Who We Are in Jesus Part 5

I want to continue reminding us who we are in Jesus. I think that it is essential for us to know who we are in Jesus so that when our enemy, the devil, lies to us about who we are, we can know it is a lie and move away from it.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are God’s workmanship.

The word for workmanship is the word we get masterpiece from. We are God’s masterpiece.

We may not feel like a masterpiece.

But Jesus has declared that we are God’s masterpiece. Since we have been declared God’s masterpiece, we need to live that way, doing the good works that God has prepared for us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living as God’s masterpiece, doing the God works God has made us for.

Ephesians 2:19

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellowship citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

We are citizens of God’s kingdom.

We are not strangers or aliens to God. We once were, but now we have exchanged our citizenship in the world for citizenship in God’s kingdom. We are now strangers and aliens in the world.

Being a citizen in God’s kingdom means that my focus, my priority is no longer this world, but the kingdom.

In Colossians 3:2 Paul encourages us to set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. When I am a citizen of God’s kingdom, I can and will do that.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in this world as a citizen of the kingdom of God.

Colossians 3:12

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

We are chosen ones.

God chose us to be His children. We did not choose Him, but He chose us and because He chose us we have the opportunity to have a relationship with the Creator as our Father.

God always makes the first move.

We love Him because He first loved us.

He died for us while were still sinners.

He goes before us, not behind us.

He chose us so we could know Him.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is showing gratitude for God choosing us.

We are holy.

We are commanded both in the Old Testament and the New Testament to be holy because the God we follow is holy.

Holiness is being set apart for a purpose. In this case, we are set apart for God’s purpose.

Holiness also contains the idea of being morally upright. Holiness means that I am living in the strength of the Holy Spirit which enables me to live morally upright, fulfilling God’s purposes.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living morally upright and fulfilling God’s purposes in this world.

We are the beloved of God.

God loves us and we are His beloved.

Being His beloved means we are special to God. Humans are the most special of all of God’s creation for we are created in the image of God. We are the only part of the creation which has been affected by sin that God sent Jesus to die for.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing live as the beloved of God.

Colossians 3:3

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

We are hidden with Jesus in God.

That means that both the Son and the Father protect me. Satan must go through Jesus and the Father to get to me.

I believe that we have no idea how many times daily God protects us from Satan’s attacks. We are told in Ephesians that we are in a spiritual war. Satan, the enemy of God and His people, knows he cannot attack God head on and win, so he attacks God’s people. Satan knows that if we are not alert and connected with Jesus, he can defeat us and that will hurt Jesus because Jesus loves us.

We must realize that we are in a spiritual war, and if we stay attached to Jesus, He will protect us from the effects of Satan’s hatred of us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is staying hidden in Jesus so that we can experience the protection of God.

Colossians 3:4

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

We are an expression of the life of Jesus.

We can experience the life of Jesus when Jesus is our life.

Paul says that it is no longer he who lives but Jesus who lives His resurrected life through him.

The world needs to see the person of Jesus.

The world needs to see the truth of Jesus.

The world needs to see the love of Jesus.

When we live as an expression of the life of Jesus, the world can see those things through us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living as an expression of Jesus in a fallen world.

Living in Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Who We Are in Jesus Part 4

I have been told a lot about who I am that was not true. Unfortunately, I believe so many of those things and it caused me to live in ways that were not true and that were not of God.

I want to continue to remind us who are in Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

We are the righteousness of God.

The word righteousness means to be who we ought to be, to be in a condition that is acceptable to God.

In our natural condition, we are not as we should be; we are sinners. Sin is never acceptable to God and, if we are living in a state of sin, we are not acceptable to God.

Jesus never sinned. He was perfect, and on the cross, He took our sinfulness and gave us His sinless perfection, His righteousness.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing we have been made righteous by God through Jesus and living based on that truth.

Galatians 3:25-28

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew or Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We are children of God and are one in Jesus.

Not only are we children of God, we are also one with Jesus.

We are in unity with our Father because we have surrendered our lives to Jesus and now have His life in us.

I am one with Jesus because I literally share His life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living Jesus’ life in unity with Him.

