Our Identity in Christ
One of the first questions that we might ask could be: Who is qualified to be the person who enters into the fields to sow the seed, as we saw in the Parable of the Sower?
This is an important question because it speaks to our identity in Christ. Our identity is who we are. To understand our identity in Jesus, we must start by reading God’s Word:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All 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 has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Now, watch this video for an explanation of our identity according to God’s Word:
Question: What are the two important parts of our identity, according to this scripture, if we are in Christ?
Discuss this question together as a group and then click on this box and read the answer below.
Paul says that if we are in Christ, then there are two important things that happen to us:
First, we are made to be a new creation. All of the old things pass away and we become brand new.
Second, we are made to be ambassadors. Our role is to carry the message of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.
Question: What is an ambassador? What does it mean that we are made to be ambassadors if we are in Christ?
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An ambassador is someone who speaks for someone else more important than them. They carry the words of the one that has sent them, delivering the message personally and in a way that is easiest for the hearer of the message to understand.
2 Corinthians 5 says that God has made us to be his ambassadors, to carry his message of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ!
Question: According to this scripture, who is qualified go into the fields to sow the seed of the Gospel, like the man in the Parable of the Sower?
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According to this scripture, if we are in Christ, we have been made to be ambassadors. This is already part of our identity. This means that God has already sent us! He wants us to go to tell others the message of reconciliation!
Example from the Gospels
Let’s read a story from the Gospel of Mark to understand how God can use anyone to be an ambassador, to sow the seed of the Gospel:
Read Mark 5:1-20
Question: What did Jesus do for this man?
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Jesus cleanses this man from the “legion” of demons within him! He drives them out and the man has now been set free from the demons that were within him.
Question: The man wanted to go with Jesus, presumably to follow him and be one of his disciples, but Jesus doesn’t allow him to. Why not? What does Jesus want him to do instead?
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The man has been healed from the demons that were living within him. Jesus has made him to be a new creation and now he wants him to go and be an ambassador, telling others of the mercy that God has had upon him.
Question: Who does Jesus specifically send him to go and tell? What can we learn from what Jesus tells him to do?
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Jesus tells him to go home to his own people in the Decapolis. This means that he should go home to people who know him, his friends, his family. These are the people that know him best and will instantly recognize the change that has been made in his life.
We can learn that God also wants us to go home to our own people, to those that know us. This should be one of our first steps as we become ambassadors for God, sowing the seed of the Gospel and carrying the message of reconciliation to others.