I have always struggled with identity. I’ve never really quite known who I was or what really made be different than everyone around me. Until this last week, I barely knew my Identity in the Lord. I knew that I was Bri Moore, I am the daughter of the Lord, the Lord loved me, but I never knew how strongly He loved me until I studied Romans 6 + opened my eyes to His real truth.
Before I get into the powerful words of Romans 6 there is some background that needs to be covered. First of all, our God is 3 in 1, He is the Father, the Son + the Holy Spirit. We too are 3 in 1, we have a body, soul, + spirit. The soul is what makes us, us or our personality as you would say + our spirit is everything of God, it is pure, blameless, perfect, righteousness, etc. Within the body part of us, we have our SOMA which is the Greek word for the flesh that houses the soul + spirit + we also have our SARX (or so I thought) which is the Greek word for our fleshly desires or the fallen nature of man. After studying Romans 6, I discovered that the SARX or the fallen nature of man has no place inside of us.
Romans 6:1-4 reads:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life.”
Romans 6 is telling all of us that the SARX or the fallen nature of man or “our old self” was crucified with Jesus, therefore we have no fallen nature, we do not live a life of sin + sin has no place in us. When Jesus died “ He died to sin once for all” (Romans 6:9) “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord”(Romans 6:11). How loving is our God that He sacrificed His one + only son so that we did not have to live a life of sin + that the Sarx has no place in us?? We are dead to sin but alive in God.
This reading had a huge impact on my identity because I have always felt like I have had to try so hard to be good to make up for my past sins, but in reality, I am not defined by my sins for Jesus took those with Him about 2000 years ago. God created me to be a woman who speaks life + no matter what I do this will never escape me. When I sin, I feel convicted because I know that I have stepped out of the woman who speaks life, but I will always go back to her. I learn every time I feel convicted + become a better woman who speaks life each time I learn from my past mistakes or sins. God convicts us to make us better followers + servants to Him, He never makes us feel shame or guilt for we have already been rescued + delivered from all of our sins. Satan brings shame + guilt upon us but our oh so loving Lord brings conviction upon us so that we can learn + grow higher in our relationship with Christ + not feel like failures or mistakes. I think one of the biggest reasons why this reading impacted me was because of the wording that we are ALIVE in God. This really opened my eyes to reading this scripture even more because when I was at training camp the Lord put the word alive on my heart for this season + I really do believe that it was for this moment, to show me I am not my old self + that I am alive in Him + His overflowing grace. From this reading, I will always remember that He is my loving Father who has delivered + rescued us. I am a daughter of the highest + most Loving King, I am not a daughter of failure or shame.
