pride, my old passions, the things that I thought were important are all gone, God made a new man out of nothing. Amen!

Life Or Death

Have you died to this world so that you can be fruitful?

 

John 12:24-26  I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives.

25  Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.

26  Anyone who wants to be My disciple must follow Me, because My servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves Me.

---

The main story of the Bible is a story of love and redemption, love that was so extreme that it paid a huge price to rescue us, from Genesis to Revelation we get to know God and his sacrificial love for man.

God called the nation of Israel to be set apart as his chosen people, a people that would demonstrate God's love and point the nations to his salvation but they did not follow through. Instead they became prejudice and narrow minded, they stayed focused inward and they wouldn't live for God and glorify him. Sounds a lot like God's people today!

They didn't see themselves as a missionary organization that would share God's message of love and redemption. God's plan to save people from every tribe, tongue and nation around the world was opposed by his own people that were supposed to help accomplish God's ultimate goal but instead they became a hindrance.

They opposed God's mission for themselves in the Old Testament and now they stand opposed to God's mission for Jesus. The King enters Jerusalem and the expectation is high that he will start doing King stuff but instead he starts talking about death. He talks about his own death and the death of the people that follow him. How will he ever get people to follow him with this kind of talk and how can all of this dying be a good thing?

Jesus death caused new fruit to be produced

Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

Our sins against God are capital offenses with God Himself as our judge, and according to divine law our crimes deserve the death penalty. By shedding His blood on the cross, Jesus took the punishment we deserve and offered us His righteousness and became our substitute.

Jesus said in Matthew 20:28 that he “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” By his sacrificial death he made it possible for us to be righteous, our sins have been paid for, without Jesus death Heaven would be a lonely place completely free of any human.

The seed had to die, it has been planted and now the fields are full of a bountiful crop ready to be harvested.

Our death causes new fruit to be produced

For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 

And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory.

Do you realize what happens when the fields are harvested? The produce dies, and after the produce dies the seed from the fruit is planted again and then there is an even greater increase in production. Jesus death was the first seed which produced many more seeds and now as each of us dies to ourselves we produce many more seeds.

“Getting rid of the ‘self-life’ is like peeling an onion: layer upon layer—and a tearful process!” -A. T. Pierson

Jesus asks us to see our life here the way that he sees it. Do you hate your life in this world, do you hate what your life is, full of its sin and self-centered and godlessness? Are you willing to abandon what the world has to offer? Have you really died to yourself or are you holding onto the controls?

Those are difficult questions to ponder, our insecurity and fear get in the way of allowing somebody else to be 100% in control, it probably isn't possible to go all the way.

Count The Cost
Luke 14:27-28  And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?

As the Bible tells us, it isn't enough to believe in Jesus, the demons do that and yet they don't surrender control of their life to him. That's where dying to self comes in.

Death to self sounds like a high price to pay, that is why Jesus warned us to consider how much he is asking and what is required to take up your cross and follow him. It is better for the cause of Christ that you don't start and then fall away, unbelievers will look at your life as an example of why they shouldn't bother to trust in Jesus, they get the wrong impression of what following Jesus looks like.

Jesus didn't die to offer us a comfortable, wealthy "best life now." If I love my life in this world then I will live for this life and I will live for the same things that unbelievers live for but if I die to myself and live for Jesus then I will be a another planted seed that will produce a plentiful harvest of new lives.

(1 Corinthians 15:20, Colossians 3:3-4, 1 John 2:15-17, Romans 6:5-8)

RELATED ARTICLES

Ten Reasons Jesus Came To Die (crossway.org)

Why Did Jesus Have To Die? (carm.org)

Four Things Jesus Didn't Die For (thegospelcoalition.org)

God's Children Behave Differently

A sinful lifestyle isn't a good thing.

1 John 3:1, 9-10 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

9  Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning, because they are children of God.

10  So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

---

A child of God has a look about him, it is different from the look that the rest of the world has, when the world sees him they should see somebody whose behavior doesn't make any sense.

God loves his children so much that he sent Jesus to defeat the devil's plans for our destruction and make it possible to restore the relationship that was lost in the Garden of Eden. His love for us compelled him to adopt us into his family and give us all of the benefits that natural born children receive.

