Sermon Transcript
How does a redeemed identity impact our lives? That’s the question we’re looking at today. We’ve spent the last several weeks, last three weeks, and then this week looking at our identity in the image of God and how we can be, how we were created in God’s image.
And that means some things for us. It answers the question of who are we? What is our purpose in this world? And so that’s really for our purposes. Throughout this series, when we’ve talked about identity, the definition that we’ve given it is the answers to the questions, who am I?
And why am I here? And just to recap a little bit, just so that we’re all on the same page, when we talk about identity, we talk about how we were created in God’s image. The Bible teaches that, that we have a problem, though, that it’s this crisis of identity, this crisis of sin that has caused us. We’ve gone and we’ve sought identity from other places other than God. And that has led us to this place of crisis where we’ve basically tried to become our own God.
We’ve tried to set up ourselves as God in our lives, and that just leads to brokenness and to messes in our lives. And God wants to put that back together. He wants to redeem us the way that that happens, what we talked about in week two is that, first of all, we need to examine ourselves. We need to look at our own lives and decide, can I still live with this identity, this idolatrous identity that I’ve chosen or I’ve created for myself that God has not created for me? Can I live with that?
And will God bless it? And if we decide that we’re not happy with that, then we can turn to Jesus, and Jesus will redeem that life. He’ll redeem that identity through his image, and he does this because he loves us. We are God’s beloved. And so he wants to call us his redeemed.
And then we talked last week about how it’s not just us that needs to search our heart. God also wants to search our heart, and he wants to reveal what’s inside of us so that he can change that, transform it. He wants to restore our identity in his image when we open our hearts up to him. Right. And so that’s where we’re at.
And so we’re coming to the conclusion of this series and talking about identity, and God wants to work in your life, but his work doesn’t stop there. And really, that’s the message today, that God’s work does not stop in our lives, just working within us. He also wants to work through us. Right. God wants to work in your heart and change your heart and make it more like the heart of Jesus.
But he also wants to work through you so that others can be redeemed and that your relationships with one another can be redeemed as well. In fact, God wants his image to be a part of every interaction that you have, that we have with others. So today we’re going to look at what it looks like to put the image of God as our identity into practice now, hopefully, and we’ve made a pretty good case in the last three weeks, that this image of God is the best identity that’s been created specifically for us, and that through Jesus, we can have it redeemed. But now we want to look at the ways in which we live that out, the ways in which the image of God benefits not only us, but it also helps us live out even deeper and better relationships through that identity in Christ. So why does that matter?
As we reflect on this incredible identity we’ve received through Jesus, we’re reminded that part of that identity is not just who we are. We know who we are, but it’s also why we’re here. It’s our purpose. Right? And we have this purpose, to be his representatives in the world.
We talked about that, remember? That image of God is not just a noun. It’s not just a characteristic. It’s something that we do. And we live as representatives of God in the world.
And so in order to fulfill that purpose, that means living as a part of a christlike community of people whose identities have also been redeemed along with yours. It means lifting one another up, sharing this message that we have, that others can be reconciled with God from the world, and that our journey is not to be made alone. Instead, we’re called to live out this faith in Jesus, this, this knowledge of redemption in community as well. Now, one person who knew this better than most and lived out this new identity and directly taught us how to live it out was the apostle Paul. Paul followed the example of Jesus.
Now, I love talking about Paul, not just because of the name, right? It’s a great name. But in fact, a lot of times people are like, why does he talk about himself so much? That’s kind of like, could you please distinguish between yourself and the apostle Paul? I’m talking about Paul in the Bible, right?
That lived 2000 years, some years ago, right? Paul, the apostle of Jesus. In his letters, he taught us how to live this out among one another, right? In fact, in his letter to the Romans, Paul first lays out this thorough, convincing theological argument, discussion, almost this treatise of salvation, right, that we can look back on this history for the first eleven chapters of Romans. You read this and it just reads like a theological treatise on the history of salvation through Jesus.
