davidbowerkingwood

Your New Identity

When the Christian is born-again, God changes a number of things at the eternal, spiritual level, a key factor is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, another is the resurrection of the dead spirit to new life as a member of the family of God. The old nature, the fallen Adamic nature, is considered crucified with Christ on the cross and although it remains in the Christian, it has lost its power to dominate the Christian.

I love the summary given in Galatians 2:20 where it is written:

“²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

The concept of Christ, living his life in me gives a better foundation for understanding Ephesians 2:10 where it is written:

“¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

We serve as a vessel for Jesus Christ, that he may perform the good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them!

Your New Opportunity

We have once again been given the opportunity to serve as an image bearer for the Lord Jesus Christ; when God’s living creation sees us, it should be seeing the image of the Creator God who gave them life. This is God’s plan for his new creation, the born-again Christian indwelt and led by God, the Holy Spirit!

The Bible is clear on how this image should appear, in Galatians 5:22-25 it is written:

“²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴ And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Your Challenge

The Bible explains our challenge in 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 where it is written:

“⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. ⁸ We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— ¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then death is working in us, but life in you.”

By God’s grace, the Christian is not asked to do all this in the power of the flesh; to try to serve God in our own power would be useless futility and result in complete failure. We have been given an extraordinary gift, the indwelling of God, the Holy Spirit and it is in the power of the Holy Spirit that we are expected to serve as representatives of God!

We have exchanged our lives for the life of Jesus Christ and now, Christ is living in us!

Holy Father, how thankful we are to be given the opportunity to serve you as your representatives on earth. By your grace, may we faithfully represent you to all those with whom we come in contact; when all of your creatures, both great and small, see us, may they see your beauty and love radiating from us!

We gratefully acknowledge our total dependence on you to serve as your image bearers and pray that your Holy Spirit will always be our guide and our strength! We ask this in Jesus name and for his glory! Amen!