How clean are you? This question is often posed to congregations of believers in an attempt to motivate them to good works. However I am posing this question to you today for an entirely different reason... Not to expose your perceived failings or shortcomings, but instead to show you how completely clean you are in Christ Jesus today. You see, many believers are living life with the belief that they are clean one-moment (when they think they are behaving well) and then dirty the next moment (when they fail), so they are on some sort of spiritual teeter-totter – up one moment and down the next moment. This however is not how God wants us to live. This shifting-sand, roller-coaster mentality is not the abundant life which Christ died to give us. So today we will be examining the truth of how completely clean you are in Christ (in every way) and how by seeing this truth, you will be on the unshakable foundation of Jesus Christ, instead of the shifting sand of emotions, feelings and your own performance.
Ask a group of believers how they see themselves and you will likely receive many different answers... Ranging from “I'm just a dirty rotten sinner saved by Grace.”, “I'm just a sheep following the Shepherd, to “I'm just a servant”. While all of these things have a certain element of truth, they all fall short of what the Bible says is our true identity in Christ, and it is this realization of this identity that can enable us to operate in the victory and authority which Christ has given to us. If we are not sure of our identity, we can never truly live with authority. A Police officer who is not aware of his identity will never make use of his authority to arrest criminals – even though the power has been given to him. Likewise, we as believers have been given authority from God Himself, but if we are not sure of our identity, we will never be able to make use of that power. So this is what we will be studying today.
There are so many things in life vying for our attention. Every new product every new item carries with it a promise of making our lives better, easier and more fulfilling. However the excitement of that new thing is always short-lived – usurped when the next new thing comes along... electronics that were new last month are already obsolete this month. Nothing of this world ever lasts. However there is one – one person – who can give us true fulfillment, not just a temporary satisfaction, but a permanent fulfillment that totally completes us in every way. Today we will be studying how this is so, and how to receive this provision of Jesus Christ into our lives, so that we will not be searching or be entangled by the things of this world any longer.