Don’t Forget Who You Are

Don’t ever forget who you are in Christ. Especially when the world is dark, when your sin is big, when the failures of others sting, when you are confused and unsure what to do.

Remember who you are in Christ:

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).

You have been crucified with Christ; it is not you who lives any longer, but Christ who lives in you. The life that you are living in the flesh you live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved you and gave Himself for you (Gal. 2:20).

For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:10-11).

All your sin, every evil threat, every horrific deed, all of it was paid for, suffered through, swallowed up, and utterly destroyed two thousand years ago on a Roman cross, by Jesus of Nazareth who bore in His body the sins of the world. God condemned all sin in His flesh, and ransomed a great host of prisoners to freedom by His blood.

If it’s your sin that looms large, that taunts you like a Goliath, look the demon in the eyes and tell it to go to Hell because you already died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. If the Devil taunts you, if his messengers mock you, if they accuse you of being fruitless, of being worthless, of being a failure, of being contaminated by your sins or the sins of others against you, point to the cross of Jesus and His faithfulness, His perfection, His righteousness, and then calmly remind the world, remind your accusers, remind the voices in your head that the life you are living is not yours — they’ve got the wrong guy — you don’t live any longer but now only Christ lives in you, and the life you are living is all by His grace, all by His faithfulness, because He loved you and gave Himself for you.

Your standing, your security, your meaning, your value is not found in how obedient, how sinless, or how few times you’ve failed. Your identity has absolutely nothing to do with your track record. You are not what you have done. You are not what has been done to you. You are who you are in Christ. And you were crucified in Him and with Him, and you were raised with Him and by Him.

When sin rears its ugly, as it must sometimes do, God is not surprised, God is not stunned, God is not ashamed. God sent His Son to bear the curse of all your sin already. It is finished. It is over.

Walking in the light is not about being sinless. You don’t walk in the light by committing no sin. You walk in the light by confessing your sins, by refusing to lie about darkness. And when you tell the truth, when you confess your sins, God who is faithful and just forgives you of those sins and cleanses you from all unrighteousness.

The blood of Christ is the propitiation for all your sins, the billions of sins you don’t know about, the trillions of sins that never occurred to you. And when you see one tiny fraction of your messed up soul and lift it up to God for cleansing, He dumps His grace all over you, and He laughs and says: you’re all clean. You aren’t clean because you remembered to confess your sins. You aren’t clean because you didn’t do so badly this time. You’re clean because Jesus is clean. You’re righteous because Jesus is righteous. You’re perfect because Jesus is perfect. You’re holy because Jesus is Holy. You are accepted because Jesus is accepted. You are loved with an unbreakable love because Jesus is the Beloved Son of the Father.

You are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Don’t ever forget who you are.