Who Am I – Understanding Your Identity in Christ

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

We’re diving into one of life’s most powerful questions: Who am I?

It’s a question we’ve all wrestled with at some point, and for believers, it carries a deeper weight. As life changes, we may question our identities completely. Am I still a sinner, or am I something new? Does my past define me? What does it mean to have an identity in Christ?

For those who are not saved, we challenge you to consider your identity: a sinner, on your way to a Christless eternity. More specifically, what that means is eternal suffering and separation from God in a conscious state for eternity. This is not what the Lord intended – listen to the call of the Gospel. Good news that the Son of God was born as a baby, grew into a Man, fully man, fully God, and died on the Cross to pay a price you could not pay. Your Sin was condemned, and your sins were paid for; accept the free gift of salvation and have a new identity today: new creation in Christ. 

In this episode, we’re going to unpack what the Bible says about who you really are — not who the world says you are, not who your mistakes say you are — but who God says you are.

If you had to introduce yourself to someone, how would you identify yourself? 

Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!

Patterns of Truth Podcast

Patterns Of Truth

A place for casual discussions of Biblical principles and difficult questions that face the Christian believer. We believe that the Bible can speak to todays issues, giving us the wisdom and courage we need for our lives. Find us online at https://patternsoftruth.org/

Apple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS

UNEDITED TRANSCRIPTION: Welcome to the Patterns of Truth podcast, the place for casual discussion of biblical principles and difficult questions that face the Christian believer. We believe that the Bible can speak to today’s issues, giving us the wisdom and the courage we need for our lives. We are so glad that you are joining us, and you can always find us at patterns of thought. Welcome to the Patterns of Truth podcast. This is the show where we explore the foundations of our faith and what it really means to live in the truth of the gospel. I’m your host for today’s conversation, Patricia. And today we’re diving into one of life’s most powerful questions who am I? It’s a question we’ve all wrestled with at some point, whether we’re in different stages of life or just growing and figuring ourselves out. But as Christians, as believers, this question carries a deeper weight Await as life changes, we may question our identities completely. Like I said before, we may ask ourselves based on my action, am I still a sinner or am I something new, a saint? Does my past define me? What does it mean to have identity in Christ? But first, I have to always mention we can’t assume that all of our listeners are Christians are saved. So we challenge those who may not be saved. Maybe you’re curious about the Bible, about Jesus Christ, about Christians. Whatever we talk about, we challenge you to consider your identity. In the Scripture. There are only two. You either belong to the Lord or you don’t. A sinner means that you are on your way to a christless eternity. And that term may sound unfamiliar, but specifically, that term means that eternal suffering and separation from God happens in a conscious state for all of eternity. You do not accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. This is not what the Lord intended for human beings, his creation. Please listen to the call of the gospel. That’s a word that means good news. And this good news is that the Son of God was born as a baby. His name is Jesus Christ. He grew up into a man. He was fully man and fully God. He is fully man and fully God. And he died on the cross to pay a price that you could not pay. Your sin was condemned and your sins were paid for. Please accept the free gift of salvation and have a new identity today. This is a new creation in Christ. So with that, we are going to unpack what the Bible says about who we really are post salvation right after we confess and we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this podcast is not really about who the world says we are, like what society says we are not our mistakes or any of those things, any of those things, but what the Lord says. So let’s get into it. Today, I’m joined by Bethel and Roy, I hope you all are doing well. Hey. Hello. Hello. All right. So we’re going to start very, very basic. If you had to introduce yourself to someone based on where you are in your life right now, how would you identify yourself? Roy? Well, I generally say I’m retired. That’s really nice. I like it. But in Christian circles, of course. Um, I’m, uh, born again. Usually the term that I would use. Okay. And I think that gets to the chase. That gets to the bottom line of what we’re talking about. Yeah, I did look up center. We were talking about sinners or saints. And I found it interesting that there’s if you do a search, there’s forty one references to sinners in the New Testament. And one of them, only