“My Identity in Christ”
Colossians 1:9-14
1. Illus. of elementary school
• Classmates assign a “value” to the other kids. This one is the “smart” one, that one is the “plain” one.
• Truth is, so often who that child is, is the exact opposite of the lable given to him or her!
2. Who are you? Before you became a Christian, Satan and the world system gave you a spiritual identity. They told you that you were the drunk, or the loser, or the ugly one, or the one who could never get anything right. And guess what? That is exactly how you lived, because that’s who you thought you were.
3. When you became a Christian you received a new spiritual identity. See vs 12. Qualified = empowered, made competent. When you become a believer, God gives you a new spiritual identity that is worthy of a member of the Kingdom of Light. Now you are a child of God, a branch on the true vine, accepted in the beloved, more than conquerors through Christ Jesus.
4. Unfortunately, many believers continue to operate out of their old spiritual identity, instead of realizing who they are in Christ and operating out of their new spiritual identity. Instead of living like the spiritually wealthy kings we are, we live in the spiritual poverty of the peasant we were.
5. Text: Paul tells the Colossians that God is pleased when they know who they are in Jesus Christ, and they live according to that new spiritual identity.
6. Today: God is pleased when we know who we are in Christ, and when we live according to this new spiritual identity.
7. What is this new spiritual identity? Three aspects of it.
I. AS A BELIEVER, I AM FREE FROM THE AUTHORITY OF SATAN
1. See vs 13. Look at that phrase, power of darkness… The word is and is normally translated “authority.” Before you became a Christian, you belonged to Satan’s kingdom, and you were under the authority of Satan. He had the right to do anything he wanted to in your life.
2. But when you became a Christian, you were translated into the Kingdom that belongs to Christ. You are no longer in Satan’s kingdom, and you are no longer under his authority.
3. The only authority Satan has to operate in our life is the authority we give him! See Ephesians 4:27. Place = and it means ground, opportunity. Think of it as “legal right.”
4. We can no longer truthfully say, “the devil made me do it.” We have been freed from the authority of Satan.
II. AS A BELIEVER, I AM THE PROPERTY OF JESUS CHRIST
1. There is a price tag attached to our translation into the Kingdom of Christ. Look at vs 13-14 again. He has translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood…
2. There are two sides to the New Testament concept of redemption. One side is that something or someone is set free by payment of a price. The other side is that this something or someone that is redeemed becomes the possession of the redeemer.
3. When Christ redeems us with His blood, we are set free from the authority of Satan. The flip side of the coin is this, however: when we are redeemed, we become the personal property of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are His to do with as He desires.
4. Illus. of my ’64 Chevy
• Need a car to drive back and forth to my job at the grocery store.
• I had saved a few hundred dollars driving dad’s car to work.
• My dad and I searched the want-ads, and looked at several cars.
• Black ’64 Chevy had been owned by one guy, whose parents bought it for him when he graduated high school.
• Took every dollar I had, but I bought that car and drove it home. Dawned on me that this car was MINE! If I wanted to change tires etc. on it I could, because it belonged to me.
• That’s precisely the picture of redemption in the New Testament. We were bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus, and now we belong to Him!
5. See 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20. I cannot live any way I want to, or do anything I want to. I am not my own. My body and spirit have been bought with a price. I hear Christians saying, “I want this…I want that.” “I’m planning on doing this…I’m planning on doing that.” “I’ve got the right to this…I’ve go the right to that.” We don’t have any wants, goals, or rights. We gave all that up to Jesus when He redeemed us. We only have His wants, His goals, His rights.
6. As a believer, I am the property of Jesus Christ.
III. AS A BELIEVER, I AM FORGIVEN FOR MY PAST
1. See vs 14. “the forgiveness of sins…” The word forgive literally means, “to place away.” When you become a believer, your sins are placed away from you. You’re forgiven!
2. Illus. of scapegoat
• On Day of Atonement, two goats used necessary to make the sacrifice.
• One High Priest would whisper over, naming the sins of the nation. Other goat was slain, blood poured on the mercy seat.
• Scapegoat was taken out into the wilderness, driven away from camp. He would NEVER find his way back into the camp.
• There was a message acted out that day. “Because of the poured out blood, your sins have been placed away from you, never to return.
• That’s what Christ has done for us. He has forgiven- placed away- our sins!
3. Satan would love for you and I see ourselves through the lens of our old B.C. (before Christ) life. When we start to amount to something for the Kingdom, he loves point back at our old life and say, “why you’re not anything. You’re a drunk, a liar, a gossip, a womanizer, a whatever.” And the truth of the matter is, we used to be exactly that. But then Jesus came, and those things were forgiven.
4. I am forgiven for my transgressions.
