How to avoid Spiritual Identity Theft
ground your disciple in gospel realities
(Part Two)
By Jay Wegter
Gospel faith is not solely our entrance into the Christian life, it is the daily source of our being built up and established in our faith. “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude” (Col 2:6-7). Therefore, in our disciple-making relationships, we must learn to excel at re-speaking the gospel to one another. Bringing each believer to maturity is the corporate task of the body of Christ (Col 1:28-29).
The sanctifying and comforting benefits of knowing our identity in Christ is continually realized as we keep preaching the gospel to ourselves and to each other. Victory as an overcomer involves keeping our identity in Christ in view. We should always be matching His all-sufficient Savior-hood with our sinner-ship—always dwelling upon how His redeeming work is a perfect fit for our ruin due to sin. “For it was fitting [in God’s redemptive plan] for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Heb 7:26). Reckoning who we are in Christ means that our identity in Him will exert an ever-greater sway upon life’s daily choices. Since the true believer is Christ’s sheep, freeman, son, beholder, heir, and overcomer, it means that as we mature in Christ we are becoming what we really are!
Regularly reckoning our true identity in Christ is a spiritual discipline vital to spiritual growth, and essential to spiritual victory. Our walk of faith involves presenting to the eye of faith that Christ is our source of: sonship, status, acceptance, adoption, heir-ship, power, truth, fellowship, love, wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification. “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord’ ” (1 Cor 1:30).
Our identity in Christ is a battle front because the gospel is utterly counter-intuitive. Everything in our natural reason loathes being an object of pity and mercy— we want our worth, importance, respectability, and acceptance to flow from our own virtues and achievements. We desire to ‘be in charge of’ our own lovability, adequacy, and security. We were born with a satanic religion of self-help which says in effect, “The more perfect I am the more love I am worthy of—I can do it!” That’s the world, the flesh and the devil courting us with the ‘boastful pride of life’ (1 Jn 2:16).
Regarding the gospel’s counter-intuitive nature, think of God’s redemptive plan —that Almighty God should take pleasure in bruising His Son in our place. “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering” (Is 53:10a). Consider that the Father treated Christ as the worst criminal who ever lived so that believing sinners could be adopted as true children of God. All of this was necessary so that repentant sinners could be brought to heaven without God striking a single blow to them in wrath. It is amazing beyond words that the Son should be sent to earth to reap the eternal consequences of what elect sinners had sown, and to provide the perfect obedience they could not supply. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).
Thinking this way does not come natural to us—to consent to let Another, Christ, work for me and to reckon that He has earned every blessing I enjoy is something we must learn to practice by faith. I must train my mind to think this way by preaching the glorious gospel to myself and to my disciple. Only the word of His grace, the gospel, can cut new ‘grooves’ in my thought life. Only by feeding on the gospel can we reckon, as a habit, that our acceptance and fellowship with God are grounded upon who Christ is and what He has done as our Substitute.
As we feed on the gospel, divine grace increasingly becomes part of our reasoning processes. And, as a result, our affections are increasingly conformed to the precious things of God. It is a blessed exercise to cut these new channels in our thought life because gospel-reasoning (grace-based thinking) over time becomes a way of re-educating the mind and affections (renewing our minds—Romans 12:2). By means of ‘gospel reasoning’, we gain the sweet optimism that God desires to meet with us at the throne of grace for fellowship and intimacy (Heb 4:15-16). In addition, the grace-based believer is convinced that God is glorified in giving His people endless installments of mercy, grace, and love. Divine grace then becomes a central subject in our meditations; and not for our comfort alone, for, the grace of God in the gospel teaches me about my completeness in Christ (Col 3:10). As such, the gospel is able to lift me out of self-concern in order to be burdened on behalf of others. Thus, the gospel in giving me joy in God, channels this overflowing joy into care for others (1 Jn 4:19).
The gospel is vital to the ‘treasure principle.’ As a man thinks in his heart so is he (Prov 23:7). The mind of a man always returns to what he esteems as his treasure. No wonder Jonathan Edwards described true religion as existing primarily in the affections. In Matthew chapter six Jesus drove home the treasure principle, explaining in just a few words how life-directing and dominating a person’s treasure really is. A man reviews his treasure, displays his treasure, adds to his treasure, speaks of his treasure, follows his treasure, and is ruled by his treasure (Mt 6:19-21).
