I Am A Child Of God Series

“I Am a Child of God”

Series: Identity: Becoming Who We Are

May 7, 2017 – Brad Bailey

Intro

Last week… we began looking at the way we search for identity… for knowing who we are. Identity is the answer to the question… “Who are you?”

A common way we think about our identity… is to think of what we identify with… and what we identify with… generally comes in phases in our life.

My identity changed depending on what I was most into…

Builder

Football

Biking

Hippie… still close to heart.. as is

Surfing…most of my life until 30’s was spent at the beach and ocean

Academic

I have identified myself with each of these areas of interest and lifestyle.

In some ways…they were a PART of who I was and am… but they are not the essence of who I am.

These aspects can serve as distinguishing us…but not as defining us.

They can help us find some social fit…but not our ultimate nature and worth.

Similarly …you may be an employee… sibling… parent… spouse… volunteer. Those may serves as roles we play…but they are not the root of who we are.

Imagine if there was no one else around you… anywhere… and consider if those secondary elements provide much meaning.

The answer to “who we are” must ultimately be rooted in something that is durable something that doesn’t change.

Who you are is not defined by age or stage in life…it is about your source.

1 John 3:1 (NIRV) – “See what amazing love the Father has given us! Because of it, we are called children of God. And that’s what we really are!”

It is what we ARE…not just what we try to be… but what we ARE through Christ.

John 1:12-13 (NLT)

“[Christ] gave the right to become children of God… a birth that comes from God.”

BORN of God…

Your core identity is BIRTHED, not BUILT.

Jesus came to reconcile and restore human life… the central identity of being a child of God… of being rooted in God as Father and His eternal love.

He came to restore our true identity… the identity out of which he lived when he came into this world.

Nothing in this world could change who he was.

Christ was known as carpenter... healer... teacher... even savior. But his identity... was that of being loved by his father – who had declared over him: “this is my son... whom I love.” That is what he lived his life out of.

In this world he was popular…and rejected…and it didn’t change who he was.

This world could love him…or hate him… and it didn’t change who he was.

There would be elements of understanding and joining him…and elements of misunderstanding him and abandoning him… and it didn’t change who he was.

He lived out of the depth of knowing he was bound to God the Father…

This is what he come to restore in us. [1a]

Now ‘Child’ may not sound good if you are emerging out of childhood… ready to stop being ‘just a child’…

Being a child of God is not about age or stage in life…it is about your source.

Who you are is ultimately defined by the nature of who you came from.

And the Scriptures begin with God providing a poetic summary of his creating…and culminates in His declaring…

Genesis 1:26 (NIV)

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…”

1. I was CREATED to be a child of God… to bear the nature of God.

To consider that we were created to bear God’s image…nature…in some unique way…is not to diminish any other aspect of creation. In fact… it affirms that there is something sacred in all of creation.

The whole created realm…universe…universes are created by God.

All reflect His glory…His goodness.

Every facet of the cosmos… and every creature is sacred….created by God.

But into that biological life… one is given God’s unique image to bear…given His eternal spirit.

It means that whatever the process by which we developed… God breathed His Spirit into human life…and we became living souls… who were spiritually alive. [1b]

In this sense we were created to be children of God…not in the way of bearing one’s physical nature…but of bearing an eternal spiritual nature. [2]

We were created to represent God…to further create life… bring care and goodness.

It’s hard to fully fathom such a life…but maybe we can begin to imagine the profound security and significance that was intended.

Bible tells the story of how we chose to leave such a state… and give ourselves to the idea that we could be just like gods ourselves… more than creatures…more than humans ….and the result was that we lost the very nature we had.