There is no one reading this who is so brilliant, so holy, so pure that God accepts them on their behaviour and attitude. If you don’t understand that, not much else will make sense. Only Christ can make you acceptable to God. Only Christ can make you holy. Only Christ can make you righteous. Your identity must begin with Christ.
In all other world religions, the teaching and the teacher are interchangeable. The message isn’t changed by the messenger. Anyone could have written the five pillars of Islam, it doesn’t change anything. But Christianity only works if the messages comes from Christ. Without Christ, we could not know God. He is not just a good teacher, He actually took our place on the cross, died our death and opened the way to the Father.
Your identification of your new identity is always in Christ. We cannot ever honestly declare that “I can do all things”, we can only declare “I can do all things in Christ” – our identity begins with Christ, not us. It begins with God’s grace in the incarnation and subsequent death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. It begins with Jesus.
Do not try and formulate an identity for yourself outside of Christ. Rather, go through the letters of Paul and everywhere it says “In Him”, “In Christ”, “In Whom”, and that is your identity. Whether you have done good or done bad, that is not your identity. Your identity is Christ, it begins with Jesus.
Selah.
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