A Disciple Is... # 2

What’s in a name? [In this digital age, we might better ask, “what’s in a social security number?” ]

Our name, and/or the numbers attached to it, forms an identity!

“Jerry Scott” is not just an abstract blend of sounds. To me and to those who know me, it describes a man who is 53, who is a Believer, a Pastor, a husband, a father. That name connects me with an extended family and creates a sense of belonging. This week, I signed pieces of paper with that name, my signature validated contracts and gave bank checks value. Those words, Jerry Scott, when spoken, creates a whole range of thoughts and images in other people. For some it creates a sense of well-being; as in “I love that guy.” For others, something not quite as positive, as in - “What an idiot!” All of this, and more, is what we call - identity!

Many years ago, I read a fascinating book with the title, The Great Imposter. It told the story of Ferdinand Waldo Demara. After a series of personal failures in his early life, Fred, as he was known, decided to become various people by stealing identities. Over a period of 20 years he adopted the life of a monk, a lawyer, a child psychologist, a prison warden, among others. His most spectacular ‘career’ was when he became a ship’s surgeon in the Royal Canadian navy.

Wikipedia says, “Demara became a surgeon, Joseph Cyr, aboard HMCS Cayuga, a Royal Canadian Navy destroyer, during the Korean War. He managed to improvise successful surgeries and fend off infection with generous amounts of penicillin. Apparent removal of a bullet from a wounded man ended up in Canadian newspapers. One person reading the reports was the mother of the real Dr. Joseph Cyr; her son at the time of 'his' service in Korea was actually practicing medicine in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. When news of the impostor reached the Cayuga, still on duty off Korea, Captain James Plomer at first refused to believe Demara was not a doctor (and not Joseph Cyr). The Canadian Navy chose to not press charges, and Demara returned to the United States.”

Demara was sent to prison several times for stealing identities. He was obviously an intelligent man, a man who might have made a successful life, but he wanted to take the short-cut to success. He did not want to put in the time of preparation and training to become any of those things he pretended to be! In the final decade of his life, Demara became a Christian, attended college and at the time of his death was serving as a legitimate Baptist pastor and hospital chaplain!

I have good news about your spiritual identity today. The Bible says that we can know a secure place of belonging, that we can have access to all the resources we need, that we need not be orphans or imposters spiritually.

TEXT - Galatians 3:26 - 4:6

A Disciple is ... A Person with a New Identity

READ 3:26-29

Here’s the declaration about the identity of Believers -

“You are all sons of God!”

Women, don’t be offended by the male language. It’s generic. The statement embraces men and women equally as we’ll see in a moment. In Ephesians 3:14-15, the thought is amplified: “I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” Peter tells us, ‘once you were not a people, now you are the people of God!’ What a glorious thought!

Remember the words that naturally describe our spiritual state, words that I used in the message last Sunday? Wretched, depraved, dead in sin! It is not a pretty picture, is it?

But God stepped in with grace, saw people who were nothing, rejects all- and offered us a whole new identity. He adopted us into His family!

ill. - I have 10 adopted brothers and sisters. Those kids came from situations where they were unloved or unwanted. The people who came them life were unable or unwilling, because of their own issues in life, to give them a home and family, so Dad and Mom extended love and brought Jessica, Joe, Anne, Jonetta, Michael, Cassie, Scotty, Christian, Matthew, and Eddie into our family. Legally, they have the same rights in the family as I, a natural son, have. They rightly call themselves, children of the Scott’s!

God, in Christ, reached to you and me - and made us part of His family!

The Bible goes on to tell us that our new identity as children of God makes all other parts of who we are, how others know and describe us of little consequence. [re-read 3:28]

Paul says that we are ‘in Christ.’ When you watched baptism today, you saw an object lesson of becoming a person who is ‘in Christ.’ We that {Galatians 3:27} “all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.” The old distinctions that shaped who we were and how others related to us have disappeared in the all-encompassing embrace of the new Christ-life.

There are no more racial distinctions!

The Bible says, “No more Jew nor Greek.” The cultural distinctions that follow certain races and/or bloodlines are erased when we receive our new identity. Believer, we must not miss this part of our faith, though many do. Black and white, Anglo and Asian, African and Aborigine - become persons ‘in Christ!’

Are you unwilling to worship with people of a different ethnicity?

Do you allow old prejudice to keep you from loving the family of God?

It’s time to realize, anew, the meaning of the new identity that is shared by all who are ‘in Christ.’ Cultural divisions have no place, no support whatever among those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. If you still find yourself rejecting others in the church because of their color or ethnicity, confess that attitude for the sin that it is.

There are no more class distinctions!

The Bible says, “No more slave nor free man.” Americans claim to be a classless society. In the sense of titled nobility of royal blood, that is true. But ask any school child if class divisions exist in America! We divide ourselves largely along economic lines - the have’s and the have-not’s. As Europeans once envied the nobility, Americans envy those who are richer than they are.

The church of Jesus Christ is to be the one place where there is no class distinction, where social status counts for nothing. Our shared identity of being ‘in Christ’ makes any sense of superiority or inferiority disappear! Let it happen to you, friend, by the work of the Spirit.

There are no more sexual distinctions!

The Bible says, “No more male nor female.” This one distinction remains more firmly rooted in the church than the others. Why? Because we confuse the headship of the male under God with superiority. Servant leadership that is the obligation of every husband is twisted too often into subjugation. Despite the New Testament’s clear witness to equality of the sexes, women are denied the opportunity to serve in various ways in many churches today. But the Word on us to be ‘mutually submitted to Christ!’ Our new identity in Christ supercedes even this most basic human dividing line. Praise God.

This new identity comes with an inheritance!

Heritage is not just about money, is it? From my grandparents and my parents I have inherited a wonderful legacy of faith. They modeled a love for God and each other, lived a life that honored the Lord and kept their promises - and they gave me so much more than wealth!

Perhaps when my parents or Bev’s parents step into their eternal reward, there will be an inheritance of wealth as well. Why do I say that? Because we are their legal heirs. Our family ties give us rights to their estate!

When we became Believers, “children of God,” we received rights to the family’s resources!

Now look once again at our text — READ 3: 29; also 4:1-6

What does this mean?

To better understand the reference, go back to another passage in this chapter....

Galatians 3:6-9 READ

Abraham became the father of all the faithful, all those who abandon their own goodness and put their faith in God. His faith opened up his life to the experience of God’s blessings- both spiritual and in this world! When we come to Christ and receive the new identity, we become heirs of the same Promise.

It would be a mistake to read this as only about material wealth and blessings of prosperity. It is about a legacy of being right with God, of living a life that is rich in relationship to Him

Galatians 3:14 Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

A disciple is... A person with a new identity!

As I come to the close I want to ask two questions...

First - Have you accepted God’s offer of a new identity, replacing the old sinful person, with a new person that is a ‘child of God?’

Second - Are you living up to your full inheritance?

Imagine a person who is the legal heir to a great fortune remaining in dire poverty because they would not exercise their rights as a heir? Foolish, right?

Yet there are Christians who come to Christ, but then live as spiritual orphans, never realizing the rich legacy of faith, of love, of holiness that they can own fully at Christ’s expense!

Listen to the promise – (from The Message)

Ephesians 1:3-5

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)

Ephesians 1:18

Keep your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers,

Ephesians 2:11-13

But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

Ephesians 2:19

That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone.

Amen.