SHILOH MESSENGER - March 2017
















Identity, How We View Ourselves (pt 2)

So, if the real issue is a problem of identity, how does the gospel address and solve that problem? Paul actually addresses this very question multiple times in his letters; we just haven’t seen it yet because we’ve always kept the problem outside of us. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefor with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,” Romans 6:3-8

In this passage Paul describes how the death and resurrection of Jesus are applied to us. Notice nowhere in this passage does Paul use substitutionary language. He never says Jesus died for us. Most Christians are trying to live their life according to the principle that Jesus died for us so we should live for him. That sounds good, but living for God was actually the subject of the Old Testament. Jesus empowers us to go beyond the Old Testament into the New!

So what language does Paul use in this passage? He uses language of union. He says that we have died with him and been resurrected with him. He says that we are united with Jesus on the cross (“in a death like his” means death on the cross), burial and resurrection. Paul uses this language over and over in his letters. Here are a few more examples: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20. Set your minds on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God,” Colossians 3:2-3. This is a paradigm shift on the gospel. It means that the way the identity problem is solved is that the old us is killed, and a new us is born. When Jesus died, he brought the old us with him to the cross; and when he was resurrected, we were born to new life. We are quite literally a different person than we were before we believed in Jesus. In fact, Paul says exactly that same thing: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (or creature). The old has passed away; behold, the new has come,” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

The gospel message is that we are made new! We are a new person, and that new person is in no way who we were before. The person that was marred by sin died with Jesus and was buried with him in a tomb 2,000 years ago. The person that we are now is restored back into the image of God: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers,” Romans 8:29….”and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness,” Ephesians 4:24. See the whole point of this thing is about the likeness of God restored! Jesus is after restoring what was lost in the garden: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost,” Luke 19:10. This is why Jesus drafts us into his compassion. In doing that, Jesus pulls us back up to the original mission given in the garden: to be the face of God on this planet. This commission is described repeatedly throughout the Scriptures. You can see it here in the commission given to the disciples in the Gospel of John: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father, has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” John 20:21-22.

If you think about it, this is an astounding statement: “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” How was Jesus sent by the Father? He wasn’t just sent to this world to save it (although that was definitely a big part of it); he was sent as the revelation of who the Father is. He was able to say to Phillip in John 14, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” This is the way that Jesus was sent by the Father, and this is the way he sends us. We ought to be able to say, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen Jesus.” We are now the face of Jesus to the world. That’s why we’re called the body of Christ. Jesus was God incarnate; he was God in a body. He then commissions us to that same call and says in effect, “Alright, you’re the body. Here comes God!” And he breathes on us, and God in the form of the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. We become God incarnate as well—the face of Jesus to the world. You could sum it up like this: Jesus died as us so we could live as Him (1John 4:17).

I hope you’re getting this. Even as I write, I’m so excited! This is the gospel; the good news, and it’s pretty much so good that you’ll have to have faith to believe just like Abraham: “Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous, "Romans 4:20-21.

 


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