Identity 2 | I Was

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Conversion takes everything you once were and moves it into the past tense—your "I am" becomes your "I was."

A Worldview That Answers the Four Questions

We are continuing our series through Ephesians, which we are calling Identity. We are considering who we are in Christ, and today we look at who we were before Christ and how that has been transformed by Jesus.

Every worthwhile philosophy or worldview should answer four basic questions: the question of identity—who am I? The question of origin—where did I come from? The question of destiny—where am I going? And the question of purpose—why am I here? It is our conviction here that the Bible presents the most compelling and coherent worldview, answering those questions better than any other philosophy. That creed we just sang—"I believe in God the Father, I believe in Christ the Son, I believe in the resurrection"—is the basis of our belief and our worldview.

Identity Shapes Activity

Last week, opening in Ephesians 1, we began with the question of identity: who am I? Our identity—what I call our "I am"—affects our activity, the things we do and the way we live. Many people think their identity springs from their activity. When two men meet, the first question is often, "What do you do for a living?" and the answer comes as an "I am": I am an architect, I am a teacher. We build our identity from our activity, but Scripture reveals something different.

Paul introduces himself, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." Before his conversion, Paul based everything on what he did. In Philippians 3:5-6 he describes himself as a zealous, righteous, law-abiding Pharisee, blameless under the law. That was his identification until he met the risen Lord—the incarnate I AM—on the road to Damascus in Acts 9.

In that encounter Paul had an identity crisis. The man who had been the master of his own destiny came to the point of asking, "What do you want me to do?" It was as if he handed the keys over and said, "You drive." Three days later Jesus announced that Paul would carry the gospel to the Gentiles. From that point everything changed. We call that transformation conversion.

Saints by the Activity of Jesus

Paul addresses the Ephesians as "saints"—a word of identity—"who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus." Many people, both inside and outside the church, think their identity as holy springs from their religious, ritualistic activity. But the Bible teaches the opposite: we are saints not because of our activity, but because of the activity of Jesus on the cross. From that new identity springs a new kind of activity—a transformation in how we think, speak, and live.

In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul describes at least ten things gained to us in Christ: we are blessed with every spiritual blessing, chosen, predestined, adopted, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, given revelation of God's mystery, given an inheritance, and given an eternal future. It is like immigrating to this nation and becoming a citizen—suddenly you are afforded new rights and privileges. Paul says Christians are citizens of heaven, and as adopted children we have rights and gains that were not ours before. And all of it is according to grace—not by our effort, but by the grace of God.

Conversion Makes Your "I Am" Your "I Was"

In Ephesians 2 we move away from "I am" to who we were before that transformation. Here is point one: conversion makes your "I am" your "I was." Whatever you identified yourself as before Christ becomes your "I was" when you become a follower of Jesus. When a lost sinner is found by Christ and made a saint, their identity changes.

Paul begins by saying we were dead: "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Even though the unbeliever feels alive, the Bible says they are dead. And the unbeliever looks at the Christian and thinks the Christian's life is dead—you may remember thinking that before you came to faith. But the feeling of "really living" that the lost sinner experiences is fleeting; it is passing away.

Moses and the Passing Pleasures of Sin

Consider Moses in Hebrews 11, the hall of faith. Born among the Hebrews under a decree that every male child be cast into the Nile, his parents technically obeyed by placing him in an ark, strategically floating him to where Pharaoh's daughter bathed. She drew him up—which is what his name means—and raised him in the household of privilege. He had everything people strive for: sufficiency, security, life among the one percent.

By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. (Hebrews 11:24-25)

To a person living among the trappings of this world, that looks like absolute lunacy. The King James says "the pleasures of sin for a season." There are pleasures in sin, but only for a season, and for the sinner salvation spells the end of those pleasures. Paul says the aroma of Christ is life to those being saved, but to the perishing it is the scent of death. Yet Moses recognized that whatever pleasure this world offers is temporary, while the life gained in Christ is eternal.

Ezekiel said twice, "The soul that sins shall die." Paul wrote, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). "He who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption" (Galatians 6:8). "If you live according to the flesh you will die" (Romans 8:13). The things of this world are temporal, and those who invest their whole lives in them will pass away with them. Though the life of Christ appears to spell death to the sinner, it is life eternal.

I Was Dead in Sin; I Am Alive in Christ

If your identity is in Christ, point two is true: I was dead in sin; I am alive in Christ. Paul's second statement follows immediately: we walked according to the pattern of Satan in disobedience and opposition to God. "In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience."

The person walking that course thinks they are directing their own life, the captain of their own ship steering through the night. But Scripture gives us revelation of the actual truth: they are directed by another spirit to do wrong things in opposition to God.