Galatians 4:6

And because you are a son, God has sent His Son into your hearts, crying “Abba! Father!”

We are children of God, and we have an intimate love relationship with Him.

We all have our special names for our fathers. These names show the intimate connection that we have with our fathers.

We are children of God who have the privilege to call God “Abba”, which is an intimate name for father. It equates to dad or daddy or pop or papa.

We have been given a gift to experience God, not just as our father but as our dad. He is the one we share a very intimate relationship with.

Galatians 4:7

So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

We are not only children of God but we are heirs of God.

An heir is one who obtains his allotted possession by right of sonship.

We as children of God have been given an eternal possession through Jesus.

Our eternal inheritance is beyond anything that we can imagine.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living knowing I have an awesome eternal inheritance.

Ephesians 1:1

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

We are saints.

Saint is the noun form of the word holy. We are saints, holy ones.

We have made the word saint to be some super Christian. The truth is that every true follower is a saint. We are the holy people of God, made that way by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living as the holy ones of God.

Ephesians 4-6

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

We are alive and seated with Jesus, able to experience His authority in our lives and through our lives.

We are living, not just existing, not just surviving. We have the abundant life of Jesus.

We are seated with Jesus in a place of authority. We have, through Jesus, the authority to say no to sin and have victory over our enemy the devil. I am not a weak victim; I am a victorious conqueror of sin through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in the authority of Jesus and having victory over sin.

We are who God says we are, not who the world says we are.

In the Truth of Who I Am Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                                 Joe

Who We Are in Jesus Part 3

In John 8:31-32, Jesus says that if we abide in His Word, then we are really His disciples and that we then know the truth and the truth will make us free.

A huge part of knowing God’s Word is knowing who we are in Jesus.

Galatians 3:26

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

Galatians 3:28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 4:6

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

We are children of God and God is our Dad and we are one with Jesus.

We are sons and daughters of God. That will never change. I have a son and there is absolutely nothing that he could do that would make me reject him as my son. The fact that we are God’s children means that I am part of God’s family forever.

God is not just our father; He is our Abba. He is our dad. There is not just a formal connection between us and God. There is an intimate love connection between us and God.

We are one with Jesus. In Colossians 1:27 we are told that as children of God, Jesus literally lives in us. Jesus doesn’t work from the outside in but by the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit He works from the inside out.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that we have an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present Dad who loves us and has made us one with Jesus.

Galatians 4:7

So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

We are children of God, and because we are children of God we are heirs of God.

As heirs, we are recipients of God’s:

Promises

Blessings

Presence

We don’t just have God and the things of God here in this earthly life but for eternity.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the eternal promises, blessings, and presence of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake He made Him sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

One of the things that took place on the cross was that Jesus became guilty of my sins and your sins and the sins of everybody who had lived, who was living, and who would ever live.

Sin had to be punished, so God the Father, in His great love, made Jesus guilty of all our sins and punished Him for them on the cross.

That made it possible for God to completely forgive us and then to declare us righteous. Our righteousness is not our own doing; it is by God’s grace through Jesus. I am righteous, not because I earned it, but because Jesus earned it and gave it to me.

This was a great exchange. Jesus exchanged His sinless perfection for my sin. He exchanged His righteousness for my unrighteousness.

I don’t have the potential to be righteous.

I am not going to someday be righteous.

I am right now completely righteous.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in the righteousness that I am.

In Ephesians 1:1 Paul calls the believers in Ephesus saints.

In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul calls the believers in Corinth saints.

In Philippians 1:1 Paul calls the believers in Philippi saints.

In Colossians 1:1 Paul calls the believers in Colossi saints.

We are saints.

I know you don’t see yourself as a saint. Part of the reason you don’t is because we have screwed up what being a saint really is.

We have made a saint a super Christian. Someone who is perfect and does all sorts of miracles and unexplainable things. The reality is that every person who has surrendered his life to the authority of Jesus and become a child of God is a saint.

The word saint is the noun version of the word holy. A saint is a person who, by giving his life to Jesus, has been made holy.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that you are a holy follower of God and living like it.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepare before-hand, that we should walk in them.