And Paul spells all these things out that we should believe. But then he doesn’t stop. He keeps going. It’s like, here’s all the reasons why you should believe that you’re saved through Christ. And they’re compelling arguments, right?
You read Romans and you’re like, man, that was a lot. You get to chapter eleven, like, just, God, thank you for saving me. But then Paul’s like, but wait, there’s more. Now you have to live it out. Now you have to put it into practice.
It’s not enough then for us just to believe certain things. And Paul was uniquely equipped to teach us this, to teach his readers that, to teach us to put our faith in its transformation into practice. He was equipped for this because he experienced it. He experienced a dramatic change in his life, from persecuting the church to going to building up the church all throughout the roman empire. And so Paul’s entire life, the apostle Paul’s entire life changed dramatically and publicly and drastically before others.
And so he taught us, he taught his readers, followers of Jesus who have had their whole lives changed, especially their spiritual lives changed, to put it into practice, in their relationships with their families, in the church, in their work, even in their interactions with non believers, and to turn those lives into a Christ like existence among others. One thing is really clear from Paul’s teaching. It simply is not enough to believe in salvation. It’s not enough to have a redeemed identity found in the image of God. We must live it out.
Knowing about it and talking about it are not the same thing as living it out with its purpose in your life. In fact, Douglas Moon, in his commentary on Romans, says, all theology is practical, and all practice, if it is truly christian, is theological. Paul’s gospel is deeply theological, but it is also eminently practical. The good news of Jesus Christ is intended to transform a person’s life. Until individual christians own and live out the theology, the gospel has not accomplished its purpose.
Did you hear that? Until we live it out, the gospel has not accomplished its purpose in our lives until we put it into practice. And so Paul writes in Romans twelve one, therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. So for Paul, one of the results of God’s mercy, this eleven chapter treatise on salvation through Jesus, one of the purposes behind that, one of the therefores, right?
Remember, whenever there’s a therefore, we ask what the therefore is there for, right? And we look back on the eleven chapters that Paul just spent on creating this theological treatise, this convincing argument for salvation through Jesus Christ. And Paul says, because of all of that, offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. In fact, our lives are transformed into lives of worship when we offer our bodies.
The word there in Greek is soma. And it’s an important word because it’s this idea of, it encapsulates the whole purpose. So we’re not just talking about our physical bodies that we’re offering up here, right? So you can, I mean, don’t like pinch your neighbor or anything, but like when you, like, when you grab flesh, that’s soma, right? But it’s more than that.
It’s more than just. I see some of y’all, they’re pinching each other. I said, don’t. No, but it’s more than that. It’s more than just flesh and blood.
It’s more than just the body you’ve been given. It’s your whole person, your whole existence. By the time Paul came around and was writing and teaching and preaching and ministering, this word had become, even to the Greeks, even to the Romans, had started encapsulating an even greater idea than just our physical person, who we are physically. And Paul says to offer all of that, everything that you are on the altar of sacrifice. But it’s a CErtain kind of sacrifice.
Do you notice that? He says to offer them as living sacrifices. Now, that word living is important too, in the Greek the phrase there is Zosenthusian. And so the idea here phrase is based in another really important Greek verb, and that’s the verb zeo, which means to live. Right?
And that’s connected to the Greek noun, which is Zoe, which is life. Now, why am I throwing these words out at you? Because they matter. There’s an analogy that’s being drawn between the OLD TEStament sacrifices that were made day in and day out. In the Old TEstamenT, the israelites would make sacrifices to God.
They would make sacrifices on the altar of atonement and the altar of incense, and they would offer these sacrifices day in and day out in worship to God. And all of these sacrifices, they point forward to JEsus, who is the sacrifice. He’s the ultimate sacrifice, because he gave his life, he lived a perfect life as only God could, because Jesus is both fully man and fully God. And Jesus lived a perfect life, but then he died on the cross to offer that life as a sacrifice for our sins. He gave up his perfect life to atone, which is just a fancy word that means, if you think about it, atonement, it means we’re at one with God now, right?
