We have talked about how our identities are not determined by who others say we are or what we have but determined by the fact that we are made in God’s image and that our true identities are found in Him. We also discovered that the most important person in our lives determines how we see ourselves. For us as Christians, that person should be Jesus Christ. However, how exactly does He see us? In Ephesians 1:3-8, the apostle Paul shares Christ’s view of us, which we will look at this week and next.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.
In this passage, we see six qualities that give us our identities. We will unpack three this week and three next week.
1.) Blessed. While the first Adam brought a curse upon us, the second Adam Jesus Christ brought us a blessing. Through Him, we are blessed. God always does what is best for us, even when we don’t deserve it. We may try and fight Him, we may try to do things our own way, but God always looks upon us with favor. We are blessed.
2.) Chosen. It didn’t matter what sport I played; except for baseball, I was always one of the last ones chosen. I was always too short for basketball and too small for football. But in Christ, I am God’s choice. He never says, “I’ll settle for you because there is no one else left.” Instead, He says, “I choose you because I created you and because I want to spend eternity with you.”
3.) Loved. I will admit that I have a difficult time believing that Christ loves me unconditionally. What that means is that He knows everything about me, my failures, foibles, and flaws yet He still loves me. He doesn’t love me because of what I do or don’t do. I can’t earn more of His love or lose any of His love. In reality, His loving me has more to do with who He is than who I am. God is love, and He loves me unconditionally.
Not only does He love me unconditionally, He loves me with an everlasting love. When you think about it, every form of human love has limitations. Relationships change, friends come and go. Not with Christ. His love for us won’t even run out in eternity. He has loved us, continues to love us, and will love us forever. His love is everlasting.
So according to Paul, we are blessed, chosen, and loved. But that isn’t all. Next week we will look at the next three qualities that we can base our identities upon.
Conversation:
- Which one of these three qualities do you identify the most with?
- Which one do you have the most difficult time wrapping your mind around?
I am indebted to Frank Bondarant for the ideas behind this month's topic.
Recommended Book
You are NOT who you think you are. In fact, according to bestselling author Craig Groeschel in Altar Ego, you need to take your idea of your own identity, lay it down on the altar, and sacrifice it. Give it to God. Offer it up.
Why? Because you are who GOD says you are. And until you’ve sacrificed your broken concept of your identity, you won’t become who you are meant to be.
When we place our false labels and self-deception on the altar of God’s truth, we discover who we really are as his sons and daughters. Instead of an outward-driven, approval-based ego, we learn to live with an “altar” ego, God’s vision of who we are becoming.
Discover how to trade in your broken ego and unleash your altar ego to become a living sacrifice. Once we know our true identity and are growing in our Christ-like character, then we can behave accordingly, with bold behavior, bold prayers, bold words, and bold obedience.
Altar Ego reveals who God says you are, and then calls you to live up to it.