one of them refers to a possible believer. And that’s in James five twenty two talks about bringing a sinner back from the error of his ways. So the word centre really refers to the way a person is behaving, and the presumption and all the other verses is that they are unsaved. And I think we’ll talk a little bit more about what that means. MM. All right. What about you? If you had to introduce yourself to someone today based on where you are in your life, how would you identify yourself? A child of the Most High God. No. I’m kidding. Um, it should be, but, uh, I just got out of, like, interview season. And so you practice so much of like, oh, how do you present yourself? How do you, like, tell me about who you are. And I feel like I would always go for like, well, I live in new Jersey and I am the daughter of an Egyptian and Iraqi family. And just like, go about like my, my story. And I’m like, oh, and I’m a student and I am this and I am that and I’ve done this and that. all vein things that are fragile and frail and could pass away in an instant. I mean, I feel like identity is like most of what we say can be categorized in two, like two areas. Like what you’ve been given, like your parents, like your background where you grew up. Like they made those decisions, right? And then like the things that you’ve done. So congratulations, Roy, on retiring, right? But even that, like you had to tell someone, I am retiring now like you to send out paperwork and all that, like you had to officially stamp it. Like, this is who I am now. I am no longer a working American. Leave me alone. I will usually add I retired from Intel and that niches me as a geek. Okay, tech starts some kind of conversation, right? But you know, it’s funny because we usually do use these like identity, like touch points as a way to like, get to know other people and relate or just to have conversation, which is cool too. So but I feel like there’s so many layers, like Bethel just said, like about what our identity is. So let’s start with our first official question on the podcast. What happens when I like as a Christian or even anybody, right? Thinking about ourselves spiritually, what happens when I have an unstable identity? Not like many facets, but like I can’t decide who I am or I feel unsettled with who I am. HMM. I think it would be very discouraging. Um, and you certainly would not have a consistent testimony. And I use the term just generally. I mean, even an unbeliever has a testimony. I mean, what you what you present to other people, you’d have a very unstable, um, character, I think because I think character comes, uh, at least in some part from what you think you are. So in my case, you know, I’m like I said, I worked for Intel for many years. So that defines somewhat the way I behave and the way I talk and the verbs, the, excuse me, the language that I use, um, in talking about things and that reflects, that comes to reflect, uh, your language as a Christian, you’ll have certain, um, views about what’s going on in the world and that will come out in any real discussion. So it is important to have a stable self-conception. If you don’t, then you’ll be saying different things to different people and you’ll feel differently even about yourself and your relationship to other people from day to day. And that’s doesn’t sound to me like it’s a good thing. Why is it a big deal If you say different things to different people. I mean, about your identity, like Bethel was saying, you’re an interview season, right? The rules when you do interviews is like, you know, you kind of tweak what your resume, cover letter, interview content is based on who your audience and all this kind of stuff. And it’s really presented as you’re not being fake, you’re just being a chameleon. You’re being flexible. Dare I say, though, I think this is a good question to have. Like, it’s not good to be unstable, but it’s good to question what is my identity? What am I rooting my identity in? Um, and I think I actually went through this when Covid hit because it was like, okay, everything stopped. And it was like everything that I had put my trust in my like foundations, in my identity in, I couldn’t do those things anymore. And it was like, wow, I can’t even be a student in person. I can’t do like music in person. I can’t like go sing in people’s faces. Um, because we couldn’t like breathe next to each other. But so that kind of had a shift in my identity and I was like, wow, am I really going to depend on things that could be gone and like overnight? Um, and so I think that’s a decent question to have though, to walk through life, not worried about what your place is or what your point is. Um, I think you should wonder that and especially if you’re not a believer, um, not just about life, but about eternity. And I think some things that we like invest like a huge, like label on our identity and are really just circumstantial. Like it depends on like where you grew up or how much access you have. Like, I don’t know if you live in a rural area versus like a city. Like if you moved, right? Like I used to live, I used to live in the city. And then I moved back to the suburbs. I