I have a friend who may be released from maximum security incarceration after roughly 4 years. He has been held without bail pending trial these four long years. During this time he has made a profession of faith in Christ, if the rumors are true and he is released, there are some major challenges ahead of him. I don't want to post anything here that could compromise the process but it would be suffice to say that his success on the "outside" in the coming years will be dependent on identity issues. Here is a passage I am preaching on this Sunday that draws attention to what my friend will be facing:
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (New International Version, ©2011)
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Paul is stating here that something has actually changed in the life of a person who has come to faith in Christ. A whole new identity. He has reconciled us with God so that we might "become the righteousness of God" , and, "he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
For the next steps in my friends walk of faith, there will be constant challenges as to which identity he is going have dominate his decision making. Before Christ or After Christ. There are things in his past that will have seemed perfectly congruent with how he saw himself before and if he submits to the reality of who he is in Christ these things will change.
Some may ask "can someone really change?". That new identity in Christ will be crucial for the answer. Consider dirty diapers as an example. Our church congregation is teeming with toddlers and babies. Many new creations every year! We warn new visitors that "someone is always pregnant at Renaissance!" As a result each Sunday on average about 10% of our congregation do something quite offensive to the rest of us. They soil their pants! It feels perfectly natural to them! They for the most part, feel no remorse! They probably feel relieved and perfectly comfortable doing it. They probably enjoy the whole experience. Every one of the other people in that same building on any given Sunday are perfectly capable of doing exactly the same thing , but you know there's something about it that just wouldn't seem right!
You see we have come to see ourselves differently. Based on who we have become it's just no longer appropriate. These changes did not happen over night, but eventually we actually lost the joy in the whole experience, because we came to see such behavior as inappropriate for a " grown up" . As we grew it was not even a temptation for us.
So when my friend just out of incarceration or anyone else with a new identity in Christ begins to make decisions in life. The question will be, is my decision, my action something that fits who I was before Christ "changed me" ( no pun intended) or who I am "in Christ".
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
