OUR IDENTIFICATION IN CHRIST (Philipp. 1:16; Eph. 2:5; Rom. 8:2,10)
On his fifth session at WAFBEC 2018, Rev. Mark Hankins spoke on the believer’s identity in Christ. He used a lot of analogies during the sermon. For example, he said, “If you leave your territory for another, you will be asked for your legal identification.
He explained the term ‘Identification’ to mean ‘to consider or treat as one of the same’. So, just like our international passport is a tangible representation and identification of who we are, and gives us access and privileges depending on the nation we are a citizen of, so also identifying with the death and resurrection of Christ guarantees us certain benefits such as freedom from sin, dominion over Satan and his agents and prosperity.
WE MUST NOT LOSE OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST
Reading from Gal. 2:20, he said the phrase – ‘I am’, talks about an identification, an identification in Christ. It also shows a substitution, I.e. Christ now lives in us.
He further explained by saying that the key to understanding the gospel is in the prepositions. Little words like FOR, WITH, BY, are key to the gospel as they show our relationship with God.
For example, “Everything Jesus did he did FOR us, ON our behalf makes Him our substitute. By this, we are identified with him. Because of the identification, we are IN him, and then THROUGH him, and BY him.” Our identity with Him therefore, leads us to a union. Our Identification gives us a union with Him.
THE OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED AND THE NEW MAN IS ALIVE
Rev. Hankins told the story of a Grandfather who had a car with a remote. Sometimes his grandchildren disassemble the remote and it no longer worked, it no longer controlled the car. That is exactly what happened to us in Christ.
When Jesus died, he took the remote of our lives from the devil and it never works for him anymore to control us. Our old ‘sin-dominated’ personality has been destroyed. An executed criminal can perform no further crime. God killed the old man, so our sinful nature has no power over us any more.
However, God didn’t put our former identity on probation, it was on execution. By death, we now have freedom to live a new life. There was much problem of sin with our old self that it had to be crucified. God decided there was no point educating, counselling, or rehabilitating the old man; it was useless persuading it to be different.
Some people commit suicide when they feel they can no longer change the course of their lives. They want a new life and are so tired of their old self. Unfortunately, they cannot commit a resurrection. What God did was to kill our old man and use resurrection to give us a new life to start afresh, a new identity. The old man is the first Adam and the kind of humanity that came out of him.
“When Jesus died, he took the remote of our lives from the devil and it never works for him anymore to control us.”
In describing this old ‘sin-dominated’ personality of our, the Reverend shared three (3) factors that are known to influence behaviour. They are:
The new life in Christ, however, transcends these three.
“God didn’t put our former identity on probation, it was on execution. By death, we now have freedom to live a new life.”
WE SHOULD RECKON OURSELVES TO BE DEAD TO SIN
He further explained that once there is a death certificate, the benefits of the will must be distributed. Once we declare the blood, we claim ownership of the death certificate and take what Christ has freely given us through his death. Your identity should now be in Christ and not the three factors mentioned above.
You may have been that way but you are not ‘born again’ that way. That is why you had to be born again. Jesus came from heaven and his mission was to make that life our strongest influence. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away and all things become new. The new creature means the person had never been seen before, a new way of being human.
“Once we declare the blood, we claim ownership of the death certificate and take what Christ has freely given us through his death.”
According to Rom. 8:2 for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Rev. Mark shed more light to what the law of the spirit of life means by giving an analogy.
He said, “When you fly a plane there is the law of gravity, wind pull and other laws resisting the flight of the plane. But as the power in the engine exceeds the resistance of these forces, the plane pulls up above the laws of gravity.
There is a law of the spirit of life in Christ that supersedes the law of race, financial background, and academic qualifications. It takes us above all those limitations to fulfil what God wants to fulfil in our lives.
THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT PRODUCES NEW DESIRES
Instinct means a set of instructions in your DNA. Your spirit has the instinct of the spirit of life. It becomes what you now do by the nature of the spirit. Your new man has given you a new instinct, which makes you function as a believer not by training but by spiritual nature.
It doesn’t mean you can’t be trained further in the knowledge of Christ, but that you already have the nature. Lions can be trained to hunt better but camels can’t even be trained to hunt because they don’t have the instinct.
“You don’t try to be a new creature, it is who you are. The moment you accepted and declared Jesus’ death & resurrection, you were declared righteous and God justified you.”
According to Eph 2:5 God gave us the same life He gave Christ. There are too many people who are in church but are not in Christ and do not enjoy the full benefit of the new creature. You don’t try to be a new creature, it is who you are. It gives you the right. The moment you accepted and declared Jesus’ death & resurrection, you were declared righteous and God justified you.
In drawing the message to a close Rev. Hankins admonished us to recognized our position in Christ. He said, “If you find out who you are in Christ the devil has no authority over you, because God’s life transcends every other influence – innate, psychic or environmental.
You can watch WAFBEC live http://www.wafbec.org/livestream. Click “Live Broadcast”.