Author: Jay Lehman

A New Identity

When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ … you were given a NEW IDENTITY.

You are now identified as a child of God.  This is who you are.  And as God’s child, you are now called “holy and beloved”.  Your sinner identity is gone forever.

“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are!”   I John 3:1

“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”   Colossians 3:12

“Therefore from now on we recognize no man by what he is in the flesh.”   II Corinthians 5:16

A New Creation

When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ … you became a NEW CREATION.

Spiritually speaking, you became someone who had not existed before.  You became someone completely new.  God did not remodel, redo, or improve the old you.  The old you is gone.  The new you is here.  The old you died with Christ.  The new you was raised to a new life in Christ.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”   II Corinthians 5:17

“It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not.  What counts is that we are a new creation.”   Galatians 6:15

“We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”   Romans 6:4

A New Birth

When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ … you underwent a NEW BIRTH.

You are now God’s child.  Just like you cannot be “unborn” from your earthly parents, you are now God’s forever son or daughter.  You are now “born of God”.

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ “   John 3:3

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”   I Peter 1:3

“For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.”   I Peter 1:23

“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.”   I John 5:1

At Bethlehem …

At Bethlehem, Christ became God WITH us.

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means ‘God with us’ ” (Matt 1:23).

One of most recognized names for Jesus that we celebrate at His birth is Immanuel, God with us.  The apostle John called Jesus’ arrival “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).  For 30 plus years, Jesus walked the earth as one of us.  He was indeed “God with us”.

At Calvary, Christ became God FOR us.

“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).

Look at those words, “on our behalf”.  Christ, who knew no sin became sin FOR US, on our behalf.  He took our place.  At Calvary, Christ died as our substitute.  He died in our place to free us from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin.  His death did something FOR us.  And His death did something TO us.  It made us a new creation the minute we accepted His gift.  It provided a pathway for Him to indwell us and live His live through us.  Which leads us to …

At Pentecost, Christ became God IN us.

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting…and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1-4).

The promised Holy Spirit arrived with incredible power 50 days after Christ’s resurrection.  The room and the inhabitants of the room were filled with God’s Spirit.  And believers in Jesus have been home to the Holy Spirit ever since; an indwelling that takes place the millisecond we believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Spirit living inside fulfills a promise that Jesus made many times in the gospels.

“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn 14:20).  “I in you” when speaking to the disciples.  “I in them” when speaking to the Father about us.  Christ in us by His Spirit.  May we all not only celebrate – but experience in our heart of hearts – this mystery of the gospel, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

Infused by the Love of God

“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because you loved Me before the foundation of the world.  O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You, and these know that You have sent Me.  I have made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:24-26).

“Be with Me where I am” (vs 24) harkens back to John chapter 14 where Jesus speaks of going to prepare a place for us so “that where I am, there you may be also” (Jn 14:3).  And in this place He has prepared for us, we will fully behold the glory of the Lamb, the glory of the Son of God, the glory of Jesus.  This journey to experience the glory of God begins with believing that the Father sent the Son.

“That You have sent Me” (vs 25) is the most common phrase that Jesus uses in the book of John to identify Himself as the Son of God.  Believing that God sent Jesus.  Believing that He came to die in our place.  Believing that He rose again sealing our redemption.  This is how we cross over from death to life.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (Jn 5:24).  Here in John 17, Jesus acknowledges that His disciples believe.  “They know that You sent Me.”  They now belong to Jesus and the Father.

Jesus’ final petition to the Father in this chapter of prayer is centered on the love of God.  This request goes to the very heart of God’s essence.  Love is not one of God’s attributes.  Love is His identity.  This apostle simply writes it elsewhere as, “God is love” (I Jn 4:8).

What do we learn about God’s love in this passage?  The Father loved the Son “before the foundation of the world” (vs 24).  God’s love is eternal.  And Jesus’ prayer is that this eternal, powerful, one-of-a-kind love will also inhabit His followers.

“That the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (vs 26).  Jesus prays for God’s love to saturate us, to wash over and inside us.  And in this verse, we see the path of how this happens.  “I in them”.  Christ in us is the only way for the love of God to be in us.  We can’t find it on our own.  We can’t manufacture this love by will-power and trying harder.

Because God is love and His Spirit lives in us, it only stands to reason the God’s supernatural love lives in us also.  We are infused with His love.  Our role?  To let it out.  To let it flow.  To send love out into the world.  Then the world will know the loving embrace of the Father.