Enjoy a Grace-Based Identity
Habit 4 of the Discipleship Guidebook is an important one! Just like all the rest… but it’s uniquely foundational to our discipleship and growth in Christ. (Catch our peek into Habit 3 here). Habit 4 is enjoying a grace-based identity, but what does that really look like?
Only God’s gift of grace (undeserved love) expressed supremely through the substitutionary life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus can give us the new life and secure identity we desire. The gospel melts pride and forms a happy humility that’s contagiously freeing to non-believers. The good news of the gospel is not just the ABCs of the Christian life, but the A-Z of the Christian life: We are saved, and we grow, by receiving and enjoying grace—we are new creations in Christ who are eternally secure by grace alone, have nothing to prove, and are no better than anyone else. When this truth really hits our hearts, we will be both incredibly confident, and incredibly humble at the same time. This balance puts us in the perfect place to be fulfilled, and serve God.
Why and where are you tempted to find your identity in your performance rather than in Jesus’ performance for you? How does this show up in your life and impact those around you? What makes you afraid of grace—of letting go and repent- ing of building your own identity, and just receiving the wild grace of God?
“Most of us tend to base our personal relationship with God on our performance instead of on his grace.”
- Jerry Bridges
When we really believe in our grace-based identity, and in the final work of Jesus for our justification, we become sons and daughters, living out of relationship instead of performance!
The doctrine of justification is a legal metaphor—we’ve been made “right” with God. The doctrine of adoption/sonship is a relational metaphor—we’ve been adopted by our Heavenly Father, we are no longer orphans but are now his sons and daughters. Whether you grew up with a negative or positive father figure, your Heavenly Father is the best dad ever—and he’s your dad, and he loves you, and you get to live for eternity as his beloved son or daughter. Life tries to foist many identities upon us adults, but probably the most powerful and freeing identity to embrace and enjoy as a Christian is being a child of God. Live into this identity more and more.
By all means, be an adult, but first and foremost you are a son or daughter of your Heavenly Father who invites you to relate to him with childlike dependence, freedom, and joy. What would it look like for you to live from this identity this year?
Take a look at this sermon by Justin from last year on Habit 4!
Here is the full Habit 3 in the Guidebook to flip through, too:
We also want you to have access to the whole Guidebook if you don’t already, so below is a link to download it. We have a physical Guidebook for you too, so you can scribble down your thoughts and prayers and dive into the resource in a Lifegroup! Just email Alayne and we will get you a copy!