Who are you?
Seriously, not the song, but how do you perceive yourself?
The world defines people primarily by their actions. A person attending an AA meeting has to introduce themselves as someone who is an alcoholic.
How do they reach that conclusion? It’s simple: actions equal identity.
But that’s a huge lie!
The reality is that who we are is determined by our family of origin.
When we are born into this world, we are born into Adam’s family. That means we are human beings with a nature infected with this thing called sin.
Sinning does not make us sinners. Being born into Adam’s family makes us sinners. Sinning is just the natural outworking of an inner identity problem.
Now, let me address why Christians struggle so much with sinning.
Most Christians do not know who they are in Christ.
They are taught that they are sinners saved by grace.
And that sounds humble and even correct, but it can’t be further from the truth.
When we accept Jesus as our Savior not only are our sins paid for in full, but we are also identified with Jesus.
When He died, we died; when He rose again, we rose again…thus making us born again into a new family: Jesus’ family.
This is what makes every believer a SAINT saved by grace.
Beloved, we are holy…set apart from the power of sin and set apart unto God.
Sin is no longer our master; Jesus is.
We can tell sin to go pound sand when it launches into its demands. You see, we are dead to it. We no longer have a relationship with sin.
We now have a relationship with Jesus; we are family. God sees us completely in Christ, all new creations in Him with human natures freed from sin and reconnected to God.
Why is this so important?
No one can consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with their self perception.
If I see myself as a sinner, not sinning will bother me, and I will revert back to fleshly habits and excuse them. If I see that the truth is I am a saint, when I choose the flesh, it will really bug me and I will be quick to get back on track with the Spirit.
Beloved, we are human beings not human doings.
Mental health is the result of seeing ourselves as God sees us.
Over the next few nuggets we are going to look as a few verses that declare our new identity in Christ.
I hope you’ll join me for them.
Blessings!
Robyn Henning