feel like I was different, like that transition period from being a New Yorker, like the way I stood my face, it adjusted based on my environment, but I’m still like Patricia at my core, but there’s still like this transition period where you realize like how much of whatever you put on, like your dress, your expression, your stance is so much like about your environment. And I don’t think we should feel like we got to be scatterbrained about that. Like, oh no, who am I in the suburbs versus who am I in the city? Like, that’s such a, I feel like we go through this when we’re teenagers. We’re like, I don’t know who I am. Slow tier and um, no, but seriously, don’t tell me nobody has cried in the mirror saying I don’t know who I am, Lord, because you wanted to wear dark eyeliner. But anyway, I digress. You know how it is for the emo kids, but I’m just saying like, we’ve all had those moments and then you grow up a little bit and you’re like, okay, it’s not a big deal. But then we think about ourselves as Christians, how we act, how we behave, and then most importantly, the state of our soul. So let’s talk about our next question. What does it mean to be born again? Roy mentioned it as a phrase. I say it because some people make fun of Christians and call them the born agains, right? When this was, I don’t know, it’s like a thing I heard in like in the seventies and 80s to call yourself a born again. People made fun of it, but like, what does that actually mean? To be born again? Well, Nicodemus. Mhm. This is a very important concept. And right off, um, we all know what it means to be born. And I, I’m fascinated by the way in which scripture so often uses natural events, creation would say, to illustrate some very profound spiritual truths. So when we’re born, we come into this world and we have an environment and we grow and we learn who we are. And there’s striking similarities between, uh, being born naturally and being born spiritually. Um, one key verse, and I think we need to look at a few verses or at least read them is in John’s gospel. John is the one that more than any other writer, talks about eternal life. MM. And, uh. This is certainly true of his letters. John’s gospel presents to us the Lord Jesus as the eternal life and his epistles present to us how that eternal life in us should be manifested. So right away in John’s gospel, very first chapter, and this is verse twelve, but as many as received him to them gave, he gave the right to become children of God. So there’s the first interesting phrase, you know, we become children when we’re born into this world. Children of God, even to those that believe in his name who are born now this important part, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So it excludes a number of possibilities and focuses on the fact that we are born of God. So that’s what I want to go with actually, that’s first John three, verse nine. Whosoever is born of God does not practice in, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. And I’ll read verse ten in this. The children of God are manifest or shown forth, that the. And the children of the devil. Whoever does not. Righteousness is not of God. Neither is he that loves not his brother. His question, then, who or what ultimately defines my identity as sinner versus saint? Because I think the struggle we have often is what is defining who I am, my actions, or like what the Lord has done for me upon salvation? Or is it a combination of both? Well, who are you? We can go back to the the the initial question what defines you as PatriciaH? How did you get to be PatriciaH? Where did all your characteristics and so on come from, inherited and acquired? Well, okay. But you’re you’re not following the analogy. Quite exactly. Sorry. You were born. Follow the script. You were born. Yes, I was born. And and as a child of Adam, we have certain characteristics and failures. Yeah. But what we are is what we were born modified by our environment. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I didn’t mean inherited traits. Sorry. So what we are is defined by how we’re by our birth. Basically, that’s what I really want to get at. We’re all by nature children of the devil. As you were saying, we are children. This is This actually comes out in in Ephesians. Also, we’re born. We’re born into this world as children of Adam. What happened to Adam? Well, he fell and he sinned and he died, you know? Um, and so we all partake of that environment, that situation. We’re born of the flesh. That which is flesh is flesh. See how profound. We have to be very careful when we read scripture to really think hard about it. