Class 2: Identity Secured | Salvation Made Simple

If you have just given your life to Jesus, or you're ready to grow deeper in your faith, this is for you. Hi, my name is Charles, and today we are talking about identity. Identity is such an interesting topic. Many of us, traditionally, we gain our identity from what we do. That's kind of how it works. I don't know if you've ever met somebody new, and you introduce them. You say, hi, my name is so-and-so, and maybe you ask, how do you know each other? But there's no question that maybe between questions three and five, this question will come up. So what do you do? And what's happening in there, if you don't realize, there's a nuance and kind of an underneath line that is happening. What is happening is someone is trying to gain an understanding of your identity. And we don't say it this way. We're not like, I'm trying to really sum up your identity here, so tell me your job so I can then make a complete generalization of who you are and then decide how I'm going to interact. That's not what's happening. But actually is what's happening, see, because in our culture, in our life, we get our identity by what we achieve. So when I tell you, oh, I'm a teacher, well, immediately people have an assumption of what a teacher is, who they are, what you do, and based upon what you have achieved in your career or achieved in your field or achieved in your life, I now know who you are. Friend, I have good news for you today. When it comes to salvation, when it comes to giving our life to Christ, I want you to write down this core truth. Because of Jesus, you have received a new identity that cannot be achieved. I'm telling you, friend, this is so good because people love to sum up who we are based upon what we have done.

But the truth is when you receive salvation, when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, when you say, I do not want to run my life anymore, I have not done a great job, I need somebody greater than me, smarter than me, stronger than me. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you receive a brand new identity. And here's the thing, it can't be achieved. Now this is good news and bad news. Here's the thing. People love for things to be fair. As a matter of fact, I love for things to be fair. I think fairness is an important thing. My kids, I have four kids, and there's always an argument about fairness. And I wish I could tell you that every time I'm super patient and calm and we navigate it super, but honestly, at some point I always hit the, yo, sometimes life ain't fair. And they all kind of like do the shrug and they're like, dad. But the truth is, when it comes to fairness in our walk with Christ, here's the thing I always love to say, me and you really don't want to go down the fair road. The salvation, the gospel, Jesus, Him dying for us is all about unfairness. Here's what I mean. God gives us the gift of grace and mercy and salvation. He does something we could not do for ourself. We didn't earn it. We didn't achieve it, but he freely gives us this new identity. Freely gives it to us. And here's the thing you need to know. There's nothing you could have done to have earned it. You couldn't have done enough good things. You couldn't have read enough Bible scriptures, prayed enough times for you to now achieve and realize like, oh, okay, now I'm a good person and now I deserve this gift. No, the gift of salvation is completely undeserved and that's a beautiful thing. And when it comes to your identity in Christ, when you follow Him, when you surrender to

Him, the Bible tells us that you are a completely new person. Here's the way I like to articulate it. The journey of discovering our identity in Christ is the journey of becoming who you already are. Here's the illustration. Years ago, I stood at an altar with my dad as a pastor. I was holding the hands of a 21 or 22 year old girl named Abby Rose, and I looked at her in the eyes and we said vows. And in that moment, I became her husband. Now here's the reality. I had no idea what it meant to be a husband. I had never been a husband before. I had no idea what that would mean. I had ideas. I had thoughts. I had concepts. But the truth is I became something even though I didn't know what it was and haven't discovered it fully. Every day since that day when I married that girl, I have been becoming what I was in that moment. So I was her husband. On that day, in that second, the moment after we said, I do, my dad says, you may kiss your bride, boom. In that moment, we signed the paper, I'm her husband. Even though I have no idea, my behaviors haven't changed, I haven't learned this girl, I haven't changed my whole life to be good, but since that day, I was her husband, and every day after that, I have always still been becoming a better husband every day.

Here's what the Bible is teaching us. It says when you receive Jesus, you are set, you have a new identity, you are his child, you are secure, and also, every day here on out, you will be becoming who you have always been. As we're talking about identity, I have to bring you to my favorite passage of all time. My favorite Bible story, and it's from the gospel, it's from the gospel of Luke. Luke is a doctor, and what that means is Luke gives us details that other gospels don't give us. A funny little note about the Bible in the New Testament, so it's like the kind of second half, maybe the last third of the Bible, if you break it down and kind of how it plays out, but there are four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and I had a friend that had just gotten saved, and he didn't realize it was same tellings of the exact same story, and so he thought it was happening over and over again, because he lives, he dies, he comes back to life, and then he thought, oh, Matthew, okay, and Mark, he's back to life again, and he literally was like, what is happening? They keep killing him, he comes back to life, did you not see this coming? What is going on? I was like, no, no, no, calm down. It's the same story, just three different people, four different people's perspectives.

