Identity


"So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as your own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father." For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering." Romans 8:15-17

"Congratulations! You have a son!" The words of the Ukrainian translator reverberated in my ears as I tried to process the numerous emotions of the moment. One less child without a family. My new son, although 10 years old, was an orphan no more. He carries our name. He is no less our child or a sibling to our other kids. His mother and I remind them regularly, "Remember who you are."

Paul's use of adoption to express what happens when we accept Jesus as our Savior has taken on a more tangible and palpable resonance in our hearts. We are God's child. We are joint-heirs with Jesus. We are co-inheritors of God's glory. Whoa! True, we will also share in his sufferings, but as Paul said, "our present struggles are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed."

Identity is a big deal. If we are unsure of who we are, we are unsure of everything else. We lack a true north. When we embrace Jesus and become God's adopted child, we now have a lens through which to examine the choices and decisions of life. Everything funnels through the filter of, "Is this consistent with the way a child of God acts?" Jesus follower, adopted child, "Remember who you are."

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