What we really need . . . A Renewed Mind, Part 1

            We spend most of our waking hours on the “doing.”  The Word certainly supports a life of doing:  “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10 NIV).  But in order to do the doing that God has called us to do, we must know who we are—the being.  If we are going to serve with joy among the joyless, endure hardships, stand firm in adversity, mature, live out our gifting with power and purpose, we must know who we are . . . namely, who we are in Christ.

            For those who’ve grown up in the church, we blow this off.   Check.  I know the verses—I’m an heir of God, adopted Gentile kid.  Caught in a trap of false humility, we don’t want to think of who we are in Christ—maybe because of our pride . . . (but that’s for another day).

            Christ didn’t die for that—just for me to live in a trap.  He also didn’t die for you or me to walk around defeated with a gray cloud over your head, powerless and without joy or victory.

            No, he died to make you a new creation, an heir of the Father and co-heir with Him, to graft you into His family and make you His own.  He defeated your sin and your death so that you might be filled with the Holy Spirit and live in freedom and victory and enjoy His presence all the time.  He defeated my sin and my death so that I might “do good works” with REAL LOVE in a depraved, messed up world.

            So if you need a swift kick in the behind . . . I mean a gentle reminder of who you are . . . as I do sometimes, maybe these verses will get you started:

Who I am in Christ

Colossians 3:10-12 (NLT):  Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. ¹¹ In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.  ¹² Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Romans 6:4 (NLT):  For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Romans 8:17 (NIV):  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT):  This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT):  So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV):  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Galatians 4:4-7 (NIV):  But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. ⁶ Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.