We are God’s workmanship.

The word translated workmanship literally means masterpiece. We are God’s masterpiece.

Again I know you don’t see yourself as God’s masterpiece. We see ourselves most of the time through the eyes of the world and world values and a worldly perspective. We need to see ourselves through God’s eyes and His perspective. God sees you and me as masterpieces created through Jesus to do good works.

When we really believe that truth, we will stop beating ourselves up, stop having pity parties, and stop condemning ourselves. We will see that God can and will use us to bring honor to Him and to change the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeing ourselves as God’s masterpieces and letting Him use us for His honor.

Ephesians 2:4-6

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

We are seated in the heavenly realm with Christ.

We are not powerless people. We are seated with Jesus and under His authority have power to resist sin and obey Him.

We will be tempted, but because of our position with Jesus, we have the power to say no to sin and yes to holiness. That means when temptation comes, I have victory over it in Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that, because of my position with Jesus, I have His victory.

Because of Who I am in Jesus, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                  Joe

Who We Are in Jesus Part 2

I want to continue sharing about our birthright as followers of Jesus.

Remember when we surrendered our lives to Christ. There were things that occurred as God’s Spirit entered us and changed us into new creations.

Romans 8:35

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Romans 8:37-39

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our lord.

There are two birthrights mentioned here.

One is that we are secure in Christ’s love for us.

It says in this passage that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Jesus.

The knowledge that no matter what we do, no matter what life brings to us, or no matter what spiritual attack we face, God and His love for us will never go away or even diminish.

Hebrews 13:5 backs up this truth. It says that God will never leave us or forsake us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living knowing beyond any doubt that God loves us.

The second birthright in this passage is that we are an overwhelming conqueror in Jesus against all that would come against us.

We are more than conquerors through Jesus.

I was puzzled for years over what was meant by “more than conquerors” in this passage.

When you conquer another country or group, you are then in control of them. You have them under your authority through the conquest.

What could be more than that? The more is to conqueror a country or group and then make them our friends. First, we come under Jesus’s authority, His servants. He then elevates us to be His friends.

Jesus tells His disciples that He no longer calls them servants but He now calls them friends. We have been conquered and become intimate friends with the One who conquered us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is becoming friends with Jesus and thus overcoming all those things that Jesus died to secure our freedom from. 

1 Corinthians 6:17

But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.

We are united to the Lord and one in spirit with Him.

In John 17 Jesus prays that His followers will be one with Him as He and the Father are one.

Jesus does not want a casual relationship with us. He wants an intimate love relationship with us. He wants to share life with us as His people.

The awesome things about this relationship are that we never face a situation where Jesus is not there and that it is eternal.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing oneness with Jesus.

1 Corinthians 12:27

Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it.

I am a member of Christ’s body.

By surrendering our lives to Jesus, not only do we get God as our Father and experience His unconditional love through Jesus. We also get a huge family of brothers and sisters.

I know that many people look at the church today and see negative things and feel that they don’t need or even want the church to be able to follow Jesus.

That attitude is wrong. Jesus died to bring many sons to the Lord according to Hebrews 2:10. Following Jesus is about community.

Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd went and found the one sheep who had moved away from the flock and brought the sheep back to the flock. He did that because he knows that, away from the flock, isolated and alone, the sheep would be killed. Remember our enemy the devil wants to kill, steal, and destroy.

We need each other.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in community with fellow believers.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

We are new creations in Jesus. Old things are passing away.

When people surrender their lives to Jesus, two things happen.

First, we become new people.

Second, the old things go away and are replaced with new things.

New Desires

New Thoughts

New Attitudes

New Priorities

New Words

New Actions

Jesus didn’t come to make us better. He came to make us new and different.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

All this is from God, who reconciled is to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them, and He committed to us the message of reconciliation.

I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation with God to others.

Reconciled means to bring something or someone back into favor. Through Jesus’ death on the cross God brought us back into His favor. We were at odds with God, we were enemies of God. He brought us back into favor with Himself through Jesus’ death on the cross. We then became the bearers of that message to the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in the grace of God.

Confidently and Securely Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                   Joe