Breaking Down the Walls pt.1

Fighting Against Prejudice in the ChurchWho are you?Really?It seems like a simple question. At first. Thing is, I am not talking about your name, I am talking about how you define yourself. In other words, where you find your identity. How do you think about who you are?There are lots of different options.I mean if I asked you to finish the statement, I am ______; you could answer in a number of different ways. We are constantly coming up with ways to define ourselves and set ourselves apart from others. I am a husband. I am a father. I am American. I am... Fill in the blank.When I ask you, who are you, really I am asking, who are you fundamentally?At the core?Ultimately?Your answer to that question is important. To Paul.That is why he is always talking about it. If Paul’s not talking about who Christ is, he’s usually talking about who you are or the difference who you are should make on the way you think about your life.To make sure I am not exaggerating, I surveyed the book of Colossians noting all the different times Paul talks about who the believer is and in one quick barely doing any work kind of way I noticed at least 20 different descriptions Paul uses of what it means to be a Christian.20.In 4 chapters.Who you think you are. It is important to Paul.It is important because the way you think about yourself has major practical real life implications.Obviously.We barely even need the Bible to know that.If I think of myself as someone’s husband I am going to speak and act differently towards that person than I would if I didn’t. If I think of myself as inadequate in a certain setting I am going to speak and act differently than if I think I have everything I need. If I think of myself as superior to someone I am going to speak and act differently than if I think of myself as inferior.More importantly though, the way you think about yourself is important because the Bible says so.Look at the way Paul counsels people.For example, check out the book of Colossians. Paul begins really exhorting believers how they ought to live starting in verse 16 of chapter 2.Practical stuff.And if you follow his instructions down to verse 11 of chapter 3, you will find 7 ‘sort’ of markers of explanation.I am talking about words like therefore.Paul is exhorting believers how they need to live their lives and throughout this passage we find a number of words like,v.16 thereforeandv. 20 if … basically the thought is…if this is true, then this ought to be true in your lifeand again inch.3 v.1 if... thenv.3 for…v. 5 therefore…v. 6 forv. 10 sincePaul is giving commands and he is giving reasons for those commands and if you look carefully at the reasons Paul gives; about 6 out of the 7 have specifically to do with the believer’s identity, who the believer is and what Christ has accomplished for believers on the cross.In Paul’s mind having the right idea about who you are is not abstract, it is not theoretical, it is practical. In fact, if you look even more closely in Colossians you will notice that a big part of the problems these believers were experiencing was because they were acting in a way that was not consistent with who they really were, their identity.We would all say, we would all know that if we are talking to an unbeliever they are never going to be able to understand salvation or embrace salvation if they don’t understand who they are. We know, you can’t just tell them what to do, they have to know, the unbeliever has to appreciate exactly who the Bible says they are if they are going to move forward spiritually. It is impossible for the unbeliever to know God without knowing themselves. And what I am saying is that we can take that a step further and say something similar is true even after we are saved; just as the unbeliever can’t understand salvation without understanding what the Bible says about who he is, we as believers will not really understand sanctification, without understanding and embracing who the Bible says we are.This is important.To Paul.Practically.And you know, it is important for us to slow down and think about really because we are not who we used to be.A change actually has taken place in our lives.We’ve got to slow down and think about how we look at ourselves, how we think about ourselves, how we define ourselves, because a change has taken place in our very identity. We are talking about a change at the core level, not on the surface, we’re talking the very real self level, an identity change has taken place in our lives as believers. A change that is so big, we can refer to it in terms of laying aside the old self and putting on the new self. It's like we're two different people. There's who we used to be. We can call that the old self. And then there's who we are now. The new self. There is a break that has taken place.In conversion. In salvation.That is why he refers to it as old self versus self. Death versus life. Being transferred from one kingdom to another. We exist as believers in a whole new mode, in a different place spiritually, we have an entirely different way of seeing things, we are different people, we have a different identity.Big things have taken place in our lives.We have changed at a fundamental level.And so our thinking about ourselves should change.That’s why we’ve got to slow down and think about how we are seeing ourselves, because you know how we as humans work, we have habits, patterns, and those habits and patterns die hard. Even when it comes to something like this, where we are primarily finding our identity.Before we were saved we had a way of thinking about ourselves that way of thinking became sort of habitual for us and those habits die hard.It is kind of like if someone is single and he’s always thinking about girls and he’s always flirting with girls and then he gets married, that event changes his identity but it doesn’t necessarily, right away change the way he thinks at least not without some work. He’s a new man. He’s married. But he’s got to work on lining up the way he thinks with who he is.That’s definitely true when it comes to being a Christian. Only thing with being a Christian for some people the exact change that is supposed to take place in the way they think about themselves and others and the world can seem a little more fuzzy at first and so I want give you a simple test to help you determine whether or not you are really looking at yourself and defining yourself the way you should in light of the great transformation that has taken place in your life.It is found in Colossians 3:11.“Here”Here as opposed to there. Here in the new self as opposed to there in the old."There is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.”One of the things the characterizes the new self as opposed to the old self is that there is not Greek and Jew and all these other things but instead Christ is all and is in all, which is really a very interesting thing for Paul to say because it seems at first like there still sort of is.He says in the church basically, in the new self, as individuals and as a body, a core kind of transformation has taken place, that is part of what it means to have become a Christian, to be Christians and one of the implications of that transformation is that there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, which what we are saying is a very interesting for Paul to say because as we look around us it kind of seems like there is still is.I mean, when a person becomes a Christian it is not like he stops being white and becomes black or stops being black and becomes Asian. We’ve still got all kinds of colors going on. There still are Greeks and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, which indicates that what Paul means when he talks about there not being Greek and Jew is that the difference he is talking about has to do not so much with the physical differences and cultural differences in and of themselves but instead, what is obliterated in the new self as someone has put it “are the barriers formed by these differences and the relative status among the people of God based on these differences.”That is why the New American Standard adds in italics, “there is no distinction between Greek and Jew”Paul’s making a contrast between where people find their identity fundamentally before they become Christians and where they find it after. Before people become Christians they find their identity primarily in things like their ethnicity or nationality or social class or religious achievements but for us as believers, that is not true any longer.There is one thing that primarily defines this new self and that is its relationship to Christ.“But Christ is all and in all.”The reason we can say in the new self there is not Greek and Jew is because we have stopped living for the glory and exaltation of ourselves and we have stopped depending on things like race and culture and social class for our salvation and instead we are depending completely on Christ.He is all.When we look at the world around us He is the reason for everything we see in creation. When we turn to look at ourselves we find He is everything we need for salvation. The only thing we need.He is all.And he is in all.All believers.We are talking about union with Christ.Every true Christian is united to Christ through faith! Every true Christian regardless of race, culture, social background, is indwelt by the Creator, Sustainer and Lord of the entire Universe.The way we think about ourselves first and foremost and the way we think about other Christians first and foremost, our primary identity as Christians has to be “based on this our union with Christ” and based on this, “their union with Christ” and not on traditional human sociological connections.Which is why I am here asking you, honestly, at the end of the day how do you really define yourself?Where are you really finding your identity?How much of who you are and the way you think about who you are is defined by the gospel and how much of it is really determined by other factors?One great way to evaluate who you think you are is by looking at the way you think about others.