Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Identity in Christ - 57 (Sealed)

A seal is a mark of ownership or security. It is like a sign that reads "This is private property. No trespassing allowed. This property is protected by Acme Security. They have motion detectors, electrified fences, armed guards, a pack of angry dogs, and a flock of specially trained pigeons."

We are marked with God's seal. It indicates we are his property. It indicates his concern that we remain his property.

The Father has paid the very high price of his Son to bring us back into his family. He seals us to ensure his moment by moment,  100%, focused attention to our needs, our growth, our place in his family,  his kingdom,  his mission,  and his purposes.

◆ God's Perspective

Some people act as if God is totally indifferent to people.
    - He designed people before the creation of the world.
    - He campaigned to win people back after the Fall.
    - He labors diligently to get his plan back on track, by his renovation project in our lives.
    - He imprints us with all these identities.


We should notice that the mark of ownership IS the owner. It is the Holy Spirit (the person of God himself) who marks us as God's possession.  God does not just hang a sign around our necks. He stands next to us with his hand on our shoulder,  yelling "Hey! Heads up! This is mine! Y'all take care with what's mine!"

At the lowest level, he is demonstrating how serious he is about our relationship with him. He is maintaining his personal attention in our lives. He is personally overseeing the restoration of our original design.  And I suspect there are several other layers involved that I don't know about.

◆ Living My Life

If the Father takes our relationship this seriously,  we ought to take our relationship just as seriously.

Jesus died on the cross to "cancel the record of our sin" and "break the power of the Devil." He worked to make sin a non issue.  He worked to make our connection and communication with him the issue.  He worked to make reality in our restoration the issue.

We ought to focus on these things too. I am not saying we should not take our sin seriously.  I am saying we should not obsess about our sin. I know people who have a tendency to fail in a particular area. Their hearts are filled with their failure, their inability to change,  God's hate of sin -- especially this sin -- and their expectation of God's judgment.

Our spiritual renovation is not based on our ability to stop sinning. Scripture makes it plain, we cannot.

Our spiritual renovation is based on God's injection of new spiritual DNA into our hearts,  our moment by moment connection with the grace and love of God, and the renewal of our mind's -- a revolution in the pattern of our thinking. Focus on these things.

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