Freedom in Christ: Who am I? Session 1

The following sermon is taken from the Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course by Neil Anderson & Steve Goss.

Freedom in Christ
Session 1: Who Am I?

Introduction: Who Are You Really?

The purpose of this course is to help us walk in the freedom that Jesus has won for us. How can we do that? Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). We need to make sure that we really know the truth, not just as “head knowledge”, but in our hearts.

The first area of truth we need to know is where we have come from and who we really are.

So, who are you? It sounds a like a simple question, but the more we think about it, the more complicated we realise it is. What makes up the real “me”, the real “you”? Is it my body, is it what I have? Is it what I do? Is it what I think.

Created in the image of God

We tend to identify ourselves and others by outward appearance, performance and social status.

The Bible however is very clear, that that’s not who we are. It says that we are made “in God’s image” (Genesis 1:26). God is not flesh and blood, he is spirit. As humans we have a physical nature, our bodies, and also a spiritual nature, our soul or spirit. It is our inner spiritual nature that is created in the image of God. Deep down we are spiritual beings.

How we were designed to be

If we look at Adam and Eve, we can see how God intended us to be. Not only was Adam physically alive, in the same way that you and I are. He was also spiritually alive, in other words his spirit, the core of his being was connected to God.

This is how we were designed to be too: on the one hand our spirit connected to our physical body, and on the other hand our spirit connected to God.

This connection to God gave Adam a whole different quality of life from mere physical existence. Being spiritually alive meant that Adam’s life had a number of very important qualities:

1 Significance

God gave Adam a purpose for being – to rule over the birds of the sky, the bests of the field and the fish of the sea (Genesis 1:26). Adam did not have to search for significance or meaning in life – he already had it.
2 Security

He was totally safe and secure in God’s presence. Everything he needed was provided – food, shelter, companionship – everything! He had not concept of what “need” was.

3 Acceptance

Adam had an intimate relationship with God. He could talk with Him at any time and have his full attention. He also had a sense of belonging, not just to God but also to another human being, Eve.

That is how God created you to be. You were designed for that kind of life. Complete security, a real purpose, no need to worry about anything, and a sense of belonging to God and other people.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL

But when Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan and they disobeyed God, things dramatically changed.

Spiritual Death

Adam and Eve were told, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) But the death that was talked about, was not only physical death but also spiritual death.

The connection that their spirits had to God was broken and they were separated from God. The effects of this spiritual death for them, and for us were:

1 Lost knowledge of God

The wisdom of God was no longer within them, and they were left to discover their identity, purpose and meaning in life independently of their creator.

To be in relationship with God was to know God. When Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from God’s presence, they lost the intimate knowledge of God they once enjoyed. That is how we came into the world, without a true knowledge of God. We may know about God, but we can’t really know him until we establish a real relationship with him through Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14).

2 Negative Emotions

They suddenly experienced a whole host of negative emotions that they had never known before.

a) They felt fearful and anxious

The first emotion expressed by Adam was “I was afraid” (Genesis 3:10). Anxiety disorders are the number one mental health problem in the world. It is hard to imagine, but Adam and Eve had not irrational fears until they sinned. We are born with a driving need to get back to the position of security that they lost.

b) They felt guilty and shameful

Originally they had a sense of significance. When the relationship with God was broken, that was replaced by a sense of guilt and shame. Therefore we are all born with a need to get back that sense of significance.

c) They felt rejected

Originally they had a sense of belonging, of complete acceptance. When the relationship with God was broken, there came a crushing sense of rejection. Everyone is born with that great need to feel accepted, and to belong.

d) They felt weak and powerless

Originally Adam and Eve had the power of God within them to be and do all that God created them to be and do. Now they had to rely on their own strength and resources.

e) They felt depressed and angry

TRYING TO GO BACK TO HOW IT WAS MEANT TO BE

The best the world can offer does not work

Because of the effects on sin on our world, and upon us, we are born with a strong drive to try and regain the acceptance, security and significance that Adam and Eve lost. But we don’t know how to do it.

We try to find significance through our accomplishments, we try to find security through our status, and we try to find acceptance through the admiration of others. But nothing we do, can recapture what was lost with Adam and Eve.

Bernhard Langer, the top golfer, who is also a Christian said this:

By the time I was about 28 years old, I had basically achieved almost everything that I wanted to. I realised that material things don’t make you happy and that there must be more in life than just accumulating money in the bank, or cars, or houses, or whatever. You just want more, more, more and are never satisfied.

We can’t get that life back by trying harder or dressing to impression, because the problem is that we were born separated from God. But God had a plan to restore fallen humanity.

WHAT JESUS CAME TO DO

Give us back spiritual life

The only possible answer to the problems we face is to restore our relationship with God, to reconnect our spirit to God’s spirit, to become spiritually alive again. That was not something we could accomplish ourselves. So God sent Jesus to deal with the sin that had separated us from God.

Jesus was like Adam in that he was both physically and spiritually alive. Unlike Adam, Jesus never sinned. He modelled for us how a spiritually alive person can live in this fallen world if they live dependently upon their heavenly Father.

However, Jesus came to give us more than an example, he came to give us life.

“In the beginning was the Word…. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:1-4)
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even through he dies.” (John 11:25)

What Adam lost was life, what Jesus came to give us was life. When we become Christians our spirit is reconnected to God’s spirit – we are spiritually born again, and we can know God and relate to others in the same intimate way that Adam and Eve knew.

Restore Significance, Security and Acceptance

We tend to think that eternal life is something that we get when we die. But it is in fact much more than that – it’s a whole different quality of life right now. In fact, it’s simply getting back the life that Adam lost at the fall. In 1 John 5:12, the apostle John wrote, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life.” The moment we received Christ, we were given the right to be called children of God (John 1:12). Having the life of Christ within us is what makes possible the restoration of what Adam and Eve lost in the fall.

Now our needs to establish an identity, to be accepted, secure and significant are fully met in Christ. And what this sermon series will do, is to explore what this means for our real day to day lives: why we don’t have to strive any longer for people to accept us; why we are secure in Christ despite our circumstances; and why we don’t have to worry about our needs.

The key thing to understand now is that if God says that these things are true, then they really are true. God is truth – our responsibility is to find out what it true and believe it even when our feelings and circumstances tell us something different.

Summary

We seen that through Adam and Eve, God intends for us all to have an intimate relationship with him, and to experience acceptance, significance and security. But that through sin this was lost.

Jesus has come to give us back that life. We have that life right now.

Next week, we’ll come back again to the question “who am I?” and look at the truth of what it means to be a Christian.

Let us pray…..