We are created as image bearers of God.
As a believer it is important to understand our identity in Jesus Christ the anointed life of God.
When Jesus enters our life, we receive this anointed life of God.
There are two Identities and we all carry one or the other.
Two Identities:
-Sinner/Believer
Who am I going to Identify with?
Will I Identify with the Kingdom of God or do I Identify with the world?
What do sinners do?…they Sin….that is there Identity.
Identity determines our actions.
You can take a pig and its identity will determine what it acts like. A pig will not act like a do or a cat because its identity is a pig.
What do believers do?…..they believe.
We are created in God’s Image.
Genesis 1:26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Man we created as an image bearer of an almighty God.
…..But what about sin?
It is important that we remember that before sin, we were created as image bearers of God.
Sin came in to destroy that.
When we identify with the Bible and the Truth of God’s word, we realize that we are image bearer.
I was created is God’s image.
I was created to radiate God to other people.
God said….it was very good.
You are not a mistake!!!!!
No matter where you are in your life…..you are not a mistake.
As the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are a three part being, we were also created in a three part being.
-Body
-Soul
-Spirit
If I were laying here in a casket, you could come by and identify my body as Luke’s body, but in reality, that is not who I am.
-I live in a body.
-I own a mind, will, and emotions
-My spirit is what goes on to eternity.
The First Adam
The first Adam lived in a perfect world.
-When God breathed into Adam the breath of life, Adam became a living Spirit.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
You are whoever God says you are.
-If He says that you are a sinner…..you are a sinner.
-If He says that you are a believer….you are a believer.
Man became a living Soul.
Have you ever ask the question, what is wrong with this and what is wrong with that?
-This is an illegitimate question.
Satan questioned God in the garden….yea, hath God said?….Is there anything wrong with eating that fruit?
-Do you think that the fruit looked bad?…or even tasted bad?
What caused the sin in the garden?
It is not what is wrong with something but what does God say about it?
We must start Identifying with what God says!!
God said, Do not eat of that tree!
What happened when they took and ate the fruit of the tree?
-When they took of the fruit of the tree, God departed and Satan entered.
There are only two Supernatural Powers.
We will Identify with on or the other.
When Adam and Eve listened to the serpent, they chose to identify with Satan.
-God’s Spirit departed from them, was cut off, and Satan had a legal right to man.
-They died a spiritual death and there identity was changed.
Everyone that has been born since the fall of man, are born a sinner.
Who we are is determined by birth!
You are whoever God says you are!
It doesn’t matter who we say we are or even how we act…our identity is determined by birth.
Second Adam
1Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
The Second Adam is a life giving Spirit.
-we are first born a physical birth and our second birth is a spiritual birth.
Our Identity comes from birth and not from what we do!!!
Birth established Identity.
How long does a person have to go to church to become a Christian?
Our problem is not our actions but our Identity!
-If our identity is a sinner, we are going to sin.
-If our identity is a believer, we will believe and out of that comes faith, repentance, and so on.
Birth establishes Identity and Identity produces Actions.
We need to get our Identity right first.
Whatever is coming from our life is coming from our Identity.
Once I become a believer, out of that comes Faith.
Before we become a believer, our action are only show and tell, and dead works.
There are people that are born again and at times they try to live out of the grave yard……Woe….STOP….If our Identity is with Jesus……let’s not go back to the old man.
Our spirit is our Identity.
The Greatest miracle of all time is when Christ indwells our spirit.
We all need to die to sin and experience this transformation of the new (spiritual) birth.
The new birth is a transformation.
Jesus Christ works from the inside out….but we have an adversary, Satan, and he will come at us from the outside in.
If we agree with Satan, we will live out those lies that come at us from the outside.
Satan works through,
-Physical wounds- I am ugly
-Emotional wounds- I fell worthless
-And finally we identify with God’s enemy- I am a nobody
The Holy Spirit will never tell us something that contradicts or goes against God’s word.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
If something does not line up with God’s word…..do not follow it!
Jesus Christ works from the inside out.
The New Birth
-Believing is a choice.
-Honesty is a choice.
If or when I choose to believe…..I will receive the gift of faith.
When I choose to be honest…..I will receive the gift of repentance.
When I cry out in repentance….I will receive the gift of mercy.
Our Identity needs to be changed.
-The cross is for the sinner.
-The blood of Christ is for our sins.
We need to cry out to God because all of our actions separate us from God.
We need to verbalize our sin before God and He will wash us clean.
We need to come before God in repentance and repent of our sin nature Identity.
God will indwell our Spirit and we will have a new Identity.
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This new birth is a birth into a new kingdom that cannot be seen with human eyes.
God puts Himself inside human existence.
We must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
It is the Divine Nature placed in us.
You can argue Bible and Doctrine with someone that is not born again and it will not compute or make sense.
2Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
The Divine Nature and Spirit of the Living God is put within us….it is a mystery that few understand.
Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
It is a treasure to be prized.
2Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined 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 excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
You are who God says you are!
John 3
16 For God so loved (___), that he gave his only begotten Son, that (when___) believeth in him (___) shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into (___) to condemn (___); but that ____ through him might be saved.
18 (When___) believeth on him (___) is not condemned: but (if___) believeth not (___) is condemned already, because (___) hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Matthew 16:13 ¶ When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Is your Identity, Christ in you?……the anointed life of God.
Summary:
-We are 1st created as IMAGE bearers of God,…
-Because of sin entering into the human race through Adam, We are all born separated from God…
-We sin as sinners because it is in our Identity…
-We are born sinners therefore we sin…
-Behavior modification will not change a sinners Identity…
-Baptism does not change a sinners Identity…
-Only a NEW BIRTH will change Identity…
-We are what we are born….
-Birth establishes Identity…
-When we are Born-Again our Identity is Christ and we become like Christ because of Identity…
-Identity produces Action…
-Right actions will not produce righteous Identity….
-Righteous Identity in Christ will produce Righteous Actions…
-credit to Dwayne Sensenig