So Luke gives us a perspective on the story, then he adds details that people don't add because he's a doctor, he's very specific, but in Luke chapter number 15, Jesus is trying to illustrate how his kingdom works, and this is what's happening to me and you. We're talking, you've accepted Jesus, or you're trying to grow in your faith, and we're trying to understand, God, how does your kingdom work? And Jesus was famous for telling stories. That's why he's one of the greatest teachers of all time, because he's like, you know, faith is kind of like a mustard seed, and in the cultural time where he was, there would have been mustard seeds covering the ground. These would have been things people walked over all the time, and he literally just looks around, he's like, oh, you know, faith is kind of like, and he kneels down and picks it up. He's like, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, move from here to there. And he's always using his references and his stories around him to help people understand the story of Jesus and the story of the gospel. So in Luke 15, we get a couple of stories. The first story we get is the story of a lost sheep. There's a shepherd, he has all these sheep, and one wanders off and the shepherd goes and gets him and brings him back.

The second one is the parable of the lost coin. And this story is about, you know, there's a coin that's in the house, but it's lost. Something one of my friends said that's so beautiful about that story is sometimes that's how church can be. You're in the house, but you still feel lost. Maybe that's some of you, maybe you've been following Jesus for a while, you're in the house, but you still feel like you can't find your way. And then we come into contact with the parable of two sons. I wanna read you this story and I'll summarize a little bit of it because we will get caught here and I will mess around and read you the whole book of Luke. And we don't wanna do that. We have, you have things to do. So here's the story. There's two sons. There's an older son and the younger son. The younger son comes to his dad, says, hey, dad, I want my inheritance now. Now, the cultural implications of this, you need to understand. To say I want my inheritance now, well, you only get the inheritance when dad dies. So what he's saying is, dad, I pretty much wish you were dead. Give me my money and I'm gonna go do what I want.

And his dad, in some crazy turn of events is like, you want your money? Go ahead. He gives him his money. The Bible tells us the next day, his son gets the money and moves to Las Vegas. Not actually Las Vegas, but he goes to, well, it's culturally been like the big city where all the crazy things were. And the Bible tells us he spends all of his money. I don't know. Now, we do have context that his dad is a wealthy person because of the garden he owns, the type of party he throws at the end of this story tells us he has a lot of money. So his, this son would have gotten a significant amount of money. The Bible tells us he goes and spends his money on wild living. He's throwing parties. He's doing all types of stuff. He's drinking. I mean, he goes to Vegas, spends his money, gambles it all away, parties it all away. And we run into him and it says this right here in verse number 13. A few days later, he packs his bags. And it says this in verse number 14, about the time. and his money ran out and a great famine hit the land.

So he persuaded a local farmer to hire him. And the man put him in the field with his pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, at home, the hired servants have enough food to spare and here I am dying for hunger. I will go home to my father and I will say I've sinned against heaven and you. I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. Take me back home as a servant. So he returned to his father and here is the greatest line I think in all of scripture. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming filled with love and compassion. He ran to his son, he embraced him, he kissed him. His son said to him, father, I have sinned against both you and heaven and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. But his father said to the servants, quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get the ring for his finger and put sandals on his feet. Kill the fatty calf that we have been fattening. We must celebrate for the son of mine was dead and now has returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found. And one of the other portions I love, it says, so the party began. I want to break this down to you and how it relates to you and to my identity as a follower of Christ.

Scripture tells us the son is often a place where he's made mistakes. And the truth is me and you have both made mistakes. We've had moments where we made decisions against who we said we would be. We've said things we didn't want to say. We've went places we said we wouldn't go and we've done things we said we wouldn't do. And this picture is a beautiful indication of the salvation process. And I want to introduce to you a couple of words that are important on your journey of following Jesus. Three words specifically. The first word is sin. The word sin is used throughout scripture. You'll hear it in church. You'll hear it thrown around. Sin is originally an archery term, meaning if someone pulls back their bow and arrow and they shoot and they're heading for the target, to miss the target is to sin. You missed the mark. Sin is simply humans missing the mark time and time again. And our sin has consequences. Us missing, being integrous in our marriages, it has a consequence of pain and divorce that tears apart families. The sin of our lust taking over in our life and us sleeping with people that we don't even know or we're not connected to,

we haven't committed our lives to, it leaves this residue of shame and pain and hurt. And it's so funny because some people feel so attacked by saying, oh, I'm a sinner. The truth, this is human history. Like we don't need the Bible to tell us that we make mistakes. We all know we make mistakes. The reality is though that sin, it separates us from God. It creates this distance, this emptiness, this pain that is distanced us from God. The beautiful news of the gospel is that Jesus dies for our sin. Meaning the sin, the Bible tells us, the wages of sin is death. Meaning the consequence when we sin is death. But Jesus died for us so that we did not have to live under that consequence. Now, here's two other words I wanna introduce and I wanna, I gotta introduce these to you because this is gonna be a core part of your identity as you move forward. The other two words are condemnation and conviction. These are similar words on the surface, but very, very different. Condemnation is something that the enemy tries to use. Our adversary, the devil, he tries to, the Bible calls him the great accuser. Condemnation says you are a mistake. Conviction says you made a mistake, now let's move forward.

