Identify Yourself

I was listening to a song yesterday – a song that I liked for the most part, but there was one part that didn’t really jive with me. It went, “I am a sinner, if it’s not one thing it’s another – caught up in words and tangled in lies.” It goes on to say how Jesus is our Savior and that He’s taken our brokenness aside and made it beautiful. Happy ending. I’ve got a bone to pick with the first line though. If you’ve made Jesus your Lord, then you can longer identify yourself as a sinner. Don’t believe the lie that you’re just an old sinner saved by grace. You WERE a sinner, but you HAVE BEEN saved by grace. Once saved by grace, no longer a sinner.

God’s word says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that, “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is how we need to identify ourselves. Now and forever righteous by the finished work of Jesus. He took on our sin identity so we could have His righteous identity. Start identifying yourself how God identifies you. You’ll start making better decisions as a result, since your identity is found in Jesus!

The reason why it’s vital we correctly identify ourselves is because our actions will fall in line with our identity. For example, I’ve been happily married for 10 years to the love of my life. I used to be single but now I’m married. If I continue to think that I’m single and identify with that falsity, then I will end up making a wrong decision sooner or later. I can’t be married and identify with being single. When we think we’re something that we used to be – that we’re not anymore – then we will end up making poor decisions as a result.