Preaching the gospel to ourselves is a spiritual discipline or habit that is to be learned. This discipline is not simply entertaining general thoughts of Christ and grace. The discipline of preaching the gospel to one’s self and to one’s disciple involves specific ways that Christ’s redemptive work answers our need and ruin, and our yearning and longing. To preach the gospel to oneself is to always be about the business of rejoicing in Christ’s fitness to answer in Himself our spiritual poverty, ruin, yearning, and need. These points of contact between our need and Christ’s sufficiency may be designated “access points” of gospel application. By that is meant that the wealth of Christ is perfectly congruent with the expansiveness of my need.
Let us look at the next two aspects of our identity in Christ.
III. The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace (reconciliation) IV. The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ (created for glory)
III. The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace
The true believer needs to know that his right-standing with God is carried unchangeably by Christ. In His incarnation and passion, Christ identified with our dilemma, ruin, and alienation from God. He became radically identified with us (yet without sin) that we might become radically identified with Him. Christ entered the great cog works of God’s justice in order to be crushed for sinners. He lived the life of a perfect disciple—all to affect the most magnificent exchange in time or eternity. “. . . So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).
The wonder of justification is that Christ traded places with all who would ever believe so that under God’s moral government Christ might become ‘officially’ guilty of the sins of His people (Rom 3:24-26). My sin was imputed to Christ so that He might bear it up to the cross and judge it in His own Person. “And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Pet 2:24; 3:18). To be ‘justified in Christ’ is to have sin removed and to have Christ’s perfect righteousness given in its place. God is the ‘Architect’ of this great exchange which took place in our justification. He planned it in His eternal counsels, having promised before times eternal (Titus 1:2). Its purpose is to bring us all the way to God and to magnify the Godhead. To be justified through Christ is to be furnished for every good work, and to be fitted for communion with God, and ultimately to be prepared for endless life in His presence.
God’s work in justifying believers is ‘preemptive’ in this sense—God declares the believing sinner ‘pardoned and righteous’ ‘up front’—before good works. This is so significant. Because of our lust for law and works righteousness, God knew that we would approach progressive sanctification ‘legally’ (with the motive of trying to earn divine acceptance). But, the gospel order nips this in the bud, for it is God declaring us righteous up front (Rom 4:5-8). This order makes certain that the entire Christian life is ‘all of grace.’ “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Rom 4:4-5). This means that the true Christian can pursue sanctification from the position of full acceptance and favor because he is already pardoned and justified by God in Christ. This shapes all of our incentives for personal holiness; it always brings us back to an attitude of gratitude, rather than working for favor through our performance.
We have just seen that the grace of God in our justification is preemptive in ‘beating us to the punch’ in the matter of our good works. But it is also preemptive in another area as well—in the forgiveness of all of our sins (Col 2:13-14). God’s full and free forgiveness up front precedes our role in mortifying what remains of indwelling sin. The new covenant has a boundless provision for cleansing (Heb 8:12; 9:14). We must avail ourselves of this cleansing provision as often as needed. William Romaine reminds us that only pardon, and consciousness of that pardon, can ultimately cancel sin’s hold on us. Says Romaine, “No sin can be crucified in heart or in life unless it is first pardoned in the conscience.” His words are a fitting reminder that guilt cannot sanctify us. In fact, our resolve to pursue personal holiness is best activated by the gospel awareness that we have no guilt or condemnation in God’ sight! Only blood-bought pardon breaks sins’ chains.
Justification through Christ’s righteousness gives us a new identity. The believer ought to reason in this manner: “I have been given a new identity of sonship in Christ, therefore I reject the world’s offers to establish my identity through its offers. Yes, I have an earthly place of employment, a vocation and calling, but my gracious identity in Christ is who I really am.” Regarding this blood-bought identity, how true it is in practice, that the more in tune I am to the gospel, the more consistently I will live out my identity in Christ. This is precisely where the gospel is strategic in fitting us to deny ungodliness (Titus 2:11-14).
