Who am I?

I've been spending some extra time in the book of Ephesians. The first three chapters are all about who we are in Christ and what God has given to us. The last three chapters are all about our behavior in light of who we are and what we have. Too often, we put the cart before the horse. We come up with a list of Christian behaviors and highlight the law rather than focusing on who we are under the grace of God.

I think if we really knew who we were in Christ and understood that Christ's own righteous life has actually been imputed onto us-given as a gift to have in and on us, we would not strive to attain a righteousness of our own by doing everything right according to the law. We won't ever do everything right on our own strength. But thanks be to God, we are under grace, and He has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

We have right standing with God because Jesus has given us His righteousness and paid for our sin by giving His life in exchange for ours. We are bought with a price; the precious blood of Christ, and the life we now live, we live by His faith. We face temptations with His life within us facing them. We forgive our enemies the same way He forgave His enemies-by praying, "Father, forgive them. They have no idea what they have done." We are yoked with Him. He is the vine, we are the branches. He is in us and we are in Him. We are never alone. The life of God is within us through the Holy Spirit because of the gift of Jesus Christ.

Too often, we think that temptation is sin. But Jesus was tempted and He was without sin. He knew He who was and His purpose in life. If we know who we are and our purpose in life, we can say to temptation when it knocks at our door, "Go away. I am the righteouness of God in Christ Jesus. I don't do those things. I don't think those thoughts. Because Christ is in me and He's not like that. I know who I am and this sin doesn't fit with who I am." We can be so horrified that we had a tempting thought and can get discouraged and fight it with our own strength instead of exposing it to the light of God and turning to the life of Jesus within us. We get to feeling condemned and sometimes finally give up and yield to the temptation because we thought we were sinning to have the temptation in the first place. But thoughts will come to our door and knock. We sometimes open the door to see who is there, but we must not invite them in for a cup of tea. Close the door and go on and do something in keeping with who you truly are. Turning on the light is the best way to deal with darkness.

I went online and printed out some verses about who we are in Christ. The list is taken from Dr. Neil Anderson's book 'Victory over the Darkness.' I wrote out the truth and the verses on little index cards and I want to make them available to you. Print them out and think about them. Meditate, digest, and commit them to memory. And then live a life full of grace and freedom, being who you are in Him, rather than focusing on what you should or should not do or on what you should or should not have done.

Continued on next blog...(All verses are quoted in the NKJV with the exception of one.)