Let me clue you in: standing in opposition to God is dumb. It would be like standing strongly against a tsunami or a tornado—and that doesn't even scratch the surface. You are standing against the Eternal when you are temporal, against the Creator when you are the created, against the One who has all power when you are weak. Romans 8:7 says the carnal mind is enmity against God. James 4:4 says, "Whoever makes himself a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God"—the word being lover of. First John 2 says all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life—will pass away.

I Was an Enemy of God; I Am His Friend and Child

But Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation... so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. (Ephesians 2:14)

He breaks apart the enmity and brings us back into relationship with God. So if you have received the Prince of Peace by faith, point three is true: I was an enemy of God; I am His friend and His child. "Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19). You have been brought into the family, adopted as His child.

I Was Under Wrath; I Am Under Grace

Thirdly, before conversion we pursued the lustful desires of our fleshly mind and were therefore under wrath: "Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others" (Ephesians 2:3). Those who identify outside of Christ are dominated by the appetites of the body and described as being under wrath.

People today say, "I've got to do what I've got to do; I've got to be me; I've got to follow my heart." But Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote twice: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14, 16). When someone says, "I just have to follow my passion—that's really who I am," that is exactly what you should feel according to the sin nature. But that way leads away from God.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers... nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Do not miss those words: "and such were some of you." Past tense. You are no longer that—not because of your great effort or ritual behavior, but because of what Jesus did. He moved you from being one who could not inherit to being adopted with an eternal inheritance that does not fade.

But God

Then comes the turn. "But God"—I love the "buts" of the Bible—"who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ; by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:4-5). Point four: I was under wrath; I am under grace.

After conversion, everything changes by God's grace. First, we are made alive (verses 1 and 5). Second, we are with God in Christ: "And He raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (verse 6). We were in opposition to God; now we are united back to Him. Third, we are given exceedingly great and eternal riches of grace: "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us" (verse 7).

I love that it says "the exceeding riches of His grace." It is a renewable resource; His mercies are new every morning. There will never be a time when you come before His throne of grace and He says, "I'm sorry, someone took all the grace a few minutes ago; I'm tapped out." Throughout the ages to come He will keep revealing the exceeding riches of His grace.

Fourth, we are completely new. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Whatever sin or disobedience you committed is gone. He has removed our sin as far as the east is from the west, never to be remembered again. I was that; I am no longer that.

The Evidence: Fruit, Not Works of the Flesh

If this is true, then the activity of our lives must express it. If your life is characterized by the works of the flesh, then although you might feel alive, you are dead. What are the works of the flesh?

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. (Galatians 5:19-21)

These are evident; it is how we lived before we met Jesus. Paul adds that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Even if you prayed a prayer, were baptized, made a profession, or paid a tithe—if your life is dominated by these things, you are not saved, and you need to move from that to saying, "I was those things, but I am in Christ."

Our lives should instead be dominated by the fruit of the Spirit, which is not religious ritual.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

These are not things we manufacture; they are the expression of the indwelling Spirit of God.

You Must Have an "I Was"

Point five: you must have an "I was" to your current "I am" in Christ, or you are not saved. If you cannot look back and say, "I was that, but now I am this in Christ," then conversion has not yet happened, and my exhortation is to put your faith in Jesus and receive the salvation freely given by His grace.

When a Christian says, "I was that, but I am no longer—I am this now," that story is called a testimony. The problem is that too many Christians live their entire lives consumed by what they were. Even though Jesus has forgiven them and removed their sin as far as the east is from the west, all they talk about is who they were. They feel guilty, depressed, unable to move on. If that is you, I am here to tell you that you are a new creation in Christ. As Paul said, "By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain."

Created for Good Works

Finally, after we are saved, we find this truth in verse 10: we are His workmanship, created for good works. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

If you have an "I was" but your "I am" is now in Christ, then you have a purpose—to serve the Lord, a purpose through which God is glorified, you are further sanctified, and you experience greater satisfaction in Christ. Serving on a ministry team is not the full embodiment of the good works God prepared, but it may be the first step. You won't experience and enjoy those good works until you take the first step. By God's grace you can, and you never see the empowering of the Spirit until you step out by faith to serve Him. I was, but I'm no longer that; I am made completely new by Christ. That is the experience of the Christian.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank You that we have the testimony of the Scriptures, the exhortation of Your word that is living and powerful, to bring us into a right understanding of who we truly are, and that because of Your grace we can be made new. We thank You for the salvation that comes by Your grace through faith in You, for "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." If anyone has been trying in their own effort to make themselves new and has not yet yielded to Your all-sufficient grace, give them opportunity this morning to step into that place of identification with You, or to do it for the first time. We praise You for Your great grace, and we ask that You would enable us by Your grace to be witnesses of You in all that we say and do. We thank You for the new identity we have in You. We praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.