A facet of the redemptive work of Christ that we do not focus on enough, in my opinion, is that Jesus died firstly for His Father, and secondly for us. The Father wanted to reach out to us, to embrace us, to love us, but our nature was a sin nature. Before the redemptive work of Christ transformed us into righteousness, Jesus took the full punishment for our sin.
We have grown up in a generation where the world, and many parts of the church – due to a misunderstanding of what grace truly is – have not realized how serious sin is. God cannot just close His eyes and forget we sinned and simply forgive us. Sin caused all of humanity to fall short of the glory – the life of glory and love and increase and peace that God designed us all to have. It twisted humanity, it broke the entire planet and brought death into every part of our lives. Grace is not magnified by ignoring sin, grace is magnified by realizing how horrific sin has been to God and to us. We cannot actually realize or grasp how much sin has cost us all as the human race.
Sin is so bad that God cannot ignore it or fail to punish it. Sin separates us from God, from Heaven, from life and ties us to God’s righteous punishment and judgment.
When we realize this we will celebrate – the grace of Jesus on the cross has completely made us perfect. You weren’t even close before then. What you might have claimed to be small failings are sin before God, and only through the substitute of Jesus taking our place can we be right with God.
What has this got to do with our identity? Well, it means our identity is rooted in how righteous we are, but it is rooted in how righteous we are in Christ. Our whole identity and whole right standing before God comes from who we are in Him, and it is healthy for us to never forget that. Look at how Peter expresses this:
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
(1 Peter 1.18-21, ESV)
Through him we are believers, not through ourselves. So in all our understanding of identity, understand the source, and be grateful to God for making you what you are in Christ.
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