Our Grace Identity VI   

Many people have actually rejected religion, but they have not rejected the Gospel of Grace 

Galatians 3:1-4 (Msg)

     You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.  

^2-4Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!  

1. To be a Christian means to transfer my trust from the things I am doing to what He is doing – to keep growing as a Christian depends on that same trust!   

Galatians 2:11-16, 21 (NIV)

     When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.  

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?  

"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified… I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" 

Finding our security in the approval of others and in what we think others think of us leads Peter to racism, unkindness, meanness and unconscious insensitivity 

Finding our security in the approval of others and in what we think others think of us instead of what God thinks leads to self-denial and self-destruction 

1 Samuel 15:30 (NLT) 

    Then Saul pleaded again, "I know I have sinned. But please, at least honor me before the leaders and before my people by going with me to worship the Lord your God."  

1 Samuel 15:17 (NIV) 

    Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.  

1 Samuel 15:9, 12 (NIV) 

    But Saul and the army spared Agag…Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."  

2. Filling our deepest hunger with something other than God, they become our emotional idols that enslave us, bring self-deception and never satisfy

If our deepest foundational hunger is satisfied by the unshakable love, acceptance and forgiveness of Christ, we don’t need to look elsewhere

2 Peter 3:15-16 (CEV)

     Don't forget that the Lord is patient because he wants people to be saved. This is also what our dear friend Paul said when he wrote you with the wisdom that God had given him. Paul talks about these same things in all his letters, but part of what he says is hard to understand… 

1 Peter 4:12-13, 19 (NLT); 5:10-11 (NIV)

     Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed… So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you…And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. 

3. Gradually building our identity in Christ frees us from outside influences – so that we can say “you are not my life!”