Justification is the defining truth of our relationship with the Lord, for to be a
justified person is to be a person reconciled to the God of the universe. Paul is the only N.T. writer who uses the word ‘reconciliation.’ He uses that word to describe the relational benefits of having been justified. Reconciliation brought us from a place of estrangement to a place of nearness to God (Eph 2:13-18ff.). Reconciliation speaks of relationship restored, thus being ‘reconciled to God’ is at the heart of the believer’s identity. As Puritan author John Owen says in His book, Communion with God, when we bring our sin to Christ and go to Him for righteousness, we are having communion with God. What a blessed thought that the exchange of our sin for Christ’s righteousness continues throughout our earthly life—Christ taking our sin away and giving us His righteousness. This is the continual use of Christ for the reasons God gave Him (Owen). In giving us Christ, God has provided every incentive for maintaining and caring for our relationship with Him (1 Jn 1:1-6).
Christ is the very sphere in which the believer lives, moves, and has his being. To be ‘in Christ’ as our realm of life is to have every benefit found in His Person. We are accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:6). It is by union with Christ that the infinite benefits of His life, death, resurrection, and priesthood become ours forever. When Paul says “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh,” (Rom 13:14), he is saying that we must reckon Christ as our sphere, our life, our right-standing with God; then trample the world’s offers of sinful pleasure. How we need to daily preach the gospel to ourselves; that God has transported across time and eternity His own joy and given it to us in Christ. We cannot exhaust the subject of who God is toward us in Christ. As John Flavel said, “Christ is the fountain of life.” Christ is inexhaustible, when we draw upon His infinite wealth it does not reduce the principle. God is glorified when we make withdrawals from His infinite treasuries of grace to us in Christ. When we feed our faith, we are in the best position to trample upon the bogus promises of the world (Is 55:1-3). Meditating on the gospel is inseparable from godliness.
IV. The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ
KNOW YOUR GLORIOUS CALLING IN CHRIST. To receive the good news of the gospel is not merely the acceptance of the historical facts of Jesus’ life. To become saved is to have ‘seen’ the glory of God in the face of Christ so as to trust Christ with one’s whole being (2 Cor 4:4-6). It is to behold by faith the divine identity of Christ, the Good Shepherd. A saved person has Christ revealed to him as the Lord of Glory, the Jehovah of the O.T.—for no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit’ (1 Cor 12:3). Even the Apostle Peter could not say “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” apart from the revelation of the Father (Mt 16:16-17). Paul’s own testimony extolled God as the One who ‘revealed Christ in me’ (Gal 1:16).
Salvation restores our ability to behold the glory of God and to be captivated by His majesty. We are all familiar with the verse, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). But, what often goes unnoticed in this verse is the fact that by our sin we have forfeited not only our ability to reflect God’s glory, but also our capacity to desire and to behold God’s glory by faith in His Word. God’s power through the gospel restores to His people the spiritual sight of God’s glory.
The new birth gives God’s glory back to us; the sight of which was lost by the fall. Thus, regeneration is a miracle both of revelation and restoration. By the Spirit’s regenerating work, we are given a revelation of Christ—seeing who He really is; seeing the glory of God in Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6). Jonathan Edwards, in his work on the infinite merit of Christ, opens up aspects of the glory of Christ to our understanding: The glory of Christ is not only our Savior’s majestic divine Person, His glory is also the ‘equipment’ He earned by His obedience to the Father in order to save to the uttermost’.ⁱ Christ’s mission in His incarnation, atonement, resurrection, ascension and exaltation, was to earn that equipment. And, because of His obedience in accomplishing redemption, God highly exalted Him above every name (Acts 2:36; Phil 2:5-11). By His ‘equipment’ He also disarmed the powers of darkness (Col 2:15; 1 Jn 3:8).
The author of Hebrews unfolds our Savior’s mediatorial glory: “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’ so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. The former priests, on the other hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Heb 7:21-26).
When God grants the new birth to an elect sinner, that person receives a new faculty of perception. This new faculty is known as “the eyes of the heart,”—it is given to believers in order that they might perceive the glory of their Lord and the riches He has purchased for them. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph 1:18). The eyes of the heart allow us to comprehend spiritual realities so as to be rocked and staggered by them. “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God [by His grace], which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words” (1 Cor 2:10-13, 15-16).
