Chapter 1 |
Chapter 4 |
Chapter 5 |
Chapter 3 |
Chapter 2 |
Chapter 3 |
Chapter 5 |
Chapter 4 |
"For the Spirit which you have know received is not a Spirit of slavery to put you once more into bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit producing sonship in the bliss of which we cry, Abba, Father! Father! The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God." Romans 8:15-16. During my school days, a classmate had discovered she had been adopted-causing her to become insecure in her identity and position at home. She struggled in her mind with rejection and a feeling of no value. Eventually, with the help of counseling and loving parents, she was able to find peace of mind and identity in her home and past. Now, we may not be familiar with this event in our personal life but we may be surprised to read that identity is a major problem in the body of Christ. Today many in the church either do not know, or struggle to comprehend their identity in Christ. Yet, it is critical to their growth and continual walk of victory to understand exactly what has happened in and through the the work of he cross. Identity; Our Value As sons of God we need to know our identity in Christ. We need to know our value or estimation of our worth, a worth that comes as a result of knowing the value God has placed on us. We must be convinced we are valuable. Not a value that comes from being strong-headed or based on earthly position or heritage, but a value based on how God sees and has positioned us in His Son through the work of the cross. Simple our value is based on the death and resurection of God's Son and His ultimate payment by shedding His blood for all humanity. We are this valued commodity That makes us of great value! One of the greatest life changing truths we can discover, is our value before God. And when this happens we are then ready to identify ourselves with Him. In turn bringing us into one of life's richest experiences as a believer. Friend, the cross not only demonstrates the unconditianal love of God, it reveals our worth as an individual and raises us to a new dimension as a son of the All Mighty Father, a new identity. By us becoming aware of Jesus as our Savior, we become aware of the absolute rights and privileges of sons that has been imputed to us. Identify as Sons of God "But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority, power, privilege, right to become the children of God, that is to those who believe in, adhere to, trust in, and rely on His name." John 1:12. "The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God." (or sons of God). Romans 8:16. "And because you really are His sons, God has sent the Holy Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father! Father!" Galatians 4:6. Throughout these Scriptures we are identified, positioned as sons or as having adult sonship. Simply, we are a part of the family of God, a part of His household, a part of His kingdom. Identified means, "to establish identity." As sons we are associated with Him through relationship and we are to share His characteristics, resemble, even be identical, a mirrored image of the Father. Positioned means, "a proper place, a place of advantage, a place of rank and stature." In other words, in our new identity or position, we are imputed, by the Spirit, inherent rights with all its advantages and proper benefits that have become ours through the Spirit of grace. "And if children, sons, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." Romans 8:17. As God's sons, it is vital that we learn and understand what has been conferred on us, the benefits of our new birth. Why is it important? So we can, by the Spirit, walk out the fullness of the life in Christ within and be effective in doing the will of God in this temporal life. Credited Our Position Romans 4:5 says, "But to one who, not working by the Law, trust believes fully in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness, the standing acceptable to God." Verse 6 says, "God credits" verse 3 "Credited to his (our) account" Romans 6:11 says, "We are to reckon ourselves" The words credited or reckon also mean, imputed or counted on. Simply, we can claim for ourselves that which God says is true about us in His Word. Through reconciliation we have been credited a new identity and we are to reckon it as ours and benefit from it! Now, we did not receive this status as sons by anything we have accomplished but through Christ's accomplishments. By believing in what He has done by faith, we are taken from a state of mind of indebtedness and bankrupt and placed into stature of adult sonship. Because of this, it should be our desire to know and to fully understand this incredible place of identity. We should endeavor to study and ponder these truths, so we may see our Father's true heart towards us as His sons. Positional and Temporal Dear friend, in order to see our Father's heart we must understand positional identity. Positional truths are essential to the progression of our temporal life. In other words, our position in Christ must first be established in our position or identity, in order to live the life of Christ in this temporal earthly walk. Temporal truths are simply the correct application of a positional truth. For example, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, Righteousness meaning "I have right standing before God, without guilt, condemnation or inferiority." Now we did not receive this new found righteousness by anything we have done. We received it by free grace through Jesus and what He had done. This righteousness is a positional truth. Positional meaning placed into a position of identity.through the reconciled work of the cross. This positional truth must now be moved from the realm of the Spirit to the realm of our everyday temporal lives. We must see ourselves first by the spirit as righteous before God by faith. As this truth becomes a reality to our soul or mind, we will then act out of our position by the spirit, which in turn causes righteous fruit to be produced in our temporal lives by the spirit. Remember this, the flesh in and of itself cannot walk righteous and is dieing but you are spirit and alive unto Christ and hidden in Christ. We must become righteous conscious instead of flesh conscious. The reason many believers struggle today is because they are flesh conscious or trying to make the flesh holy. The flesh will never be holy so stop trying to make it holy but become righteous conscious and inturn the flesh will submit to our sonship. We must receive knowledge of our position of sons, then the understanding which inturn produces wisdom. Then we apply grace, the enabling power of God to the wisdom of our understanding, which affects our life walk meaning an outward physical function. In Christ. we must walk it one step at a time-no one else will walk it for us. In other words, when we recognize our identity or position as sons of God, we can then transfer this understanding by the spirit to our daily walk, then producing and experiencing the desired results of our position in everyday life through Christ. Live Out Of Identity Let me give you a human example. If I tell a cow to be a cat, this not only would be foolish, it would be impossible. A cow is a cow, not a cat and if she is allowed to be herself, she will produce many more cows. Likewise, as we become aware of God reconciliation we become a believer. Our new identity is to the awareness of the new nature. What is our new nature-identity? Well, for one thing, we have been declared righteous! If this is true, then righteous people should produce righteousness. Why? It is their nature. Simply, we need to stop trying to be something we are not, a sinner! And walk in our position of righteousness, which is the real, us, saints or sons of God. Kenneth Wuest's Greek New Testament says in Romans 12:2, "And stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being." What is representative of our inner being? A new nature, creation or creature all together, which is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. If this were true, then we should act according to this nature, the God nature. Not the nature of the flesh conscious! Walk By Faith Now this position must be appropriated by faith-you must believe it. If you do not, then you will never walk out the full benefits of your position because you will be dictated by the flesh, which is the work of the law. Friend, to know and understand our sonship or position and the benefits of this position by faith, is the heart of a Father. He desires all His children or sons to partake of their rightful inheritance through Christ. Often we lose out on these benefits because of wrong religious attitudes, which create unbelief. Unbelief causes us to see through the eyes of flesh conscious instead of the eyes of our Heavenly Father, righteousness conscious. Knowing this truth will affect our temporal walk. Walking In the New Self I personally believe we have been teaching more on striving with God, the do's and don'ts of legalism! When we should be telling people who and what they have become, righteous!. Those who know their position in Christ as sons will live out of their real nature, the God nature, which is righteous! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any person is engrafted in Christ the Messiah he is a new creation, a new creature altogether; the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!" Friend, you are a new creature altogether-that old moral and spiritual condition has passed away. no longer see yourself after the flesh. We are now identified in Christ. God sees us as justified, declared righteous, sanctified-holy, made complete in Him. He sees us as sons in our proper place with access to all its benefits. The problem we have is that we are trying to view God's redemptive work by the flesh. This cannot be decerned or understood by flesh and in turn we simply can not believe that the God of this universe could show us such unconditional love, but He has. So become righteousness conscious and believe it! |
Copyright Roxy J Nolin 1997 |
Chapter 1 |
Holy, As He Is So Are We By Roxy J Nolin Chapter 1 Our Idenitity; Holy |
The Book Holy, As He Is So Are We |
