The gospel of Jesus Christ is an identity, defined by a destiny, that overflows into activity. Previous posts have explored what it means to say that the gospel is an identity, and what it means to say that this identity is defined by a destiny. In this final post, we will unpack what it means to say that gospel identity overflows into activity.
The active agent of resurrection life is God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Christ indwells those united to Christ (Rom 8.9). Like soup in a bread bowl, the Holy Spirit saturates and permeates believers[1] –transforming our affections (1Jn 2.15-17), giving us the mind of Christ (Rom 12.1-2, 1Cor 2.16).
The Christian life consists in living consistently with our new identity. Every day we rehearse for the role of our life – life everlasting! Every day we must draw our identity not from the surrounding noise, but from our eternal destiny. When tempted to sin, we tell ourselves, “This isn’t me. Sin is no longer who I am. In Jesus I am a saint, and saints live differently.” This doesn’t mean we’re perfect. “A saint does sin. But a Christian is one who has saint as their constant identity and sinner as their occasional activity. For the Christian, there is a vital difference between having sin and being sin.”[2]
In Christ, we remember that there is a proper sense in which we are too good for the world. The world is no longer worthy of our affections (Heb 11.38). We put off sin because grave clothes don’t belong on the living (Jn 11.44). We seek no place in Atlantis, for we belong to a city with foundations (Heb 11.10). We have been invited to a great feast (Is 25.6, Rev 19.9), and there is no need to go dumpster-diving along the way. In Christ we are accepted: God’s verdict is in, the court is closed, and now we spend our lives doing things not to look good, but because they are good.[3] “The imperatives of the Bible (what you should do) flow out of the indicatives (who you are).”[4]
The essence of all this is simple. Just as we activate faith by remembering who Christ is (cf. Mk 4.40), so we activate resurrection life by rejoicing in and remembering who we are in Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,”(Gal 2.20, ESV). Christian, do you believe these things? How much of your life could change today, simply by crediting the reality that in Christ you are “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus,” (Rom 6.11, ESV)? This is the actual present reality for every Christian. This is gospel identity. Do you believe?
[1] Letham, Union with Christ, 50.
[2] Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are? (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013), 35.
[3] Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness (Chorley, UK: 10Publishing, 2012), 43-44.
[4] Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?, 39.
I am loving the blogs. Thank you for taking the time to encourage and bring further knowledge leading to greater understanding. The reminder of what it means to be “in Christ” is especially assuring.
Sunday School was great and we want to listen to that again!
Also Sundays Easter service was very worshipful and very spirit filled even though it was recorded. We could sense Gods presence in the music, prayers and word. Thank you
Jim and lane