These are very different things. So you sin, you make a mistake. Condemnation comes to say you are that mistake. You're a mess up, you're a screw up. You'll never get it right. You'll never be anything more than this. This is who you are. Why? We go back to this because what you have done, what you have achieved is now your identity. So you made a mistake. Condemnation says you are the mistake. Conviction is not that. The Holy Spirit conviction is different. It's God convicting us. He says, hey, we acknowledge you made a mistake, but with my grace, with my power on the inside of you, you can now move forward. Why? Because your identity is not summed up in what you've done. Because of why we go back to our core truth. You got an identity. that cannot be achieved. So you didn't get this based on your good works, so now we're not saying that all of a sudden now you make one mistake, that's who you are, so I gotta snatch it back. God is not giving and taking our identity. He gives it to us as a free gift that we receive. In this story, the prodigal son,

there are specific details that happen in this story that are so beautiful, and I'll take just a few moments to explain them to you and the implications of our identity. The Bible tells us, the son prepares this speech, and I could break it down, but it's like many of us, when we've done bad things, we prepare our speech. Oh God, I gotta pray to God, and God, I'm sorry, and I'll never do it again, and all these things, but the Bible tells us he's a long way off. The father sees him, which is a picture of God's grace. God's always been looking after you. You think you're far from God, you think you're nowhere to be found, it's not true. He's been standing at the front of the steps of his house waiting for the day you come home. The Bible tells us he sees him a far way off. He ignores his speech. I don't know if you noticed this in the text, but he doesn't respond. He's like, dad, I'm sorry, blah, blah, blah, blah, and the dad does not, like, oh, thanks for the speech, that's great, he says no. He turns around and tells the servants, and he says a couple things right here, and we'll get out of here with these, but he says, quit, quick, grab the finest robe. Here's what you need to know about your identity in Christ. God, when you accept salvation, his robe is covering up the shame, the pain, and the nakedness that you have felt

from being outside of him and not having your identity. That's what he does. He gives him this robe, and he says, no, I'm covering you, I've got you. So what you need to know now that you've accepted Christ about your identity is you are covered. You're covered, no matter what you've done, no matter the mistakes you've made, you are covered. That is the grace of God, that he covers our shame. The next thing he does is he says, bring the finest robe, put it on him, get the ring, and put it on his finger. You wanna know something about your identity? This ring would have been the family signet ring. What does it represent? It represents authority. Your identity now in Christ, you have a brand new authority, and it's not because you've achieved it, it's not because you've prayed a lot, it's not because you've read a bunch of the Bible, but the Bible tells us the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives on the inside of you and me. So this is true about our identity. We are covered and we have authority. Then the Bible tells us that he puts sandals on his feet. Here's the thing about sandals that's so intricately important. The son comes back home ready to settle as a servant. Here's the details you don't know

of the culture at the time. Servants didn't wear shoes, only sons wear shoes. God restores his identity and says, I know you have where you've been on your feet, but you don't have to worry about that. You've got sandals back on your feet now, you're back under my roof, this is who you are. And the last thing that happens in this story that's so powerful and so important for your identity is he says, let's throw a party. What God always does is he covers our shame, he restores authority, he covers our past, he also restores us publicly. He lets everybody else know, hey, just in case you were wondering and you thought my son was gone, he's a far off and he's messed up, it's not true. He's back in the house and you can see me with my arm around him to let everybody know he is mine. Friend, I want you to know today because of Jesus, you have a new identity that can not be achieved. It's secure, you're settled, you don't have to work for it, you don't have to earn it. It's a constant daily practice of how can I receive this new identity. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to write down maybe one lie, one thing of pain, one thing of hurt that you believed and over time, you're gonna start to replace that with the truth of God's word, knowing that you are covered,

you are secure and you are settled in God. I wanna take a moment and pray for you. God, I thank you for my friend. I thank you that their identity is secure in you. They don't have to wrestle and they do not have to achieve. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. We love you so much, go out and live a transformed life. Amen.