A Part of God’s Family || Who I Am || Week 2

Welcome back to our “Who I Am” series. This series is about learning our identity in Christ. Last week, we looked at four titles we can claim in Christ that are also internal affirmations. We said: 

• I am alive in Christ. 
• I am holy and without blame before him in love. 
• I am free from the law of sin and death.
• I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ to do good works.

This week, we will look at four more titles we can claim in Christ about being a part of God’s Family. 

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The first one we’re discussing is: I am a joint heir with Christ. 

Romans 8:17 says this: 

17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must share his suffering.

An heir is legally entitled to the property or rank on that person’s death. An heir inherits and continues the legacy of a predecessor. Christians are heirs to everything God is about and have a job to continue the legacy that God started. We share this task with Jesus. Jesus showed humanity how to share God’s glory, yet there’s a catch to receiving this inheritance. We are sharing this with Jesus, which means we need to share in the work and the hardships that come with it sharing God’s glory. Following Jesus isn’t easy, and Jesus showed us that through and through. 

When Paul wrote this letter, there was a lot of economic and social persecution. People were being exiled and called out for their economic and social status. Some people got killed for expressing their faith. Today, people still die because they express their faith in various parts of the world. They will die in ways that compare to how the first’s followers of Christ died. Living how Jesus lived has a price. Serving others by sacrifice and resisting the world’s temptations has a price. It may not be a physical price for you and me, but it’s the loss of friends. It’s sacrificing a job because of poor business practices that force you to go against God. It’s ending a relationship because you’re tempted or pressured to do things you don’t feel comfortable with or know wouldn’t please God. These things can bring pain, suffering, anxiety, and hardships, and all of those can feel insignificant when we remember the hardships that Jesus went through. Nothing can compare to the price Jesus had to pay to save us. Serving God comes with a price, but that price can bring all glory to God. 

Galatians 3:29 says this:

29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. 

This scripture refers to a promise God gave to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, which states this: 

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.” 

2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 

3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.

Abram, or Abraham as God will call him later, is being called to leave everything behind and go to a place God calls him to go. While this seems extreme and scary, look at what God say’s he’ll do. God will turn his lineage into a great nation, as shown through the twelve tribes of Israel that come through Abram’s family tree. God will bless him and make him famous, as shown in Paul’s reference that comes approximately 1,500 years after Abram’s life. God blessed others if they blessed Abram and cursed others that treated Abram wrongly. What? God intentionally mistreated someone if they treated Abram wrong? That doesn’t sound like a loving God. To bless in this context means to kneel. God gave the same blessing to the land creatures and humans in the Creation story. It paints this idea of freely doing what God’s called us to do. To be cursed in this context refers to the curse the snake received in Genesis 3. In the “Punishable by God” series, we learned that this curse refers to the consequences of disobeying God. So, with this in mind, God will bless others, that is, grant them the freedoms that come with following God; if others blessed Abram, that is, honor and kneel before him as a representative of God. God will curse others, that is, allow the consequences of disobedience to happen if others treat Abram with contempt. 

We see examples of what we first talked about in Abram’s story. We will share the glory and blessings of God with Jesus if we bless others, but we will also go through various sufferings as Jesus did if we treat others wrongly. God calls us to love as he loves us. Jesus showed us what that looked like. May the Holy Spirit guide and show us places where that can happen. 

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The second title we will discuss is: I am God’s child, born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, who lives and abides forever. 

23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

Peter tells us that we have a new life, not earthly. It’s not a 2.0 version of human life. It’s an eternal one, one that will last forever. We received this life from our belief in God and our relationship with him. 

John 3:3 is part of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus and says this: 

3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 

Nicodemus knew that God would rule the Kingdom of Heaven, restore it on earth, and include God’s people. Jesus shared that the Kingdom would be open to all people, but the only way to be part of it is to be personally born again. This Kingdom is a personal one. It’s not based on geographic location or ethnicity. The Kingdom’s requirements are repentance and spiritual rebirth. Repentance means asking God to forgive all the sins you’ve committed and turning away from them to live a godly life. Living this new life is the spiritual rebirth that happens. It involves studying the scriptures frequently and applying them to our lives. It involves recognizing our faults, returning to God for forgiveness, gaining strength and wisdom, and continuing life. Why does scripture matter? Listen to Hebrews 4:12, which says this: 

12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

God’s word reveals who we are and aren’t. It discerns the good and evil in us. It hits us deep. It touches the soul. It exposes our most authentic selves. It allows us to wrestle with things we’ve shoved aside because they made us uncomfortable. We can look at things we’re doing and see if they’re genuinely things that bring God glory or not. 

We are children of God. We are born again with repentance of our earthly ways of living and the choice to do life that brings glory to God. 

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The third title we’re discussing today is: I am born of God. 

1 John 5:18 says this:

18 We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. 

Christians should not be going out of their way to sin. We still will sin because our human nature is inherently sinful, but God protects us from our sinful life. We’re still close enough to God so that the evil forces of the world cannot coerce us to live sinful life. What does this look like? 

John 10:28-29 says this: 

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,

29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch from the Father’s hand. 

All people, believers and non-believers, know that life will have areas of suffering. It’s easy to be fearful of those sufferings because they’re uncomfortable, they’re not fun, and they’re unexpected. The evil forces of life exist and can be dominant here on earth because the earth can be full of suffering for all people, but Christians have the reassurance that God will protect them. John states twice in this section that “None can snatch them away…” When we see phrases repeated, we should focus on the emphasis the author is stating. We need to walk away from this section of scripture with the reminder that no matter the amount of suffering we’ll walk through, we are protected by God. 

