A. A Christian.
1. Acts 11:26 "and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch."
a. This was a title first used by pagan gentiles in Syrian Antioch. It was intended to be a slur name.
2. Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?"
3. 1 Peter 4:16 "However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name."
a. A Christian is a Christ-one, one who is identified with Jesus by belief and behavior.
B. Child of God.
1. John 1:12 "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."
a. We are not born children of God. We become children of God through Jesus.
C. Son of God.
1. Gal. 3:26-29 "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
2. Gal. 4:1-7 "What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."
a. A person becomes a son (child) of God by regeneration or the new birth. We are adopted or put into the full position of a full-grown son by God. This gives us equal responsibilities and privileges with those Christians who have been saved longer.
3. 2 Cor 6:17-18 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
a. For us to enjoy the everyday blessings of our father-son relationship we must live a holy and separated life. If a person is a genuine Born-Again Christian there will be a radical change in behavior. Our present condition will continue to change. Our position was permanently and completely changed at the moment of our salvation.
D. A New Creation.
1. 2 Cor. 5:14-21 "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. e are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
a. We bring into our lives lots of bad attitudes, habits, deeds, etc. This is why we are told to change daily. Our condition is always changing but our position is always the same because it was completely and totally changed forever by Jesus at the moment of salvation.
2. Gal. 6:15 "Neither circumcision nor un-circumcision <works> means anything; what counts is a new creation."
3. Eph. 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
a. We were once in a lost, condemned position, but now we are in a saved acceptable position. This created position will produce practical evidence by the creation of good works in our lives.
E. A Holy and Royal Priesthood.
1.1 Peter 2:5-9 "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a <holy priesthood>, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, and, A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the message which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, <a royal priesthood>, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
a. We have been set aside by God as a holy, royal priesthood. This was made possible through the redeeming shed blood of Jesus on the Cross.
2. Rev. 1:5-10 "and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. 'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.' I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet."
a. The Born-Again Christian will reign with Jesus during the millennium as priests.
3. Heb. 13:15-16 "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."
a. As priests we are to offer spiritual sacrifices to God today as well as in the future. These sacrifices are praise and thanksgiving for all He has done and all He is doing.
4. Phil. 4:18 "have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God."
a. Financial giving is also a sacrifice.
5. 2 Tim. 4:6 "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure."
a. For some, the sacrifice will be to die for Jesus.
6. Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will."
a. We are to offer to God our bodies and our minds as a sacrifice.
F. A Chosen People.
1.1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a <chosen people>, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
a. We are part of a chosen generation, a new breed and race.
2. Eph 1:4 "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."
a. We were chosen in eternity past to be a member of this special generation.
G. A Holy Nation.
1. 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a <holy nation>, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
a. We have been separated from the world as a special people unto God.
2. John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."
a. Holy means separated. Our basic and primary allegiance is to the kingdom of Jesus, which is not of this world.
H. Belong To God.
1. 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people <belonging to God>, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
a. We are a people for God's exclusive possession. This was part of the goal of Jesus' death.
2. Titus 2:14 "who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."
a. God has possessed us so that we might be pure and that we might be brought to Him. This sets us apart as God's possession. We belong to him now, rather than belonging to ourselves.
I. Citizen of Heaven.
1. Phil 3:20 "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ."
2. Luke 10:20 "However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
3. Heb 12:22-23 "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect."
a. Every Born-Again Christian has their name written down in Heaven.
4. Heb. 11:14-16 "People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."
a. We are members of the heavenly Jerusalem. We are actually aliens here on earth. We are just passing through to get to our true home which is heaven.
5. 1 Peter 2:11 "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul."
a. Because we are aliens and strangers in this world we should not let it get us caught in its desires and pleasures as we are just staying here for a short time.
J. Free From The Law.
1. Rom. 6:14 "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
a. Sin has dominion through the law, but we are now under grace.
2. 1 Cor. 15:56 "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law."
3. Rom. 7:7-10 "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.' But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death."
a. The human inability to keep the law brought forth their sin and put them under the curse of the broken law.
4. Gal 3:13 "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
a. Jesus redeemed us from the "curse of the law by becoming a curse for us". Faith in Jesus releases us from the obligation to the broken law and from any obligation to keep the law.
K. Member of the Household of God.
1. Eph. 2:19 "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household."
2. 1 Peter 2:5 "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
a. We are like bricks that are used in building a house. Only this is a spiritual house made of living stones.
3. Eph. 2:20-22 "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."
a. Not only are we as living stones making up the house of God, but we are the house of God. The Holy Spirit is the mortar that binds all Born-Again Christians together.
L. Heir of God.
1. Gal. 4:7 "So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."
a. An inheritance is not worked for, it is freely given. The value of the inheritance is based on the wealth of the giver. A person can only give that which they possess.
2. Luke 12:33 "Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys."
a. Our treasure in Heaven can never be stolen or spoiled. This treasure is our inheritance. It is guaranteed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and will be fully revealed at the soon coming of Jesus.
M. Child of the Light.
1. John 1:4 "In him was life, and that life was the light of men."
a. Jesus is both light and life. We share in both of them.
2. Eph 5:8 "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light."
a. As light we are not destined for darkness. Positionally we are morally and spiritually transparent in God's sight. There is not a single flaw or dark spot in our position. We are in Jesus, and Jesus has no darkness.
N. The Bride Of Christ
1. Rev 19:7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready”.
2. Song Of Songs - Entire book
3. Rev 19:9 “Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!'" (NKJV)