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born as a child. If you’re born as a child of Adam, you’re going to follow Adam’s. Path, if you will. But we’ve been born again. And we’ve been born from above. We’ve been communicated. Eternal life has been communicated to us. And we have been made partakers of the divine nature, the very nature of God. And that’s why in first John three nine, it says you cannot sin. I’m saddened by the ESV. For example, some of the modern translations weaken that. But I was reading from the NASB and they have it spot on. You can’t. And because his seed abide and that’s key. His seed, the divine seed. Abides in him, and he cannot sin. He’s talking about the divine nature. So if we think of ourselves purely as a child of God, we can’t sin. If we were walking in the spirit, we wouldn’t sin. Now that’s a that’s a high standard and we’re going to have to work out, of course. But you see, we are also children of Adam. And that’s where the problem comes in. We have the flesh. And that’s Romans chapter seven. MM. All right. I have Bethel. I was sort of thinking kind of tying back to your original question of what does it depend on my actions or God’s actions? Um, it can also be in whose scope is it me looking at my identity or how God sees me? Um, do those things differ? And so in my head, sometimes I feel like we can look at ourselves and we, we even hear people say it that kind of like fueled this podcast of people trying to be humble and saying, oh, I’m just a sinner saved by grace. Um, that’s what you started as. Are you still a sinner saved by grace? Does God see me as that? Um, when we were kind of planning this podcast, I, I thought about. So in one of my classes, they like teach you how to write a doctor’s note. And so they always say that you shouldn’t say, oh, I have a cancer patient presenting today with such and such and such. Um, you should say a patient experiencing cancer with such and such and such. Because when you fix that phrasing, you make that illness the identity of that person. So it’s almost like we do that with ourselves, that when we say we’re a sinner, yada, yada, yada, you’re not that person anymore. That’s not your state anymore. That’s not how God sees you. The Psalms tells us that when we confess our sins, they’re, you know, push as far as the east is from the west, they’re removed from from his view of us. And so if God doesn’t see me that way, should I see myself that way? MM. I think that’s exactly what we’re getting at here. Um, and we need to distinguish those things. Um, going back to your question is, you know, who who determines what I am? It’s God because we read in the very first chapter of John’s gospel, how are we born? We’re born of God. And why? What does that do? It makes me a child of God. So that’s my fundamental identity, who I am, and that’s the way I ought to think of myself. And the, the, the, the fruit will flow out of my conception of myself. And that’s why this podcast is important. Yeah. Yeah. Especially to because the way we’ve talked about this before, like the way we see our identity, you know, where we are in a stage of life. And I think about the scripture that’s in the Old Testament and one of the minor prophets, I am the Lord, I changeth not. He’s the only one right, who is consistent, right? And, and I would not say, how do I say this? God’s. Him not changing doesn’t mean he’s out of date, right? It doesn’t mean like for us, we’re like, oh, someone never changed. Like that means they’re inflexible. They haven’t, you know, they haven’t grown or anything like that. That’s, that’s something that defines humans. It doesn’t define the Lord. You know, the Lord, he’s the Ancient of Days, but he doesn’t need to change. Right? And so if he’s the one who establishes who we are in Christ, right? That’s a really, really safe and secure place to be. But at the same time, I can understand that as we live, we’re going to we’re going to see ourselves get frustrated with ourselves and be like, why do I do these things? Why do I keep doing these things right? Sin inconsistency. We feel like we’re not growing fast enough. So when I speak to myself or how I think about myself, right? Based on scripture, right? Not like how I feel, but like, how do I really, really see myself as a sinner, as a saint? Something else. When I see myself doing good things towards God. And then the other half of the day, I’m like arguing with somebody, right? So how do I see myself and not get to that instability? God’s view of us, Practically, we are in Christ. We are accepted in the beloved. So there should never be any insecurity in a Christian with regard to his acceptance. Now there’s another issue, and that is that of discipline. And if I’m persistent in going down the wrong path, that’s going to be self-destructive. And so God has to step in and out of his love and his concern for me. He has to come come in and discipline me. Now, that’s a subject out of Romans. Excuse me. Hebrews. I’m sorry. That’s a subject that’s taken up in the familiar verses in Hebrews. Um, and the key there is that righteousness is a product of our bowing to the discipline of God. So we learn to walk in a way which is pleasing to him. When we recognize that his corrective action for us. Now, as far as my trying to do better, that’s that is a that is a really real problem for almost every Christian. And it’s self-defeating. And Romans that this the Spirit of God. The Lord has been so gracious. He’s devoted an entire two chapters to dealing with this. And that’s Romans chapter seven. And the first four verses of chapter eight actually begins. You have to begin back with Romans five twelve. That’s a whole