From Death to Life: Your Identity Restored in Christ

Introduction

A man is found unconscious behind a Burger King in the United States. Completely amnesiac, he will live eleven years without an identity, without a name, without papers. He was called Benjamin Kyle. In reality, his name was William Burges Pawel. This man existed, but he wasn't truly living, because he didn't know who he was.

Adrien opens his sermon with this story to raise a central question: what do you root your identity in? Too often, even as a Christian, you build it on things that don't hold up under the test of time or of storms. This message, the third part of a series on identity at CVV Paris church, wants to sink deep into you a truth you may already know in your head: your identity is something you receive. It is the fruit of the passage from death to life that Jesus made possible for you.

Message Outline

1. Two models of identity, two dead ends

• The traditional model (more Eastern) anchors identity in family, lineage, parents' expectations, being a good son, a good wife, carrying on what the parents started.
• The modern model (more Western) anchors identity in what you accomplish yourself, the choices you make, the path you carve out through your own decisions.
• Both have positive sides and reflect things of God. But both put enormous pressure on you: the pressure of family on one side, the pressure of charting everything yourself on the other.
• The parable of the prodigal son illustrates both models and their failure. The younger son, in the modern model, squanders his inheritance and ends up with the pigs. The older son, in the traditional model, stays faithful to the father but his heart is full of resentment and bitterness. He hadn't even seen the approval he already had.
• In both cases, salvation comes from oneself, either by working to be accepted, or by creating everything from nothing.

2. A third way: receiving your identity from God

• John 1:12-13 says that to those who receive Jesus, he gave the right to become children of God, "who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
• Not of blood: this is not the family model. Not of the will of man: this is not the modern model.
• Your identity does not come from your family nor from the expectations placed on you. Nor does it reside in your own will. It is the fruit of a gift from God.

3. An identity founded on what Jesus did, not on your performance

• 2 Corinthians 5:21: "He who knew no sin, God condemned as a sinner in our place so that, united with Christ, we might receive the righteousness that God gives."
• 1 Peter 1:18-19: You have been set free from the futile way of life handed down from your ancestors, not with money or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, the pure and spotless Lamb.
• Jesus was not a sinner, but he was treated as one. He took your condemnation. It was you who should have gone to that cross. It was Jesus who went there.
• Ephesians 2:8-9: "For it is by grace you are saved, through faith. This does not come from you, it is the gift of God. It is not by works, so that no one can boast."

4. Three levels of grace to receive deeply

• Level 1 · mercy: escaping the condemnation you deserved. Adrien tells how a library employee wiped away $58 in fees for a book lost six months earlier. Colossians 2:14: God "canceled the record that stood against us because of our debts" by nailing it to the cross.
• Level 2 · the undeserved gift: receiving something you didn't even ask for. Adrien tells the story of two of their tires being changed in Italy by a well-dressed stranger, who paid for everything without their understanding why. Jesus came and gave himself for you. Period.
• Level 3 · the gift when you deserved the opposite: Romans 6:23, "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ." Adrien reads a passage from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. After Jean Valjean steals the silverware from Monsignor Bienvenu, the Bishop of Digne, the bishop gives him the candlesticks as well and tells him: "Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying for you."

5. Your identity: dead and raised with Jesus

• Romans 6:5: "If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his."
• Baptism is the visible sign of this reality: going down into the water and coming back out, like dying and rising with Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, all things have become new."
• You are now united with Jesus. You are not putting on the role of a Christian: you are receiving a new identity from God.

Key Takeaways

• Your identity is not built through family or your own achievements, it is received as a gift from God.
• Jesus took your condemnation so that you could receive his righteousness. It is not your performance that saves you, it is his work on the cross.
• Grace has several depths: the mercy that erases, the gift that surprises you, and the exchange where you receive life when you deserved death.
• Baptism physically illustrates what happens spiritually: you died with Christ and rose with him.
• You are now a new creation, united with Jesus. This is your identity: passed from death to life.

Personal Application

• What do you root your identity in today, in your family, in your achievements, or in what Jesus did for you?
• Do you resemble the prodigal son more ("I'll chart my own course") or the older son ("I work to be approved")? What would the Father say to your heart right now?
• Are there past faults that still condemn you inwardly, even though Christ nailed them to the cross?
• Which level of grace are you at? Are you ready to let God show you deeper dimensions of what he has done for you?
• If you had to live this week out of your identity as "dead and raised with Jesus," what would that concretely change in your daily life?

Verses Cited

• John 1:12-13 · "Yet to all who did receive him... he gave the right to become children of God... born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
• 2 Corinthians 5:21 · God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
• 1 Peter 1:18-19 · You were redeemed... with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
• Romans 6:5 · If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
• Ephesians 2:8-9 · For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
• Romans 3:24 · And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
• Colossians 2:13-14 · He forgave us all our sins; he canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands... nailing it to the cross.
• Romans 6:23 · For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 · If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why aren't the "traditional" and "modern" models of identity enough?

Both models place the weight of salvation on you. In the traditional model, you must work to receive the approval of your family and society. In the modern model, you must build everything yourself through your own choices. The prodigal son and the older son illustrate both dead ends: one ends up with the pigs, the other has a heart full of resentment. The good news is that there is a third way: freely receiving an identity that comes from God, not from you.

What is the difference between mercy and grace?

Adrien distinguishes three levels. Mercy is escaping a deserved condemnation, like a library employee wiping away a fine. The second level is receiving an undeserved gift that you didn't even ask for, a tire changed by a stranger. The third level, the deepest, is receiving a gift when you deserved exactly the opposite. You deserved death and God gives you eternal life in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23).

What does it concretely mean to be "dead and raised with Christ"?

It means that your old identity (marked by sin, performance, fear of judgment), has passed away. In Christ, you are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Baptism makes this reality visible: you go down into the water as into a tomb and come back out as in a resurrection. You are united with Jesus. It is not a role to play, it is an identity to receive each day as a gift.