Called and Chosen - Understanding Your Identity and Destiny in ChristShembull

Purpose of our Calling

Why did God choose us?

To be holy and blameless in His sight. (v.4)

The amplified version of the word used for "Holy" is consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven.

Blameless refers to our standing. Jesus paid the debt for our guilt so that we can live shame-free and blame-free lives.

In love He predestined us for adoption to son ship through Jesus Christ. (V.5)

Becoming a child of God.

This tells me that before I accepted Christ’s death on the cross I was not a child of God! God is not everyone’s Father. He is God of the entire cosmos but becomes your Father when you accept Jesus as your Savior.

John 1: 12 –Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Rom 8:15-16 – We have received a spirit of Sonship. And by Him, we cry “Abba Father.”

Paul lays a great foundation for us to understand our new identity in Christ. This is who we are. We are sons and daughters of God. We can call Him Father.

Divine nature activated.

2 Cor 5:17 tells us that we are new creations in Christ.

New = never created before. You are a one-of-a-kind image-bearer of God. No one gets to be you. We have a new DNA, that of Christ. DIVINE NATURE ACTIVATED

You are now a Saint. You were an orphan; you are now a child of God. When you sin, you sin as a saint. It does not alter your identity as a child of God.

Something miraculously alters in our very being. We now have the mind of Christ, and sometimes we fail to tap into it. We renew our mind by washing it with the Word of God—replacing lies with truth, with wholesome thinking that leads to heart transformation, which in turn leads to behavior change.

When we attempt to change without the heart and mind transformation, we only have behavior modification that cannot be sustained for a long period. That is why some of us fall back into old patterns of behavior and thinking.

Some of us try living the Christian life under the bondage of religious duty and not from a place of relationship and delight in the father. We fall back into law instead of living out of grace.

REFLECT:

Do you realize that God loves you so much that He chose you simply because He decided to?

Do you see yourself as a new creation and not an old one that is refurbished?

Write down five things that are a part of your new DNA.