Identity in Christ | BELIEVE | Randy Frazee

Key Question: Who Am I?

Spiritual Orphans

Therefore, remember that formerly  you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (pg. 87; Ephesians 2:11-13)

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 1:18)

Adopted

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b]predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. (Ephesians 1:3-5)

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. (pg. 86; Romans 8:15a)

A New Name

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (pg. 81; John 1:12)

And by him we cry, “Abba,[g] Father.” (pg. 86, Romans 8:15b)

Citizenship

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household (pg. 87, Ephesians 1:19)

Heir

13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (pg. 90; 1 Peter 1:3-5)

A Future

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1-20)

Challenge

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Don’t live as spiritual orphans but as children of God.

Key Idea: I am significant, because of my position as a child of God.

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