I’m really exited about the new series we launch today on identity. I have the privilege of having my good friend Kwan Porter with me for this series. We served together at LifeMission Church for many years and he is a pastor there at the Kansas City, KS campus. Kwan and I have grown so much in this area over the 16 years that we have known each other and we hope to impart to you a revelation of who you are in Christ.
II Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away, behold, all things have become new.” And verse 21 says, “For He (God the Father) made Him who knew no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Christ Jesus).” (emphasis added)
We are the righteousness of God. That’s who we are and that’s part of our identity today! We want to wrestle with that and rest in the truth of that.
The divine exchange isn’t that He “carried” our sin so that we could carry His “holiness.” It is, He took on our identity because our identity was “sin” and then gave us His identity because His identity is “righteousness”.
Apart from Jesus “there is none righteous, no, not one.” (Rom 3:10). Good character traits not rooted in identity in Christ become a weight we can’t bear. Each of us need a revelation that Jesus had to go to the cross because each of were sin. It was who we were.
But the miracle is we became something new. We were re-created! If you have been born again, you are a new creation, a new creature. That reality is a miracle. It is a miracle made possible because Christ placed us in Him. We are in Christ. We were in Christ on the cross and we are in Christ in our day to day walk.
Eph. 2:1-7 says it this way, “You were dead in trespasses and sins. . .by nature we were children of wrath. But God. . .made us alive together with Christ. . .and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Jesus has placed us in Him. We were in Him on the cross and we are in Him at the right hand of the Father.
This week I want you to pause and say each morning, “I was dead in sin. I was crucified with Christ and now I am alive in Him. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.” It’s who you are!
