Who Am I? (May 17th)
Romans 8.1-18 (NLT)
How many of you have those little key fobs on your key chains? If you have one with you, pull it out for a moment and flip through it. I brought mine with me today. Let’s see what I’ve got here. Kroger Plus Card, Lassus Handy Dandy Rewards Card, Pharmacare Card, Blockbuster Rewards Card, Best Buy Reward Zone Card, Anytime Fitness Key Fob, and Babies R Us Rewards Card. Looking at each of the pieces I have here, I feel like someone could deduce a little bit about me. Apart from the fact that I enjoy utilizing the reward benefits and multiple stores, I enjoy movies and electronics, have a child, and an interest in staying fit. What about you? What do your key tags say about you?
Sometimes I think the pieces of our lives become like these little key tags. They mark and identify who we are, the things that we do, and the ways in which we respond to different situations. They are simply little snippets of our lives, but they aren’t the whole picture, are they? Are we to be defined by the tiny pieces of our lives or is there something bigger and greater that we are called to be a part of?
You know, sometimes I feel like there has got to be something bigger and better and greater than all of our everyday experiences. We tied down to and bogged down with all of the temporal things of this life – the drama, the chaos, the complacency, the little nitpicky things of life. We almost get to the point where we feel enslaved to the everydayness of life, and then passages like this morning’s Scripture rip me back to the reality that is not of this world.
The very first verse of this morning’s Scripture tells us explicitly that there is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. This means that there is no judgment, no guilt, no condemning of the people who put their full trust in Jesus as Lord and Messiah. This does not mean that we will never sin, because that is simply a reality of being human. We are a broken people who are constantly seeking to be restored to their Creator. But the realization that comes through this passage is that no matter what we do, no matter what our key tags say about us, our hope and salvation are found in our trust in Christ. This is wonderful news for us!
We find the reasoning for this in verses 3 and 4. The Message version states, “God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.” Right here is the crux of the message. The law that was set in place under the Old Covenant, before Jesus, demanded things of us that we could never ourselves accomplish. So Jesus, the Son of God, came so that we might be freed from that old law, from suffering under the penalty of our own sins, and find life in Him.
And what then is the result of such a life? Verses 5-9. Paul is pitting life in the world versus life in Christ. Are you to be controlled by your sinful nature or by the Spirit of God? The Scriptures remind us over and over again of who we are in Christ and one of particular importance is that we are united with Christ. Not just united as a body of Christ and with one another, but when we accept Christ as our Lord, we become a part of Him. This means that everything we do, everything we say, every aspect of our being is to be informed by that particular relationship, by that identity. We often ask ourselves, how are we to respond to a particular situation or circumstance. Perhaps even this morning you have come seeking a specific answer to a problem in your life. We don’t always have the answers, and the good book isn’t always specific. Instead, we are called to come to know God more, to spend more time with Him, to seek to understand Him more deliberately and more deeply. And through that relationship, through better understanding who God is, then we can know how to respond to life in this world. When we find our identity in Christ, we are so much more capable of answering the question, “Who am I?” So, is your life with Christ simply another key tag on your key chain or is your identity placed fully and completely in Him such that your every aspect of your life is informed by Christ’s impact on your life?
And here comes the promise. If you are truly living life in the Spirit, if you are truly allowing yourself to be directed by the will and wisdom of God, then you will not be controlled by your sinful nature. Verse 10 in the Message says, “But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms.”
Let’s check out this video that speaks about just that.
You must begin to see yourself for who you really are. You are free. Free from guilt. Free from brokenness. Free from sin. All this simply upon the acceptance that Jesus Christ has paid the price for you. Allow your life to be transformed by Him. Verses 12-14: “12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” And continuing on in verses 17-18: “And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory… What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.” You see, our spiritual situation is so much greater than our temporal issues. So whatever it is that we are facing, wherever it is that we are in this world, the important thing to realize is that as Christians, we are each part of something much larger than simply the here and now.
My question to you this morning is are you viewing your life as if you are simply made up of a bunch of different pieces, just like these key tags or does your life have a higher, more unified purpose? Are you living your life in light of the freedom and grace that Christ has given you?
So, who am I? I am a child of God. I am one with Christ. I am living in the fullness and the freedom of the Spirit.
