Identity: New Thinking, New Motivation
As we move through the EQUIPPING acronym we come to identity. When you became a Christian, your identity became that of a child of God and an ambassador of Christ. Your old ways of thinking and living are replaced with the thoughts and standards of God. How do you know these thoughts and standards? By reading and studying God’s words in the Bible!
New In Our Thinking
Instead of being tied down by thoughts about temporal, urgent things, the Christian is able to consider eternal priorities in their thinking. As you embrace your new identity as a child of God, your understanding of God’s eternal priorities deepens.
In the second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul writes in verse 20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” The understanding of eternal priorities the Christian possesses is reflected in this verse. God is making His appeal our spheres of influence through us! The reality that God uses mere human beings to accomplish his purposes of reconciliation is humbling.
New In Our Motivations
In addition to becoming new in their thinking, Christians also become new in their motivations. Having the identity of a child of the one, true God releases us from our worldly, self-centered motivations. Through the grace of God, Christians have the capacity to make choices not based off of personal preference, but rather based on God’s will.
The Responsibilities of Your New Identity
Embracing your new identity in Christ brings new responsibilities. This passage from 2 Corinthians outlines the Christians role:
“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 who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Firstly, God is making His appeal through Christians, therefore they must represent what God represents.
Second, Christians are God’s co-workers. They bring the grace of God tho those around them and urge them to be reconciled to God.
Be strengthened in your Christian identity today. Become new in your thinking and motivations. Embrace the new responsibilities you have as an ambassador for Christ in your spheres of influence; take the grace of God with you wherever you go.