Is literally the idea behind this atonement that Jesus offered his life as a sacrifice. He is the Passover lamb. He is the lamb of God who was offered as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could be redeemed, so that we could be reconciled, so that our lives could be purchased away from sin, so that we could have a restored relationship with God through Jesus death on the cross. And now, Paul, what he’s doing is he’s drawing an analogy between our lives offered as living sacrifices upon the altar, and the life of Jesus, which was foreshadowed by these sacrifices that were offered in the old testament. And I don’t know if we fully understand what’s going on here, so I want to dive just a little bit deeper.
If you think about this, in the Old Testament, when a sacrifice was burned on the altar, it became something else. In fact, it ceased to exist, right? If something’s burned, it’s not itself anymore, but what it became is it became these ashes on the altar, right? And the altar, because of these sacrifices to God, was considered holy. And even the coals, the ashes on the altar, they were considered holy.
And so these sacrifices would be made and they would be burnt down, and they would become something holy, something other than themselves. But then we have Jesus, who’s a sacrifice offered for sin, and he dies and he’s put in the tomb. But then what happens three days later, he rose from the grave. And so Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, which all other sacrifices point us to. When Jesus was sacrificing the cross, that wasn’t the end of Jesus.
He continued to live. And so now Paul is drawing this analogy between our lives offered in worship and the life of Christ, which was redeeming, given up on the cross, was redeeming us from our sins. But Jesus didn’t stay in the grave. He’s alive. And so Paul is saying that us too, in our worship and offering ourselves, when a sacrifice is made in our lives through Christ, that we too are alive with Jesus.
The word for living here is so important.
It’s so important for us to recognize that we are living sacrifices. And so from this word, this verb zeo and the noun Zoe, we are pointed to the life of Christ, John. In his gospel, John one four uses this word when he says of Jesus. In him, in Christ was life. The word there is Zoe.
And that life, Zoe, was the light of all mankind. And so putting all that together, two things are really clear from Paul, just from this one verse from romans twelve. One, two things are really clear from what Paul is teaching us. First of all, when Paul says to offer our whole selves, our soma, our bodies, our lives, our very person, as living sacrifices, that this is not just our physical self, but this is our spiritual act of worship, he’s not only talking of our physical life, but our spiritual and eternal life found only in Jesus. He’s pointing us to the life that can be had in Christ.
In order for our lives to be lives of worship, then God has to have his rightful place in our lives. We can’t have altars and idols of false worship taking place of God in our hearts. We have to be redeemed. We have to be living eternal lives. And that can only happen if Christ is in our lives.
But once we’re redeemed, once we’re living these eternal lives, this everlasting life that starts the moment you place your hope and your trust in Jesus. Once that is true, God’s presence is in your life through the Holy Spirit, and he’s dwelling within you right now, and he wants to call you to worship. Consider this. What will we be doing for all of eternity? We’ll be worshiping God in his presence.
And that doesn’t start when you go to heaven. That starts when you place your hope in Jesus. From that moment on, we live lives of worship in the presence of God. And that’s the first thing that Paul is teaching us. Secondly, though, it’s clear from Paul’s writing that worship is more than just singing.
We sang songs this morning of praise, and I’m not saying that worship isn’t singing to God. That’s part of it. Part of worship, part of praise is singing to God the truth about him and praising him through his word and through prayers and praises, like we come together every single week to do. But in fact, it’s not just singing, but everything that you do. Everything that you do for God’s glory is an act of worship when it flows from an identity that’s redeemed and transformed by Christ.
When you live out that life in a Christ redeemed identity, everything that we do should be worship. What Paul is saying is that we are to worship God every moment of every single day from now until all of eternity. In fact, by using this word soma, this word for body, Paul is emphasizing the level to which our worship should rise. Douglas Moo says, the degree to which our worship should be involved, even the very prosaic, even the basic parts of life. So what are some examples of that?
It could be as simple as giving God our gratitude for his provision. You think about it. We sit down and we pray over our meals, right? But how often do we really, truly give God thanks for his provision for that meal? How often do we stop and thank God for our incomes, right?
