Your New Identity

When I graduated from high school my parents gave me the best present ever- a red ’88 Mustang convertible.  I loved that car; I wanted to keep it forever!

Sadly, it didn’t happen; five years after getting the fabulous present, my husband, Sean was driving it to work.  A young guy crossed the center line going too fast and hit him head-on.  Thankfully, Sean was fine; however, the car…not so much!

Even though I was so grateful that Sean was okay, I mourned that car for years. . .25 to be exact.  I continually talked about my past love (the car).

Finally, I stopped talking about it one day about a year ago when I spotted a new beauty… a 2016 cherry red Mustang convertible for sale in a dealership parking lot.  It was definitely love at first sight!

 

I so wanted the car. . . the problem however was, . . . I did NOT want a car payment!

So instead of buying it, I checked on the car weekly.  Each visit, I would hold my breath as I entered the lot;  I was positive that the gorgeous car was going to sell quickly.  Much to my surprise, however, it sat there for six months.

After half of a year of weekly visits, my husband couldn’t stand it any longer.

“We are going to buy the car!”  He said.

“I don’t think we should.” I answered.

He bought the car anyway.  (I think he was tired of the dealership visits and maybe embarrassed by the multiple test drives.  Plus, after you’ve talked to THREE different salesmen, everything gets confusing!)

Anyway…even though I protested, I was really elated! The car became THE VERY BEST PRESENT EVER!

The car was perfect…absolutely perfect…for one month…until one Sunday morning when I was texting and backing out of the garage at the same time!    You really should not text and drive because I backed right into my husband’s Dodge truck leaving a huge dent in the side of my “VERY BEST PRESENT EVER!”

Luckily, my car was able to be fixed, but the story illustrates the finitude of what we consider the best presents on earth.  All gifts that we receive here, end; however, God gives us the VERY VERY BEST PRESENT EVER and it never ends.

The Bible tells us that God is a giver and he gives us a lot of things.  However, two of his presents totally transform our lives.  The first comes from Romans 6:23.  The verse states,” For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  One of the VERY VERY BEST GIFTS EVER is the gift of eternal life that God gives us through Jesus Christ.  That means that this world is a temporary home as we await the beauty and splendor of life everlasting with God in heaven, surrounded by our love ones and friends who have gone before us.  He gives us ETERNAL life!

The second VERY VERY BEST GIFT EVER comes from II Corinthians 5: 21.  That verse states, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  This verse gives us a promise of a new identity in Christ.  The old mistakes that we have made, the current bondage that we struggle with, our inability to “get it right” is removed; the act of Jesus’ death on the cross enables us to take a new identity- we become “the righteousness of God.”  When we accept Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross through faith, we are able to walk in a new identity in Him.  Your new identity has nothing to do with how good you can be; your identity depends only on what Jesus did at Calvary!

God gave us the VERY VERY BEST GIFT EVER when he gave His own son!  Join me this week for Bible Study as we discuss our new identity in Him!

Thanks for reading!

Love ya!

Robin