Your Identity in Christ

God calls you by what he put in you not by what you did. 

I don’t have kids yet, but being an aunt is my favorite thing on this planet. My nieces are so sweet and kind and no matter what they do I never see them as something they aren’t. One day my niece drew all over the wall with a crayon and when she thought she would be in trouble she lied about doing it. When I found out what she had done I realized the most important thing I could teach her in that moment was to not be afraid to tell the truth. I saw her as a scared child and not as a liar or as a bad kid. Those thoughts about her never crossed my mind, and I dont think they ever really could. 

She is the sweetest, kindest most loveable little girl I have ever had to pleasure to know. I told her that I knew she was smart and strong and I helped her understand that if she were to tell the truth she would have my guarantee that no one would be mad. And once we found out the truth I told her I would help her fix whatever problem she told me about. After giving her confidence in how we would deal with the markings on the wall, I could see that she was a bit worried but she trusted me to keep my word. 

So I asked her again, who drew on the wall, and she finally owned up to treating the wall like a coloring book. Once she did I decided to tell her how smart she was to which she just stood in silence knowing that she had done something wrong. I sensed the worry and proceeded to tell her it would be ok, I promised her that I would help her as long as she was honest. I proceeded to get the magic erasers and help her scrub the wall clean. God doesn’t leave me alone when I make a mess so who was I to leave her alone?

After we worked together to fix the problem I encouraged her again, I told her how smart she was and that I’m pretty sure she knew it wasn’t a good idea to draw on the wall. I assured her that we all make mistakes and it was ok because we could work together to clean the mess up. I promised her that we would always be partners and I knew she would do her best to make the right decision next time.

 Fast forward to a year later, she hasn’t drawn on the wall, she tells me she knows she’s smart and when something goes wrong I’m the first one she runs to. We can have a relationship like we do because in a moment when she was scared and felt condemnation over something she did wrong I chose to call her who I knew she was and not what she was acting like. 

How I dealt with my niece is very much like how God deals with us. We all are faced with condemnation at one point or another. We have a sin root and constantly fight the temptations of this world. Though we look back and remember our sins and the people that we hurt God does not. In Hebrews 8:12 the bible says:

“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

God reminds us in Romans 8:1 that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. The devil will try to pigeonhole you to your past. The enemy sits with his mouth to your ear constantly reminding you of your failures and shortcomings. The enemy constantly reminds you that you aren’t good enough and will never come back after what you did. But God says otherwise. 

The Lord says you are more than enough because he made you that way. Jesus says you can’t fail because he is with you. The Lord says I can’t identify you by your sins because I already forgot them and he reminds us through the prodigal son that the Father waits for us with open arms as we come to ourselves in the pigpen. Jesus speaks to us with love, kindness, grace, and mercy, and if that isn’t the voice that you’re hearing we have to ask ourselves. Who is speaking?

Once we identify the lies of the enemy and the truth of God we must then decide

Who we will believe?

Moses climbed Mount Sinai to meet with God, it was there that God gave the first set of tablets and laws including the feasts, and instructions to build his temple as well as Naming Aaron and his sons as the high priests of the temple. In Exodus 28:1 the bible says:

Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests.

God called Aaron and his bloodline to serve as priests in his temple, but he faltered as Israel’s leader in Moses’ absence.

In the book of Exodus, Israel saw God’s presence in the fire by night and the cloud by day. They saw his presence descend to the top of a mountain where his glory scorched the mountain to the point that even today you can see the burned mountain top. They watched and worshiped as God’s cloud touched the ground and met with Moses at the Tabernacle of meeting. Even though God revealed himself to them they still questioned who he was and what he said. All it took was for Moses to spend too much time meeting with the living God before they started worshiping a dead one. 

In Exodus 32:1-5 The bible says:

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” 

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 

So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”

Israel was left in Aaron’s care and he facilitated the building of a false God. He built an altar before it and called a feast in its name. Aaron failed miserably in leading the people. The people of Israel put a little pressure on him and he folded like a lawn chair. After all that Aaron saw God do and all that, he and Moses sacrificed up to that point he allowed peer pressure and a weak conviction to cause him to fold. 

We’ve all been in Aarons’s shoes. Sure we may not have carved a golden image but many of us including myself have worshiped at the altar of my, me, and mine. We have all allowed our desires and will to take God’s place at one time or another. We serve a God who deserves to be first. A God who deserves to be honored. A God who desires to be a father to us simply because he loves us. God is good and he wants us to put him first both for his glory and for our benefit.

Aaron failed to lead the people back to God. He allowed and assisted Israel in erecting an altar to a false God. While the people were creating and worshiping a false God we see Just a few chapters earlier that God is calling Aaron to be a priest. Even knowing that Aaron would lead the people astray and worship a false god, God still called Aaron a priest.

God calls you by your future and not by your sin.  God knows what you will be so he assigns your name based on your calling and where you’re going and not where you’ve been or by what you’ve done.

Your sin isn’t stronger than God’s call on your life. NO matter how much you sin your calling will still be there. For many are called but few are chosen. 

You can’t remove God’s Call on your life. 

When God called Aaron a high priest he did it while he was praising the wrong God. 

When calls you a mother he can do it while you’re in an abortion clinic. 

When he calls you a prophet he can do it while you’re a witch.

When he calls you a father to nations he can do it while you’re in a same-sex relationship.

When he calls you a steward of millions he can do it while you’re in poverty. 

God calls you what he put in you. 

Who has God called you and what has God said about you?

This is why reading the word is so critically important. The Bible tells us exactly what God thinks about us. Knowing what God has to say is how we easily discern the lies of the enemy. The Bible says in Isaiah 26:3:

I will keep those in perfect peace whose minds are stayed on me. 

That includes when we think about ourselves and our identity. Are we agreeing with the world or with God?

In Exodus 32:30 Moses goes to God alone to atone for the sins of Israel. Moses shows us a picture of the salvation that Jesus died for. How Moses advocated for Israel is exactly what Jesus does for us. 1 John 2:1 says that Jesus is our advocate. 

He cleans us up, makes us righteous, strengthens us, and makes us able to do God’s work. Christ changes us. Jesus is why God can call us by our identity even while we are still in our sin. Our scales are weighted with Christ’s glory. 

In 1 Cor 2:1-5 Paul tells us that his preaching wasn’t wise or persuasive but it was only a demonstration of God’s power. God qualifies the called and he strengthens us to accomplish the work that he has set before us. 

We can do because Jesus did!