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

-Ephesians 2:10

There are some of you, reading or watching these devotionals that don’t know who I am so allow me to run down a list for you.  I am a proud husband, a proud father, a proud educator, a proud preacher, and a proud biker.

Now let me present you with a different list for comparison.  I am a christian father, a christian educator, a christian preacher, and a christian biker. 

Each item in the first list has one word in common, “proud.”  This word implies that these are accomplishments of my own doing, things that feed a vain nature within me.  A list of “look at me and look what I did.”

Each item in the second list has a different word in common, “christian.”  This word gives the glory and honor to Christ and is a more appropriate descriptor of who I am as opposed to what I have done.  This second list has a more humbling effect because it puts the focus on God, and not on me.  This is a list of “look at what God has done for me and in my life.”

The first list is how we usually identify ourselves to others when they ask about who we are.  We give them a list of things we do or have done in our lives.  It is usually all about us and the things we have achieved.  However, if we have surrendered our lives to Christ we understand the meaning of these words in Colossians:

“​​For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

-Colossians 3:3

We use these descriptors as our identity.  Sometimes, these various identities dictate so much about our lives, right down to how we act and even how we dress.  But we can accept a new identity, one that covers every single aspect of our lives, and that is our identity in Christ.  Who we are is no longer defined by what WE have done or what WE do.  We are defined by what God has done for us and our relationship with Him.  What separates this identity from our earthly identity?  It really boils down to the truth between our perception of who we truly are compared to who we truly are in Christ. 

“But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”

-1 Corinthians 6:17

God has granted us the free gift of eternal life, eternal joy, eternal peace, through the free gift of His love.  Each of us, whether we choose to admit it or not, are born under a heavy debt, one that we can never pay.  We are all born under an insurmountable mountain of sin.  This debt crushes our spirit and separates us from God.  The Good News is that the debt is paid, at a great cost, but it has been paid.  Jesus Christ, God’s only son, was sent to the cross where he took upon himself the sins of the world and he was crucified.  So then why do we even discuss the possibility of an eternity in hell, if the debt for our sin has been paid?  It’s because we have to accept this free gift of grace through faith.  When we follow Christ, we are placing our faith in Him and we are repenting of our sinful ways, we are taking on a new life, a new identity.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said 

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

We must die to our old self, our old ways, if we are to be truly saved.  Once you experience genuine salvation, it is yours forever.  In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, he writes 

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.  They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.  They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.  But that is not the way you learned Christ!—  assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,  to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,  and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,  and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

-Ephesians 4:17-24

Do you see how Paul’s words and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words are so similar?  We accept this new life, this free gift of grace, and we become new.  We gain a new identity, one that is far more meaningful than anything we could ever accomplish on our own.  We become children of God and heirs with Christ.  That is the only identity we should strive for. 

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

-John 1:12