His provision that we, yes, we work for those things, but God has given us our incomes to provide for ourselves and our families and think about our work. How often do we think of our work as worship? That’s challenging, isn’t it? What if when we work at our jobs, we saw that as an opportunity to, as the scriptures say, to work as if we’re working for the Lord himself. If we did that, then even our work becomes worship when it’s done for the glory of God.
It could be service to others, to your neighbors or the poor or our community or your brothers and sisters in Christ. If you’re doing that to give glory to God, then that is worship. And even better, when you don’t receive the credit, when you don’t receive the glory for it, when you do things in secret. But you make sure that God gets the glory for that act of service. It could be stewardship of your time spent with others, your talents.
It could be stewardship of your finances, your treasures, where you’re taking into account the things that you need and living within your means. And you’re doing that so that you can be generous to others. It could be taking care of the temple of your tent, right? When was the last time you were on a treadmill? And you’re just like, praise God, right?
Thank you, Jesus. Right? It’s like you’re, like, sweating, like, you know, like, thank you, Lord. That could be worship, right? Even those things can be worship.
The way we treat others could be worship if we’re living according to the spirit and by the fruit of the spirit. And even those actions, if they’re honoring to God. Our conversations, if flavored with the truth of the word of God, are honoring and glorifying to God, and they can be worshiped. Everything that we do should be turned over as acts of worship to God. Mou continues in his commentary in Romans one of the greatest temptations in the christian life is to bifurcate, to split, to separate the spiritual world from the material, to begin thinking that only certain parts of our lives have eternal significance.
Every part of your life can have eternal significance. All of our life, Mus says, is to be a continuous worship of the God who created and redeemed us. And so that leads us to the point our lives are transformed into lives of worship when our identity is redeemed. Now, perhaps the best way to exemplify that that transformation is, like I said, to display the fruit of the spirit among others in our relationships. The fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
And against those things, against those mindsets, against those attitudes that we have when we are in Christ, there is no law. And so when we live according to the spirit instead of according to the flesh, we’re living lives of worship. When we’re set apart from the way that the world interacts with others, when our relationships change fundamentally, as if Christ himself is living in that relationship, that’s an act of worship. And that brings us to the second thing that Paul teaches us. In Romans twelve two, Paul writes, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. What Paul is talking about here is that we were created to be set apart. We have a word for that. Holiness just means simply to be set apart. Set apart from what?
From the world. God transforms who we are through the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can live in the world for him. And that transformation leads to a life that represents God’s image and does his will. And so God makes us whole through Jesus. But then he’s making us holy to live holy lives out in the world.
He makes us whole by redeeming us from our sin. But then he sends us with a purpose, to live as his ambassadors, as his representatives, and Jesus as our savior. And now he has become our Lord. And when God makes us holy, he doesn’t just change our actions, although righteous living, living to do what is right in God’s eyes, that is a part of holiness. But holiness means that we are set apart for a purpose.
As I said, we’re set apart from the world, from those who’ve claimed their own identity, created their own identity from this fallen and sinful world that we live in. But we live for something as well. We’re not only set apart from worship of false idols and false gods, we’re set apart for a purpose, and that’s to be his image bearers who do his will. But then that leads to another question. If we’re meant to do God’s will, what is God’s will?
How do we know what the will of God is that we’re supposed to do? Well, pretty simply, he tells us in the Bible, right. He teaches us what his will is. And so Paul says in ephesians two, we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. And so now that we’re redeemed, we can fulfill this purpose of being created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
We can fulfill the reason why we’re here. Remember, identity answers not only who we are, but why are we here? God has put us here to live holy lives. We were created to do good works in the name of Jesus. And so if you’re wondering what it is to live out God’s will for your life, here it is.
This is what this looks like, to be God’s representative, to be Christ’s ambassador in the world. It may help us then to have an example. And again, I go back to the apostle Paul because he lived out such a great example of what it looks like to be Christ’s ambassador.