section. It should probably almost memorize that, because from Romans chapter five, verse twelve to the end of chapter eight deals with the practical working out of what we’ve been talking about. Yes, I’m born again. Yes, I am completely secure. But how does that work out in my life? Because I don’t see that happening. I don’t feel that way very often. I get miserable when I do things wrong and all the rest of it. That’s the subject of those passages in Romans, and that the apostle Paul comes back, comes back to that in other, other, his other epistles. So that’s not the only place. In fact, in Colossians chapter three talks about laying aside this or laying aside that and being renewed. You’ve already mentioned, you know, that we want to talk about renewal. So Galatians also is a very important book in this in this line. So the struggle that we have is a very real struggle. And I don’t know that we want to expound on Romans chapter seven, but it’s very important to Recognize this. This is absolutely essential. If I see nothing else, this is the most important part of the podcast as far as a practical Christian walk chapter break of chapter between chapter seven and eight is the worst chapter break in the entire Bible because it separates the solution from the problem. Chapter seven defines the problem and it’s. And especially the very last verse, the very last verse of chapter seven is the summary of the struggle of chapter seven and the conclusion. The. The solution to that problem is chapter eight, verses one through four. Those verses have to be studied and studied again because. And when I really realized and I mean really realize, there is therefore. Now I notice that therefore, that’s the connection between the two chapters. Therefore, I always specify, and Paul is very specific. This way. He uses. He uses very concise and specific logic. He was a student of Greek philosophy at evident from his talk on. On the Mount of Areopagus. So his use of. Therefore, there is really important. Because of the hopelessness of our situation, the hopelessness of our ability to be able to improve ourselves. There is no condemnation now on the basis of that. I can then go on. Doesn’t stop there. Just being free from condemnation is only the beginning. But it’s then the work of the Spirit of God in my life. In view of the life that God has given me in Christ. Let’s look at that verse that’s so important. That’s um, Romans. Romans chapter eight. And I want to read from Darby’s version. Um, verse one. There is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. For now, notice that for for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And that’s some of the modern translations. Don’t get this right. Darby’s absolutely right here. It must be. You must pay attention to this. The law of the spirit is like the law of gravity. It’s what the spirit has to do. It’s what the spirit does. If you jump off a high building, you’re going to land on a sidewalk. That’s that’s a law of gravity. The law of the spirit. What is this law? What is the law? It’s life in Christ. So it’s my life in Christ that is the foundation of all my good behavior. So that then he goes on, has set me free from the law of sin and death. And when I start making setting goals for myself in terms of I’m never going to be angry again at my wife. Got it. And my wife is sitting right back. That’s not to say, can we get her take on it? Can we? Like if we see Roy fall down her, chime in. I have to be careful what I say. It set me free from the law of sin and death. Okay, so I can do what I want. I’m not under law anymore. Mhm. Now next verse for what the law could not do. And that’s the whole subject of chapter seven. The law can’t do it. So what the law could not do notice it’s not, would not, but it’s could not do it. There’s a difference. There’s a difference between would and could. What the law could not do it couldn’t do it. In that it was weak through the flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. God having sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh in order that. Here’s the. Here’s the solution in order that the righteous requirements of the law. And a good deal more. Actually, we might say, well, let’s go on. Should be fulfilled in us who walk, who excuse me, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So the key then is am I walking in the spirit? And this is the part that’s immutable. I love that word means unchanging and will never change. We are not like that, right? But what the Lord has done right. So usually that gets to the other verses we were going to look at about renewal. That renewal implies that there’s something in incorrect, not incorrect so much as wanting. There’s something wanting that needs to be made up. Okay. Renewal means you’re you’re going from one state to another, right? That’s what it means to be renewed. So that renewal has to happen. And that is how that happens, by the work of the Spirit of God in us, as we’re occupied with the as we are actually delighting in Christ. MM. And that that may be reading or it may be just sitting in a chair, looking out the window at the trees and thinking about what