Starting to Learn Who I Am || Who Am I? || Week 1

How many of you have dealt with trying to understand who you are? Trying to figure your place in life is a life-long journey that may never come to an end. In this series, we will be beginning to learn who we are in Christ. Over the next seven weeks, we will learn four different titles that Christ calls us through all parts of the Bible. There’s no theme to these titles. There’s no catchy gimmick with these titles. Each week’s story will look at four titles that Christ gives each one of us. Without further ado, let’s learn our new names:

Title #1: I am alive in Christ.

Ephesians 2:5 – We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God’s grace.)

Far more than anything else, a spiritually dead person needs to be made alive by God. Salvation, or to be delivered from sin and its consequences, brings spiritual life to the dead. The power that raises believers out of death and makes them alive is the same power that energizes every aspect of Christian living. Paul

talks more about this in his letter to the Romans.

The idea is that we don’t have to be controlled by sin anymore. We must set aside, or put to death, what we believe to be true for our lives from what the world teaches us and apply the values and principles of Jesus. We don’t have to follow what the world tells us to follow but instead be led by the Power of the Holy Spirit to

do what God calls us to be. We don’t need to fear following God’s call because God will be with us all the way. We don’t need to feel anxious that we aren’t good enough to do what God calls us to do because he has given us the gifts and talents to do what we need via the Holy Spirit. We need to put to death the

focus of living life in worldly stands and commit our lives to living for God and in God.

Title #2: I am free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:2 – That is because, in Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit that brings life made you accessible. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death.

The implication of this verse states that there is no condemnation for the believer; the Spirit has replaced the law that produced sin and death. It was replaced with a new, simple law that produces life: the law of faith or the gospel message. The law of the Spirit is synonymous with this new view of faith instead of law. The law of sin and death talks about the law of God. Although it’s good, holy, and righteous, it can produce only sin and death because of the weakness of the flesh.

Through Jesus’ death, we receive freedom from the penalty and consequences of sin. It’s interesting to me that it transitions from the focus of law to faith. As humans, I feel like we need rules to live effectively. Even though some humans don’t like to follow the rules or think they are above the law, some rules dictate how we live. Instead, by putting our faith in Christ, we set aside our worldly belief for a new law-like focus and replace it with a faith focus. This isn’t to state that we can do whatever we want, but our focus shifts to move like the Holy Spirit needs us to move. It’s an interesting philosophy that I feel many people don’t touch because of the sensitivity regarding sin, but it’s something to remember. No matter what sin that we may commit, we can and do have faith that God will forgive thanks to the sacrifice Jesus paid for

all of us.

Title #3: I am far from oppression, and fear doesn’t come near me.

Isaiah 54:14 – You will be built on goodness. You will be safe from cruelty and fear. So you will have nothing to fear. Nothing will come to hurt you. 

Listen to that power that Isaiah wrote. You will be built on goodness. You are created with goodness at your foundation. There’s good in you whether you see it or not because God created you with it. The Holy Spirit graces it upon you as one of the fruits of the Spirit. Goodness is defined as moral and spiritual excellence manifested in active kindness. You are morally and spiritually excellent because God created you with that. You share that with others as well. It’s created or manifested in active kindness. While we’re taught as Christians to be kind to others, God is kind to us. God helps us develop our character through him to spread the gospel to us, and because of that goodness, we’re protected by God’s goodness. 

God also protects us from cruelty and fear. Cruelty can be defined as behavior or suffering to a person or animal. Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. We know that cruelties and fears still happen in our lives, but God doesn’t cause them. Typically, to my knowledge, many of it can be traced to the free will we have as humans and can originate in human-based perceptions and knowledge. That’s not based on scientific thought, but just my own perception. God still walks with us in the meantime of our lives or when we deal with something we fear. God protects us, guides us, and loves us throughout the entire journey of life. We can trust God to see us through the cruelty and fear that life brings. 

What I’ve said isn’t meant to downplay the cruelty that a lot of people experience in life or to express the mindset of: “If you just believe in God, it will go away.” There are some cruelties that people experience that are hard to get away from. My focus is to say that God can be a foundation to cling to when everything on Earth seems terrible. God’s light can shine through the darkness help you get through each day. 

Title #4: I am born of God.

1 John 5:18 – We know that those who have been made God’s children do not continue to sin. The Son of God keeps them safe. The Evil One cannot hurt them.

We learn that God protects us from the Adversary/the Evil One/Satan (whichever title you want to use). That’s part of what it means to be a Christian, that God, through Jesus, is victorious over sin and Satan himself. It’s that Satan can’t hurt us. He even touches us in some translations. This word suggests the definition of “to lay hold of” or “to grasp” to harm. Satan operates within God’s power and cannot function past what God allows, as shown in Job. While Satan can persecute us, tempt us, test us, and accuse us, God still protects us and place definite limits on what Satan can influence. 

This is excellent news! God protects us from Satan himself. Even though it is said here that God allows Satan to do certain things, God places a limit on what Satan is allowed to do. That no matter what Satan throws at us, we still have the power of God’s protection over us. This feels like a touchy subject for me to really expound upon because the concept of “How can God be so loving, but allow chaos” can be really sensitive to some people. Everything I say here is based on personal beliefs and is not representing my church or my denomination. I really don’t believe God creates the chaos that he allows Satan to commit. I believe that when Satan throws chaos at us, our free will can make the chaos worse or not. We perceive the test or temptation that Satan gives us like crazy, stress, etc., then our faith in God can drop. We perceive the test or temptation as something we’re giving God to handle and trust that we will overcome the temptation through his guidance, patience, and love. With that mentality, our faith in God can grow. Because we know that God can keep us safe and protects us from Satan’s power, we can trust that we will handle all the tests and temptations Satan tosses at us. Sorry if that feels confusing to you. Trying to handle this topic sensitively has me really overthinking my words and sentence structure. 

Today we learned some new titles for us. We are alive with Christ. We are free from sin and death. We are far from oppression, and fear doesn’t come near us. We are born of God. I hope that this was an exciting journey for you. Next week, we’ll dive into new titles that God calls us. Until then, stay blessed!