WNews Views — The secret of how to overcome everything is simple: recognize the reality of your true identity. This truth, applied correctly will cause you to overcome every challenge and adversity in your life. Your true identity is this: you are the beloved child of God, redeemed and restored by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether or not you’ve ever encountered the person of Jesus before and have a relationship with Him, read on because this presentation of the reality of the gospel will be quite unlike anything you have previously encountered and promises the secret of how to overcome everything.
To correctly apply the truth of reality, that you are the beloved child of God, redeemed and restored by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, one must understand what the good news of the gospel is and what it is not.
What the good news of the gospel is not
The good news of the gospel is not a promise that when you die you get to go to heaven. Neither is it a promise that you will have a pain-free life lived out perfectly. It is not a task to try as hard as you can to be perfect and stop doing or even thinking anything wrong. The good news is not a promise that we will live in Heaven while we are here on Earth. Although, in any moment we are invited to transcend the reality of Earthly life by grabbing hold of the truth of God and our redeemed connection to Him; we are going to be knocked out of that place and pulled squarely into situations that create other realities. It is the nature of this realm. We have all participated in creating an Earth that is not like Heaven and it’s gonna drag us from God’s presence whenever it gets the chance. We will also find ourselves participating in dragging others away from the truth when we allow triggers, wounds, jealousy, greed, bitterness, rebellion, lust, insecurity or fear, to pervert our perspective. We then act out of our fallen identity and create an alternative to reality.
So the Good News is not that we will no longer have to suffer or that we will walk around and never fall short in any way again. The bible promises the opposite. John 16:33 promises trouble but says “Take heart”. 1 John 1:9 says that we will sin, but are forgiven as we confess our sin. No, your true identity as a beloved child of God, redeemed and restored by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, promises that you will still have trouble and you will screw up.
What the good news of the gospel is:
Simply put, the good news is that I am a sinner. At my root, I am made in God’s image to represent him perfectly but I rebel and cause all kinds of consequences as a result of my rebellion. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were made in God’s image and enjoyed perfect communion with God every day. The serpent tempted Eve with the lie ‘God knows that if you partake of the fruit of good and evil, you will be like Him’. The moment she believed the lie, that she wasn’t like God and something was lacking, she reached out to confirm her rebellion and ate. Adam too. By their actions, they were separated from union with God and began to create the world as it has become. But, there’s more!
God knew that the human race would plunge into all depravity as a result of sin and no one would ever be able to be good enough to undo their guilt and just deserving of separation from Him who is perfectly righteous. If you want proof of your unworthiness to get to enjoy fellowship with a Holy God on your own, consider the 10 commandments. Ask yourself if you have ever broken any of them. Or, consider the nature of God, that His nature produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Ask yourself if you have fallen short of reflecting His nature.
It was God’s plan to pursue us through demonstrating His love manifested in the person of Jesus, and to atone for all sin through His willing submission to the terrible punishment of His crucifixion. Then, to descend to Hell and rise again to life 3 days later to offer resurrection life to everyone as a choice; to accept the gift or to reject it. That choice however is not a light, easy one. To accept the gift we ourselves must die to our own way of living and experience a rebirth into living relationship with Jesus as Lord. It costs us EVERYTHING and it is so worth it, the cost becomes a joyous price to pay. In exchange for our depraved way of perceiving, we get to live in perfect union with God which involves a full inheritance of the riches of Heaven, the full power of the Holy Spirit, and the constant presence of Christ in our hearts. That is the offer: to begin living in eternity right now, in perfect partnership with God expressed in the Trinity. We get to be a conduit of His presence that releases Heaven on Earth.
So why do Christians not demonstrate a perfect partnership with God?
The answer to this question lies in a couple of factors. One of which is that we don’t see enough people who model it. They are out there, trust me, I know a few. People who carry the embodied presence of God in their day-to-day and moment to moment. But, what we are waiting for and what I believe God is about to do is to see an outpouring of relational intimacy with Him that becomes visible around the world, in every corner.
The second factor that has limited the number of people who fully embody life lived in partnership with Heaven is the cost. There are so many things that we cling to and place first. Our made-up identity; who we perceive we are in our own minds, includes all of the things that we think we still need to do or be in order to receive the love, respect, security, things, comfort, control, etc that we desire. Living life in true intimacy with God requires us to confront every idol, everything that we would hold up as more important than Him.
My walk with Christ has personally cost me my family, my house, my profession, my reputation, my bank account, many friendships, my sense of who I am and any control I thought I had about where my life is going. I would compare the cost/reward to a story of a naive young boy who walks into an expensive jewelry shop with his life savings, a handful of nickels, dimes and quarters. The shopkeeper for some reason offers him an authentic, beautiful Rolex watch that the boy wants as a gift for his dad. The young boy pauses as he contemplates giving away everything he has ever earned, been given or collected, but finally makes the decision to do the trade.
Life lived in unity with Heaven is not only possible, it is being offered, to you, right now and for eternity. It will cost you your old life, and cause you to be reborn, and it’s so worth it because a life lived out of the reality of our identity is so much better than a life lived any other way! Once this deal is done, we step into the reality of our identity. We are the beloved children of God, redeemed and restored by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And when we apply this truth to the obstacle, challenge, or hardship we are facing, we will always overcome it!
Note From WNews Editorial Team: Today is Good Friday for Christians around the World. Good Friday is observed as a day of sorrow and penance. As per the New Testament, on this day Jesus was crucified by the Romans. Jesus was condemned of blasphemy as he claimed himself to be the Son of God. Jesus’ claims had irked the Jewish religious leaders as a result of which they took him to the Romans.