God has done for us, or thinking just about the beauty of life and what he’s done for us, or the fantastic meal that somebody has provided for us, you know? Remember what what we are to bring God into everything. What’s the verse? Um, whether you eat or whether you drink, do all unto the Lord, right? What does that mean? That means that everything I do should be in the presence of the Lord, should be as a manifestation of what he has done for me. MM. Whether you’re eating or drinking, you’d be thankful for a glass of cold water in a hot day. Yeah. You know, just think about how much God has given us in nature. You talked about getting angry at your wife, but, I mean, be angry and sin not so. Anger is not a sin, right? Okay. But, uh, like, okay, it can be. It can. Yes. The actions from coming from it. But okay, so I’ll do mine. So. Right. So I’m frustrated. I yell at my daughter. Um, Scripture Proverbs says a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words will stir up anger. Okay, so I can apologize to my daughter. I am a Christian. So do I need to go to the Lord and repent of that action? Okay, or do I need to confess it because the word confess gets used in terms of salvation? If thou if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart right. So we have all these words, but how do we make sure we’re doing the right thing? I would say, but more specifically, like with the right mindset and heart posture towards the Lord, that when I go to the Lord, I’m like, Lord, I belong to you. I shouldn’t be acting like that, right? What am I doing? that reflects what he has done. So I’m not acting like a sinner, right? Like, oh, Lord, save me from hell. Like, you know, I yelled at my daughter. That’s not the right thing for me to say. So what am I doing? Repenting. Confessing. Well, like what you said, you said acting like a sinner. And I think right there, that can be a key problem because sometimes it’s a matter of like, well, I think first we, we need to define what repentance is and what confession is, because sometimes I hear them use like interchangeably and they are not the same thing. Um, but I think that they can kind of carry one another. Um, I don’t think you can repent without confessing. Um, what are you repenting for? If you don’t confess the sin, you know what I mean? But confession alone is just like, oh Lord, I did it. No, like, that’s not the the way that we are to be. And it’s not the matter of like, oh, I can’t act like a sinner. I have to act like a Christian. I have to act like a Christian. But we talk about this all the time. And I like what you’ve been saying about like how nature teaches us, but we we abide. And a lot of it is more cause and effect that when you are walking that spiritual walk, like you mentioned, that comes out of you. And so yes, when we make a mistake, it’s like, oh Lord, no, that’s not right. But I need your help in turning away from that. So I think confessing is like step one. Repentance is like step two. Um, when it comes to like a sinner or like not a sinner, sorry, a believer, um, doing something that, you know, would, uh, upset the Lord. Um, but more so because of that walk and because of that spiritual nature rather than, oh, I can’t act like a sinner anymore or, oh, I can’t, I have to act like a Christian because then it gets legalistic. Um, but having that walk and letting it come out of you as that repentance, there needs to be that turning away of that thing, my boy. Repentance. Confession. Yeah. Um. I find it difficult to describe what is such a personal thing. I think a lot of what Bethel said is certainly true. Uh, maybe everything, uh. Um. I’d have to think about it. It’s a it’s a complicated subject. I think to me, um, but I think what needs to be done is a very personal, um, recognition that what was done. Uh, hurts the Lord is, um, and perhaps if it’s an overt act, it damages a testimony. Uh, if another person is involved, then of course we have to confess to them. Apologize. As we’d say, the Lord is so vast, so knowledgeable. He’s done so many amazing things in our minds, cannot wrap around any of those things because we are finite. We’re just human. And so but then I think we can tend to overcomplicate our walk with the Lord because because there’s so much. Right. And then we can like miss the message when we’re looking at those intricacies. And really it has to come back to like, I love the Lord. He saved me. He’s keeping me. How, how am I operating towards him? Right? And this could be like for our super our super scholars, right? Like you read five commentaries today, but like, I don’t know, like I’ve went through this before, like you read all these complicated things, but like, is it too much for me to sit quietly and read Psalm twenty three? Right? Can I read Psalm one and just meditate on one word? Or I’m like, no, I don’t feel accomplished today. Right? Like, but that’s, I feel like that’s where that Attitude comes from one of my friends likes to say, sometimes when we get a little, we get a little deep. She calls us super saved. We want to be super saved today, right? Which is not a biblical term, but it’s just a term like we throw around