Paul’s characteristics as an apostle, they reflect an image out into the world. See if you can tell whose image that is. Right. Let’s talk about Paul. See if any of this sounds familiar.
Paul brought comfort to others. He suffered willingly for his faith. He approached his ministry and his work of spreading the gospel with sincerity and steadfastness. He had a sense of victory and triumph over sin and death through the cross. He was willing to sacrifice himself for others because he was motivated by love for God and for others.
Paul was in tune with the Holy Spirit. He lived a life of deep spiritual insight because he spent time in God’s presence. He spoke with authority because his words were not his own. They were the very words of God placed on his heart. Where do you think Paul got those things from?
From Jesus, from Christ in his life, because Jesus had changed fundamentally who Paul was. His character flowed from his redeemed identity, which he found through a relationship with Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior. And we can find that same relationship, that same redemption, that same identity in Christ as Paul says, and we should say ourselves in one corinthians eleven, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. Can we claim that? Can we claim that about ourselves, that others can follow our example because we are following Christ?
Paul’s identity and his character flowed from that relationship with Jesus. His holiness flowed from that identity which was redeemed through Jesus. And that brings up our next point, that holiness flows from a redeemed identity in Christ. But there’s one more characteristic of Paul as an apostle that he received from Christ that I want to talk about, and I want to end on this, that this is also not just a character thing that Christ puts in us. It’s actually a commandment that we’re given.
But it’s even more than a commandment. It’s actually a commission. In fact, it’s the great commission, to go and make disciples of others, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us. And so Paul lived and worked and moved in this commission. He worked to reconcile others to God as well.
He wrote in two corinthians chapter five. 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. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone, the new is here. And all of this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself and Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
And he was committed. He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. The final thing from Paul’s life that I want us to look at is that redeemed identity leads to redeemed relationships first with Christ. A relationship with Christ is the foundation for every other relationship in our life. Being reconciled, being restored, that’s reconciliation is just that idea of restoring a relationship.
And if we can have a restored relationship with Christ, we can have restored relationships with others as well. And Paul is a great model of this as well, because he used Jesus as his model. And so Paul continues in two corinthians five, 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. God made him, meaning Jesus made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him in Christ we might become the righteousness of God.
This character of Jesus is found in a redeemed relationship with God through Christ, and it’s perhaps viewed in our relationships with others when we follow the commandments of Christ. Probably the best way to exemplify this is through the one another verses. We’ve talked about these before. You remember them. About 60 of these verses throughout the scriptures that just talk about how we should relate with one another.
About a third of these commandments, these one another commandments deal with unity in the church. A third of them to be at peace with one another, to not grumble among one another, to be of the same mind with one another. Another third of them instructs christians to love one another, to tolerate one another in love, to be devoted to one another in love. About 15% of the one another verses stress an attitude of humility and deference among christians, give preference to one another in honor, regardless one another as more important than yourselves, and serve one another. But there’s more.
Some other examples be hospitable to one another, bear one another’s burden, speak truth to one another, comfort one another concerning the resurrection, encourage and build up one another, stimulate one another to love and good deeds, and pray for one another. It isn’t enough to simply believe that these are just good ideas, things that other people should do. It isn’t enough to just think about salvation and a redeemed identity to believe in them. Even if it’s found in God’s image, we have to live it out. Knowing about it and talking about it are not the same as living it out with purpose.
And so when our redeemed identity is found in the mercy of God, we’re called to worship, we’re called to be holy. Jesus redeems us and our relationships with others, and then he calls us to help others find that redemption in him as well. That’s because redeemed relationships reflect our redeemed identity. In fact, if you’re going to take anything away from today’s message, it should be that, that redeemed relationships reflect our redeemed identity. Just as Paul’s relationships flowed from his relationship with Christ, our redeemed relationships bring the image of God into that, into this world by treating others with love and humility and surface.
God wants all people to find their identity in Christ, and he gives us this command, but it’s also a commission. We can’t do this alone. We have to do this in community. The world is still trying to get us to give up on our true identity found in Christ. And there are a lot of challenges that we face, especially the younger you are.