Now that I am God's child, it is difficult to live the way the rest of the world does with God living inside of me, God doesn't let his children misbehave without pursuing them, the Holy Spirit is at work in me letting me know what is wrong. Christ in us and sin in us is the most incompatible situation that there can be. (Colossians 1:27) 

Don't Abuse Grace

Romans 6:1-2, 11-12  Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace?  2  Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.  12  Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.

A sinful lifestyle is a reliable indicator that a person is not the child of God that they claim to be. It is clear in scripture that the only way to receive the free gift of salvation is to receive it without any good works attached but it is also clear that a child of God will behave differently from the rest of the world.

We have been completely transformed! It isn't just a change in status or a new destination after we leave this world, our nature and our desires have been changed, our behavior in this world will be changed as well.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15  Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.  15  He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

We have been called a new creation, people that are slaves to righteousness and people that are busy doing the good works that God has planned for us. Salvation is not just a change in status, it is a change in nature, it is a change in how we live, how we think and how we speak. (2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:22, Ephesians 2:8-10)

Colossians 3:1-3  Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand.  2  Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.  3  For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Satan loves to deceive us into thinking that we can hold on to the world and love our sinful ways and still be a child of God. God's people submit and obey what he told us in his word, our behavior should be increasingly more like Jesus as we grow more like him.

There are so many people that want to cling to the promises of scripture but they don't want to have anything to do with the demands of scripture. They want to know that their life after death is taken care of while they live this life to please themselves.

Help me Lord to live to please you. Keep me from believing that this life is all about me and help me do the good works that you designed me for so that you will be glorified. (Matthew 5:16)

RELATED ARTICLES

Why We Obey (thegospelcoalition.org)

Do You REALLY Get It? (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

Trust And Obey (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

Living As Jesus Did

Are you living life God's way or your way?

1 John 2:3-6  And we can be sure that we know Him if we obey His commandments.  4  If someone claims, "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.   

5  But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love Him. That is how we know we are living in Him.  6  Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

---

Most of us remember being separated from our parents in a large store when we were young. They told you not to wonder away from them but you disobeyed and now you are standing there all alone in a panic.

All of a sudden you realize that you cannot do life without them. This brief encounter makes it obvious to you that you are helpless without them and you swear that for now on you will stick to them like glue. How long does that last before you start to drift apart from them again?

We treat God the same way, he tells us how to live and that we should stick by his side but then we decide to wonder off and before too long we find ourselves in a panic. Living life our way seems like fun for a while but then something happens and we don't know what to do. We know that if we live the way that Jesus told us to live then we will have the peace and security that we desire to have in this crazy world.

The Bible makes it clear that we cannot do anything to earn a ticket to heaven but it also makes it clear that getting a ticket to heaven isn't the end of the story. We don't get to behave the way that we want just because of grace. We don't get a free ride just because we said a special prayer. In case you overlooked 1 John 2:6 let me show it to you again:

"Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did."

How can you think that you know him when it doesn't have an effect on the way you live? Do you really understand what Jesus did for you?

Obedience Matters
Psalms 119:4-8  You have charged us to keep Your commandments carefully.  5  Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect Your decrees!  6  Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with Your commands.  7  As I learn Your righteous regulations, I will thank You by living as I should!  8  I will obey Your decrees. Please don't give up on me!

It is disturbing to me that many people die that didn't have any signs in their lifestyle that they "knew Him," their life didn't show any signs of a relationship with God, they were not obedient to God's commands yet their family suddenly gets all spiritual about them after they are gone. Do we have any reason to believe that they really "knew Him" and that their eternal destiny is heaven?

Human nature wants to live life to satisfy our own desires until life throws something difficult at us but for those who really know God, their love for him will bring about obedience, their lives will become increasingly like the life of Christ.

The best thing for us to do is to obey God but first we have to get to know God and know what he expects from us. The Bible makes it clear that if we really understand who we are and how bad our situation is while we are lost in our sin then obedience to God's rules won't be optional. If we really understand who God is and get to know him and realize how much he did for us then it must have an impact on the way we live.

Help me Lord to fully comprehend how much you did for me that I could never do for myself. Only then will I desire to obey you completely.

More scripture on love and obedience: John 14:15, 14:21-24, 14:31, 15:10, 21:17