when it’s just like, okay, you want like the advanced advanced level. And not that there isn’t like an advanced level. I’m feeling that I’m right. But like, that’s how that’s how I’m going to introduce myself to people. I’m super saved, right? Yeah. No, I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I’m super saved. Right? It’s just like one of those things where you’re like, okay, but like today, I just gotta like sit, slow down and just be like, wait, like, where is this? Where is this walk with the Lord, right? My genuine love for him right now that we belong to the Lord, right? My genuine love for him. I want to do what he says. I want to be like him. Um, Bethel, you had a thought. It has to be that way. It has to be that way. It has to be a walk because then it’s religious. And so you can sit and confess to a priest all you want about the things that you’ve done. And it. What’s the priest going to do for you, you know. And so I don’t mean that irreverently, but I, I just mean that when you are walking with somebody that’s closer than a brother, but is also the one who conquered sin and death for himself and, you know, is outside of time and watching me in time and carrying me through time. It’s different when it’s like, oh my gosh, I did something wrong. I have to go, you know, pay my dues. I have to go, you know, make sure I’m right with the universal forces. And no, it’s oh my gosh, I can’t believe I messed up. I need my dad. I can’t believe I messed up, I need to run to him and though it has to be that way or it’s, it can be forced and you know, not. And it can be, you know, something that just because I feel like that’s how it always turns into like a conversation of like, oh my gosh, well, if I’m Christian, I can’t do what I want and I can’t do this and I can’t do that. Oh, because you guys won’t let me do this. And oh, well, it’s wrong if I do that. Well, no, somebody I love, like it would bother somebody I love if I did that stuff. I’m a new creation. And so it has to be that walk or it’s it can be irreverent. Mhm. One of my friends says, and she goes to a different Christian gathering, but she says something that always makes me think of exactly what you mentioned. Bethel stuff will happen. And I don’t know, it could be at work or whatever. And, you know, our flesh acts up all this kind of stuff, and she’ll just say, that’s not who I am. She doesn’t say, that’s not what I do. That’s not my values. She says, that’s not who I am. And I really, really like that. She says that because it’s such a different take on the the the list of dos and don’ts. And I don’t mean this in a marketing sense, like, oh, it’s just a reframing of an existing standard. I don’t mean that at all. I mean that that phrase, that’s not who I am is a literal reflection of the theological reality that we are supposed to be living in every day. Thinking about. Our last question then is where? Okay, so we’re Christians now, right? We’re saved. So I accepted the Lord as my Savior going forward in my life. Is salvation still being performed, being worked out in my life by the Lord? Or was it like a one time thing? I got saved when I was six. I confessed, repented, new nature done or is there something else still going on? Oh, that’s so good. Well, I think if you look at again, scripture and how it uses the term salvation, there’s three different and many Expositors have pointed this out. It’s not something I’ve come up with. There’s three different ways that salvation is used there. Like you said, there’s we’re saved from sin. We’re safe from guilt. Uh, that’s Romans chapter one through three. Mhm. Um, but then like in Philippians, um, where to work? You know, it’s, um, yeah, Philippians, work out your own salvation. That’s obviously not salvation from the penalty of sin, but that’s from the practice of sin, from the effects of sin in my life, which we’ve sort of been talking about now. It’s also salvation. Some verses that refer to salvation from the presence of sin. And that’s something we’re looking forward to. Mhm. So, uh, it’s good to realize that we are being renewed. We’ve already talked a little bit about that. It’s a process. And again, the seed illustrates that. Um, And Peter also talks about and second epistle first chapter has a whole list add to a certain property, this other certain property and that defines growth. Uh, John talks about father, son and children. Uh, excuse me, young men, children, young men and fathers. So there is clearly a growth in us as we walk with the Lord. I think we mentioned maybe it was Bethel earlier that, uh, some things, uh, uh, strike us when we’re, uh, born again that we should not do, but other things that we might realize years later that, oh, well, that wasn’t a good idea. So we have to recognize that God is working on us. And this is a process. This is often called practical I might notice here that Christians are always called saints. We talked about sinners, but there’s always a dichotomy. When Paul writes a letter, he writes it to the saints. Um, so we’re saints. We’re set apart to God. It’s what that really means. Mhm. Yeah. Doesn’t mean we’re perfect. Doesn’t mean we’re error