I would say the more challenging it is to live out this kind of life. We’re living in an increasingly secular and pluralistic world that would have us give up on this redeemed identity and on these relationships. The world’s full of these conflicting ideologies and worldviews that challenge us and undermine godly principles and a christlike character. And all around you, again, especially the younger you are, there’s temptation to compromise on our faith in order to fit in or to avoid conflict with our friends or our loved ones in order to receive the acceptance of our peers, in challenging us to give up on our faith. If you add to that, there’s open hostility and there’s ridicule towards christian beliefs and practices.
If you look in educational institutions, in political institutions, the world can be a hard place to be a Christian. Can it?
Even for young people, for christians today, especially for young Christians today, it’s even harder sometimes to find that support in the church among other believers. And I think that should be a challenge to us today. When we think about christian community and fellowship among our brothers and sisters in Christ, do we realize, do we recognize that the younger that people are, the harder it is becoming to find community that means something? It’s becoming increasingly difficult. We live in one of the most anxious periods ever.
We’re more connected through technology, through social media, through the Internet, and yet we’ve never been more distant from one another in the world that we live in. It’s getting harder and harder to find that community. And yet God calls us to a redeemed identity within community. So what do we do about that? What does that look like?
How do we put it into practice? As we come to close here, I want to give you six ways that you can put this into practice. These are strategies for a redeemed relationship within community, within the christian community. So, first of all, we have to stay rooted in Christ. We have to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus by staying grounded in his word and in prayer and worship and fellowship with other believers.
And those things provide for us a solid foundation on which we can build a life of faith and deepen our connection with Christ as we navigate the challenges of our world. Second thing is to seek wisdom and discernment. We need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us to discern between right and wrong. And if we don’t have a clear answer, we need to seek wisdom from God’s word and from others who we know are spiritually mature. The third thing is we need to be confident in our identity in Christ.
We need to embrace our identity as his beloved children, as the beloved children of God. Your worth and your purpose are not determined by the acceptance of other people. They’re determined by the image of God in which you were created. Fourth thing, we need to engage in respectful dialogue when we’re faced with opposition or people who have differing worldviews. We need to stop screaming at each other, especially within the church, but outside as well.
We need to have respectful dialogue where we understand the opposite opinions of ours and we seek to speak the truth in love to those who need to know Jesus as well. We need to act like we have a Christ like character, even when we don’t think people are watching because they are watching. The fifth thing, we need to find and build community. We need to seek out christian communities and fellowship to find like minded individuals who can encourage and uphold us in our faith. And if you can’t find it, then build it.
Start it. If you can’t find it, then build it. And finally, we need to share our story. We need to look for opportunities to share what Christ has done in our lives. I guarantee that in this room there are plenty of stories, plenty of gospel transformations that have taken place, and those are a testament to the truth of God’s word and who Jesus is in our lives.
And so we need to share our stories so that others can experience that transformation from Christ as well. You need a team, that’s what I’m saying. You need mentors and leaders and role models who can guide you on your spiritual journey and help you grow in your faith. But you also need someone that you’re leading to Christmas as well. No matter how new or how far you are on this journey.
We’re all called to engage in discipleship and multiplying Christ in others. And this might lead to ministry for you. It might lead to leading a small group or investing in the spiritual growth of your children or your grandchildren. It might lead you to passing on your faith to the next generation. Within our children’s or youth ministry, we also need to partner with each other for the kingdom.
So let’s ask God to strengthen us, to give us courage to live authentically in redeemed relationships out in the world and among one another, to live holy lives of worship, trusting that God will provide for us and he will guide us. I hope all of you will become partners for the gospel with us as well. That you’ll realize that you were created in the image of God, that you are his image bearers, that you are called his beloved, that you’re redeemed in your identity through Christ, but also that he’s given you a purpose, to be his ambassadors out in the world, to go and represent him through that same image. We know who we are, and we know why we’re here, and we’ve answered those things through the image of God.