Today we are going to take a posture of peace with our new view.
Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything.
Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
Second Corinthians chapter 5 verses 15 through 17 says,
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him
who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.
Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new
is here.
I was stopped in my tracks as I re-read this portion of scripture this week, specifically
verse 16 where it says,
From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.
No one, including ourselves.
Any label, any definition that we have for ourselves outside of Christ, no longer relevant.
It's not who we are.
We have a new reality, a new view.
And I want to talk about this new view today.
By the way, I really enjoyed reading through your comments on last week's episode.
I asked for you to share how you were letting your identity in Christ, what's true about
you, challenge your circumstances.
Instead of the other way around, which is to let your circumstances challenge your identity.
Instead of allowing what's happening to you or happening around you make you question
who you are in Christ, your union with him.
Letting that union put into question the circumstances.
So I'm just going to read two of the comments.
Cindy on Instagram said,
I'm going to replace my insecurities with his perfect love.
I love that exchange, by the way.
And she said, I'm going to become secure in God's love for me and in me.
And then Susie on YouTube said,
I'm practicing not feeling defensive in an uncomfortable conversation.
I'm practicing sitting back, knowing Jesus is in me and loves me and asking him for his
thoughts and feelings and words.
I love that.
You know, I used to get so stuck in my difficult, hard, negative circumstances because I always
wanted to know why.
Why is this happening to me?
And in trying to pursue an answer to that question, I would get so tangled up in the
facts of the circumstance instead of engaging with the truth, engaging with Jesus and who
I am in him.
The better question and the one that got me unstuck is who am I while this is happening
to me?
How does the nature, the authority, the power of Jesus manifest in me and through me in
this circumstance or in this place I find myself in or in this moment of history that
I'm living in?
And what's so cool is you're not left alone to try to figure out the answer to that question
all by yourself, because we are in relationship with the three father, son, and Holy Spirit.
So there's always some exciting conversation and discovery to be had in that relationship.
His primary purpose found in Genesis 1 26 is to make us in his image and likeness.
Now when Jesus came to earth to take on our likeness as a human, he proved that even though
he had difficult circumstances, they did not have him.
He was never bound up by negative circumstances.
He was never defined by them and he was never, ever limited by them.
And this is such good news because about what we talked about last week, the Bible says
when you choose Jesus as Lord, what is true about Jesus becomes true about you.
When you read the Bible, it's hard to miss this truth.
Paul speaks about our oneness in Christ several times over in his letters, like in here in
2 Corinthians that I just read.
Also in Colossians, you know I love Colossians where he writes in chapter 1 verse 27, Christ
in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 3 verses 1 through 3, you have been raised with Christ.
Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on things above.
on earthly things, not that worldly point of view, for you died and your life is now
hidden with Christ in God.
Where Jesus is, you already are, and where you are, he is.
You do not have to be bound up by, defined by, or limited by your circumstances.
Nothing is keeping you from Christ.
You are in Christ in every circumstance.
His death, his resurrection, it was not about giving you a ticket to heaven so that you
could one day live with him after surviving this obstacle course we call life and striving
through hellish circumstances here on earth, no.
It was about giving you himself so that you could live one with him now, and it could
be on earth as it is in heaven.
First John 417, one of my favorite scriptures, as he is, so are you in this world.
If it's true about Jesus, it's true about you.
So what happened when Jesus experienced circumstances of life that we all face?
Because he definitely didn't dodge them, he didn't bypass them, he experienced temptations
and loss and grief, weariness, betrayal.
He came face to face with sickness and conflict and perversion, religious manipulation, political
tyranny, all of it.
And never once did he let any of those circumstances, what was happening around him or happening
to him, change his mind about what was true about him, his identity.
In fact, the truth about him changed the circumstances.
This is the life that we now live.
Galatians 2.20 Paul writes, it's no longer I who live, but Christ in me.
We are new creations in Christ.
In verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 5 says, all of this is from God, who reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the
world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them.
And he was committed to the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
God made in him, Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him, Jesus, we might
become the righteousness of God.
It's all from God.
In fact, this, the words for reconciliation, reconcile here in scripture, the Greek there,
the original meaning, it means exchange.
It's an exchange that's already taken place because all of this is from God.
It happened through Christ's death and resurrection.
You don't have to see yourself from a mere worldly point of view anymore.
You've been given a new view, a new identity.
And when you practice walking in this identity as a new creation, you're being who you've
already become because of who Christ already is in you.
Jesus said in John 14, he said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
Jesus's oneness with the Father, that was that ministry and message that was constantly
flowing from his life.
Now here's a new view for you.
The ministry and message of reconciliation flowing from your life today is this.
If you've seen me, you've seen Jesus.