free. Mhm. Sin free. Yeah, I like that you said that because that was something I was thinking about too. Is like, even when Paul was writing to other Christians and I was I’m thinking in particular First Corinthians when they were it was there was a lot going on there. He didn’t he did not address it. He didn’t say, greetings to you terrible sinners, right? Right. So then that should tell us something about how we even speak about ourselves when we know this is our identity. And he spends so much time telling them, this is not who you are anymore, right? Right. I feel like that is such a great book. I’m glad you said that, Roy. It’s such a great book to look at. To just say like, okay, so what happens when Christians are behaving badly, right? How does Paul, who has apostolic authority, address them? He says to the saints, right? Reminding you of who you are, like so, so important. Um, and yes, there has to be a change. It doesn’t mean, okay, this is who I am and I still behave badly. It’s no, no, no, this is the standard, right? And the Lord will help us to live. And he’s working on us. That’s the best part. He’s still working on us every day. So I thank you so much. Bethel. Bethel. You want to say something? Go ahead. No. It’s okay. Um, I just like in closing was going to kind of talk about and it’s it’s very deep but surface. Lee what sin is before you’re saved and what sin is after you’re saved. And I think that yes, sin is sin, but once you are saved, like it’s been conquered and that power, like the power of the cross is living in you. And so in my head, sin becomes a choice where weak we are. You know, beings of the flesh. But, uh, I think I always try to remind myself, like in any time of temptation and any time of struggle that like, I have that power in me that conquered sin on the cross. I have the spirit living in me. And that is what you know, God sees when he looks at me, and that intercession is being made on my behalf. Um, and that’s something to, to dwell on. Um, and so that that salvation, we don’t need to keep praying for salvation. We don’t need to keep being resaved. But yes, there should be growth. And because of that power that we have living in us to continuously fuel us and draw us nearer to the Lord and help us with our walk. Um, yeah, I feel like this is like another podcast topic, but like the difference between sin and sins, right? Um, where it’s like it’s always, or maybe we didn’t die for him, right? So there’s always like, okay, like there’s the, there’s the overlap that we can talk. About sometimes, but I think sometimes are both right. Well, I think what somebody has said to me before is that, you know, like when we’re a Christian, like I may, I may commit sins, but sin does not have me anymore, right? I am the Lord’s right. And I think that that’s a really important thing. That’s why we can confess those sins. Um, and, and it is a very, very precious thing to take Ahold of and to appreciate in our lives. Um, that before I didn’t have a choice. That’s all I could do, right? And it’s not even about choice. It’s about like, like, who is my master? Who’s my master now? Right? And that’s really key. So thank you so much, Bethel and Roy, I know this was like deep conversation. It was a long conversation. And there’s so many like interlocking, like truths that I know I’m still learning and being strengthened in this, in this scripture. So like to any of our listeners, Like if you heard anything that was like a verbal misstep. You know, just put the forgiveness on us, please. Um, I always just put it that way. Right? Like we’re still learning and growing and to be more careful with our words, but more specifically to be reflective of the scripture with our words. So, uh, Roy has a little bit more experience with that. So we’re still getting there, but I always put that out there. Um, we don’t, I don’t want to put out anything that’s like bad, bad doctrine or this leads down people to the wrong path. Always read the scriptures. Um, this conversation has been such a great reminder that knowing who you are and whose you are is an important part of daily living. If we don’t know who we are in Christ, then everything else in our thinking and our actions will be impacted. And I have to just say once again, I put out there, please, if you are not saved, respond to the call of the gospel. And the most important identity change will happen for you if you accept Christ as your Savior. So to our listeners, thank you for joining us today. Whether you’ve been walking with the Lord for years or just beginning, or just rethinking some topics and questions that maybe you’ve thought about in the past, we hope that this conversation sheds some light on how the Lord can help us in our walk with him. See you next time for the Next Patterns of Truth podcast. Thank you for listening to the Patterns of Truth Podcast. We invite you to join us for our next episode. And we also encourage you to check out Patterns of Truth. Org, where we post articles every week for the encouragement and growth of Christ followers. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to submit them on our website. I’m Peter, until next time.