While we were spiritually dead we could not see the Lord’s glory and beauty. We did not love His glory or live for His glory—we had no passion for His glory—no sentiment for His purpose to extend His glory. Therefore, as adversaries of God, we worshipped and served the creature and the creation (we were infatuated by the world’s promises). Our hearts were not temples of God, but were idol factories (a veritable ‘zoo of lusts’ Calvin), producing coveting of every kind as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 7:8. We gladly let our flesh set the standard for our behavior. But, now, through the miracle of the new birth, believers have become the ‘unveiled ones’ able to behold the glory of the Lord. Our new identity is that of an ‘unveiled one’, and our new vocation is to behold His glory (2 Cor 3:18). “But whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Cor 3:16). God’s glory is the outshining of His perfections made manifest in Christ, and revealed in the wonderful plan of redemption. God’s majesty and excellence are put on display in our redemption (Rom 3:24-26). Beholding the glory of the Lord is now the vocation of the church that we might proclaim His excellencies—excellencies revealed by His accomplishment of our redemption (1 Pet 2:9-10).
‘Look and live’ (Jn 3:14-15) is not a bare spiritual principle or law, for to behold the glory of the Lord is to be ravished by the sight of His glory. The reason why is stunning—to understand the vastness and supremacy and dignity of the Person who gave His life for us is to be thrilled at His majesty. ‘My Savior is the Lord of the cosmos!’ Thus, at the moment of regeneration, the sinner not only meets his Savior for the first time, but he also meets his Creator for the first time.
In Speaking of the Spirit’s power in the effectual call, Thomas Boston states that the Spirit of truth, in testifying of Jesus (Jn 15:26) imparts a knowledge of Christ in His transcendent glory and excellency in the free promise of the gospel. In so doing the Spirit reveals the parties of the covenant (the Father giving Christ for the sinner), and He thereby works saving faith in the individual.ⁱⁱ How marvelous this revelation of Christ is, for by the Spirit’s power He begets faith by the word of grace. At that moment, the glory of Christ bursts upon the understanding, flooding the soul with light. It is a revelation granted by the Spirit, namely that the Father has given Christ crucified as a gift for the salvation of the lost sinners of mankind, thus to look upon Christ as the very purpose of God in giving Him is to be accepted by God (Thomas Boston).ⁱⁱⁱ
The saints will never tire of beholding the glory of their divine Substitute. For in their Savior they see the Father’s heart of love. God the Father lavished grace on believers for His Name’s sake (Eph 1:7-8). The dignity of our suffering Substitute is beyond our comprehension; He formed the cosmos, it belongs to Him, He will reign forever with His people ruling with Him. To regularly take delight in God’s glory in the face of Christ is to be ‘calibrated’ afresh to Who He is. The activity of beholding the glory of the Lord has a rectifying effect—it cures our lukewarm-ness, double-mindedness, and spiritual sloth. Beholding the glory of the Lord is an important dimension of communing with the Holy Trinity. Consider that by His saving work, Christ fulfilled God’s plan to reveal the divine perfections by means of the redemption of sinners. Let this sink in and it will blast you out of the doldrums and ‘blahs.’ It will fill you with passion for the glory of the Lord. For in Christ, God’s glory and our eternal good are eternally joined and accomplished together (Eph 2:6-7).
Someday soon, the saints will behold the glory of God in the face of Christ unmediated, face to face (1 Cor 13:12). The believer is a beholder now by faith in God’s revealed Word, but then we will behold His glory in His very presence. Christians are being prepared now for this Kingdom purpose of beholding, worshipping, and serving. Every genuine believer is already finding endless delight in these three activities. Christ in you is ‘the hope of glory’ of His coming Kingdom (Col 1:27), as we will see in our next ‘access point’ in our identity in Christ.
End Notes:
i Craig Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ; The Glory of Christ’s Obedience in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards.
ii Thomas Boston, The Beauties of Boston, p. 572.
iii Ibid, pp. 566, 574.