Our primary scripture discussed how Christians wouldn’t go out of their way to sin. 1 John 3:9 has more to say about this: 

9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep sinning, because they are children of God. 

Again, this focuses on the intentionality of sin. Are we going out of our way to live a sinful life? Believers won’t carelessly or purposely continue to sin, nor will they become indifferent to God’s moral law. What’s God’s moral law? Jesus highlighted them to us as his top two commands: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) and “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” (John 13:34). Christians should always live life in ways that honor these two commands. 

Again, Christians will still sin. The difference is that Christians should consistently and intentionally work to gain the victory of sin. One of the ways that we can look is by digging deeper into scripture and understanding how we can live a life that aligns with God’s moral law. 

Being born again involves more than just getting a fresh start in life. We receive this new life and family name because of Christ’s sacrifice. When we get this new life, God forgives our past and accepts us as we are. God accepts all the faults we recognize in ourselves, all the brokenness we feel, all the anxieties we carry, and all the other heavy burdens that follow us through life without judgment. God gives us the Holy Spirit to live in us to help change our minds and our hearts. The Holy Spirit can call out the thoughts that aren’t of God. These thoughts pop up when we gossip, judge others, criticize ourselves, and put ourselves down. The Holy Spirit will convict us of wrestling with those thoughts and whether or not they align with God’s moral law. Our new heart aligns with the why behind what we do and say. Sometimes we’ll do things that our minds will think are good things and are bettering life for ourselves or others, but it begs the question: Is this something good for me, or is this good for the glory of God that will benefit me? The Holy Spirit will get us to do things to benefit the glory of God rather than ourselves. When we let those things go unchecked, we can run into issues with our pride and egotism. When we accept the Holy Spirit, we’ll see us becoming more like Christ. Our perspectives will change because our Holy Spirit renews our minds daily. These things all come with recognizing that we are children of God. 

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The last title we’ll discuss today is this: I am a new creation in Christ. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 says this: 

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 

The Holy Spirit breathes new life into us, and we are not the same person as before Christ. We are new creations living in an intentional relationship with Christ. Accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior is not just a new thing. It’s a wildly brand-new mindset. We are starting a new life with a new leader guiding our steps, thoughts, and actions. Words make it hard to express what this feeling is like. 

I recognized that my ideals, values, and life goals needed to change gears. I knew I was no longer living life just for me but for God. I’m serving in ministry with myself, recognizing the sacrifices, hardships, and many emotions that will arise. One of my problems was that I jumped too aggressively to the self-sacrificing side of ministry and put many of my needs and life decisions on the back burner. I’m learning that it was a detriment to the progress of the life I wanted to be in, but also seeing that God’s using this time now that I’m no longer in ministry to do those things needed that allow for bigger and better things to happen.

Christ changes us from within and creates an entirely new life structure. There’s a new covenant that forms that is no longer law-based but grace-based. There’s a new perspective that we have on life. One that loves recognizing how to love God with all of who we are and how to love God as Christ loves us. There’s a new spirit that others can pick up on. We walk with a new walk, talk with a new talk, and others can and will recognize that you’re no longer the you that you were before Christ. There’s a new community that comes with it. We can unite with a body of believers at church, work, or anywhere in life. It’s good to surround yourself with a group of believers who can encourage you in life and hold you accountable for parts of life that you’re struggling with. There’s an entirely new way of living that we never saw before with Christ’s authority. 

Paul speaks of this in Galatians 6:15, which says: 

15 It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.

Our human nature tends to do what society considers normal because everyone does it. We do this instead of pursuing the necessary relationship we should have with God. Be careful of those who encourage you to do things that you may feel uncomfortable with, or that push you outside your comfort zone because they can do it without concern for what it does to your mind and heart. 

Doing what’s right without any change can leave us wanting more. Doing what is right and necessary, but if the right thing we do doesn’t provide any internal emotion or change, it can lead us not to do it anymore. Think about how we feel when we get a dopamine rush. We feel happy, eager, excited, and ready to do that same thing again to get that feeling back. Doing the right thing for the glory of the Kingdom of God should provide you with that same rush. It may not be the external flurry of emotions that dopamine brings but an internal contentment, joy, and excitement about doing what’s right regarding loving God and others. That’s what matters to God. 

What makes something new to you? Revelation 21:5 says this: 

5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he told me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 

The Bible is a fantastic story that opens with the creation of the universe and closes with the creation of a new heaven and earth. When we are in a relationship with God, with our sins forgiven and our promise of eternal life, we will be like Christ. We will be a new creation. We’ll be perfect as God is perfect. We’ll have a new heart, body, and desire to worship and be surrounded by a community of millions we have never met. The world that we’ll be a part of when we become a part of the family of God is one that you will not regret and one that you will not want to leave. 

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Let’s wrap up the second week of our new series. We examined four statements we can claim as a follower of Christ that remind us we are a part of God’s family. Here they are again: 

I am a joint heir with Christ.

I am God’s child, born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, who lives and abides forever. 

I am born of God.

I am a new creation in Christ.

I encourage you to go through this week and say one each during your prayer time or to yourself in the mirror and see how your mood and day change. If you do this, let me know how it went down in the comments below or message me on the Bible Study Vibes Facebook page. 

Next week, we’ll look at four more statements that we can claim as a believer in Christ from the perspective of doing what Jesus did. Until then, stay blessed.