I Identify as a Blood Bought Believer in Jesus Christ

 

We live in a culture where people like to wear tags, and especially what to “identify” according to specific groups and preferences. Some want to carry those identities with them into Christianity.

A few years ago, a visitor to our morning announced to me as he greeted me, “I am a non-practicing gay person because of my commitment to Jesus Christ.”

I am glad he has placed his faith in Jesus Christ, and I am also glad that he is not participating in the sins of his past life, but his statement is wrong biblically. When we become followers of Jesus Christ, we must abandon the tags of the sinful life we left behind. Paul describes it this way.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

These are former tags for unsaved people, not saved people.

That is Paul’s clear statement. Truly saved people can no longer be identified this way because true believers are new creations in Christ. Those things are who you were, not who you are.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Believers are no more non-practicing homosexuals than they are non-practicing murderers or idolaters. When I received new life in Christ I died to my old life and its identifying characteristics. I became a new creature in Christ. My task, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is to live like the new person I am.

It is Satan who lies in our ears trying to convince us that we are just the same old people with a “get out of hell free card.” True salvation is much more dynamic than that. We have been forgiven. We have been regenerated. We are no longer in bondage to sin and should not continue practicing it. We passed from death to life.

“But I still have those feelings.”

There are some complicated aspects of this. Fleeting thoughts are not necessarily sinning. Having a momentary temptation to return to a past sin does not mean that a believer is somehow still that old person. We still have the flesh, and when we allow it to reign in us it can bring up all sorts of uncleanness. When those thoughts come, believers must remember their new identity and combat the lies of Satan.

Longing for the past life is sin.

Sometimes believers want to identify by their former tags because they want to excuse longing for the old way of living. Longing for my past sinful life is sin. Lot and his family were commanded to not look back as they fled Sodom (Genesis 19:17). It was not safe for them to do so. They needed to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the cities of destruction as possible. Looking back and longing for what was left behind was not only disobedience against God but dangerous. Lot’s wife looked back and was judged by God.

Looking back demonstrates that my attitude toward God and my old life is wrong.

It might be easier to understand in the context of marriage. When a young man marries his wife, he commits to her. He cannot consider it acceptable to long for an old girlfriend — even if he does not pursue her. He must devote himself to his new wife. He must give himself to her completely and choose to forsake all others in heart, mind, and behavior. This is not only a choice that is possible, it is expected.

If you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ, God has already changed your identity. Rejoice! You are a new creation in Christ. Give yourself fully to your Savior.

“And such were some of you . . .”