Romans 3:21-25 – “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

The fight for faith is a daily one.  It begins anew each morning and continues through to when you go to sleep each night.  We are given tools, “means of grace”, such as prayer, God’s Word, Christian Community, Communion, Baptism, Fasting, Evangelism, and Works of Service to help us in our fight.  The foundation of all of those means of grace is the gospel, namely what we believe about ourselves and Christ.  The question I want to answer today is what does it mean to have your “identity in Christ”.

From above we see that the righteousness of God is given to us by faith in Christ.  We also see that our being declared (justified) as righteous is by grace (a free gift).  Finally we are told that the free gift of being declared righteous in Christ came at a cost, Christ’s blood.  The English word for redemption was taken from the Greek word “apolutrosis”.  What the Greek word apolutrosis literally means is a “releasing or liberation effected by the payment of a ransom”.  This is identity altering gospel.

You are not your own, you were bought for a price – Christ’s blood.  1 Peter 1:18-19 – “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” You are righteous through no work of your own, but because God declared you as righteous through Christ.  What about our daily struggles against sin?  I do not mean to make light of that or suggest that we do not have a battle to fight, but we fight that battle with Christ through faith.  Our final victory over sin does not come through our efforts, but the final victory was accomplished through Christ’s blood.  We do not labor against sin on our own behalf, but for Him who ransomed us; in love we strive for personal holiness that the glory of God in Jesus Christ would be manifested, shown as a light to a sinful world.  We proclaim with Paul – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Likewise, we view ourselves and others in a like manner, rejoicing as believers in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 – “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.  From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he isa new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  
Though we were purchased by Christ’s blood we are much more than slaves, we are the adopted sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Christ.  Galatians 4:4-7 – “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” 

I say these things, not that we would think higher of ourselves, but that we would rejoice at how great a salvation we have in Jesus Christ.  We have an enemy who would love nothing more than for us to forget these gospel truths, but the promises of God will never fail.  I encourage you to largely ignore everything I have said, save God’s Word alone, and be encouraged by Isaiah 40:8 – “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”