Grace in Galatians (Part 210) – How Grace Changed The Way I See Myself

https://youtu.be/y7yiIrFTluk?si=krKiIIxnNEMQhJ3M

Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.

We are closing out our Grace in Galatians series with a handful of final messages on how grace changed everything in me. In the last message, I told you how grace changed the way I see God. The Judge I feared became the Father I love. Today, I want to tell you about the second great change. Grace changed the way I see myself.

Key scriptures for this year:

2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”

Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”

1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”

Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Scripture we will study today:

Galatians 2:20 TPT“My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. For the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one!”

Galatians 3:26 TPT“You are now sons of God through faith in Jesus the Anointed One!”

Galatians 6:15 TPT“Circumcision doesn’t mean a thing to me. The only thing that really matters is living by the transforming power of this wonderful new creation life.”

Supporting scriptures:

2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.”

Romans 6:6 TPT“Could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deeply submerged in his death? Now we are no longer living as slaves to sin.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 TPT“For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.”

Ephesians 2:10 TPT“We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!”

1 Peter 2:9 TPT“But you are God’s chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual ‘nation’ set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own.”

Setting the Stage:

When I got born again, my spirit was made new in an instant, but the way I saw myself took much longer to catch up. For years, I introduced myself by my old identity. I told the old stories. I emphasized the old failures. I called myself a sinner saved by grace, and I put all the emphasis on the word sinner. Then the same grace that changed the way I see God started changing the way I see me. I discovered that God does not see a struggling sinner trying to qualify. He sees a righteous son. He sees a new creation. Today I want to show you what grace showed me.

So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.

1. I Stopped Seeing Myself As A Sinner And Started Seeing Myself As A Son.

For most of my early Christian life, I saw myself as a sinner who had barely made it in. I believed God let me in the door, but I pictured myself standing in the back of the room. Like the Apostle Paul, who felt like he was not worthy to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church, I knew I was saved, but I also thought back to all the crazy things I did when I was growing up in Brooklyn. And every time I fell short, that picture of myself got reinforced. Then I read Galatians 3:26 with new eyes. Paul says you ARE a son of God through faith in Jesus. Present tense. Not after you clean yourself up. Not after you prove yourself. The moment you believed, you became a son. That revelation changed the way I see myself and the way I live my life.

How this applies to you:

— Galatians 3:26 TPT says, “You are now sons of God through faith in Jesus the Anointed One!” The key word is now. Sonship is not a goal you are working toward. It is a position you received the moment you believed. You are a SON by faith.

— You are not a sinner saved by grace. You are a saint who used to be a sinner.

— Religious people want to keep you tied to your old identity, because it gives them power over you. They want you to identify as “the addict,” “the divorcee,” “the ex-con,” “the one who failed,” so you keep feeling small. Grace says that is not who you are anymore.

— What God calls you outranks what people call you, and it outranks what you have been calling yourself.

— The same Paul who once dragged believers to prison could later write, “I have wronged no man” (2 Corinthians 7:2 KJV). How could a former persecutor of the church say that? Because grace put his entire past under the blood. The cross did not just forgive Paul; it cleared his record so completely that he could stand before men with a clean conscience. If grace gave Paul a clean slate, it has given you one too.

— 1 Peter 2:9 TPT says you are “God’s chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual ‘nation’ set apart as God’s devoted ones.” Chosen treasure. Priests who are kings. That is not what you are trying to become. That is what you are right now.

— Walk into today as a son, not a sinner, not a slave, and not a servant. You are a son of the Most High God! You were not just forgiven, you were adopted!

2. The Old Me Is Dead, And Christ Lives In Me Now.

Galatians 2:20 is one of the most radical statements in the entire Bible. Paul says, “My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives.” Notice what Paul did not say. He did not say the old man was improved, managed, or kept under control. He said the old man was crucified. Dead. Buried. Gone. And in his place, Christ Himself now lives His life through us. 

How this applies to you:

— Galatians 2:20 TPT says, “My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives… the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one!” God did not renovate the old you. He crucified him. And then He moved in.

— Your old identity is not on pause; it is in a grave. The old Rick Pina is dead, and the person who lives today is a new creation in Christ Jesus. 

— Most of you did not know me before I got born again, but believe me, that old man is dead. The man writing to you today is nowhere close to the young man I was becoming without Jesus. I am thankful that my old man has no authority over my future. In other words, my history does not dictate my destiny. 

— Romans 6:6 TPT says, “Could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deeply submerged in his death?” Now and forever. The old man is not coming back. The only way he shows up is if you dig him up, but even if you tried, you won’t be able to.

— You cannot resurrect what God crucified, so stop visiting the grave.

— Here is the part that will set you free today. The Christian life is not you trying your best to live for Jesus. It is Jesus living His life through you. That is why Paul said, “we live in union as one.” You are not carrying this life alone. The One who conquered death is doing the living through you.

— I tell you all the time that you are a human conduit of the divine. You don’t have to make the new life. You just have to yield to the one who lives in you. If you yield to the Holy Spirit, he will speak through your vocal cords, think through your mind, and operate through your limbs. 

3. I Am Not An Improved Version Of The Old Me. I Am A New Creation.

Paul closes the letter with the verse that settles the identity question forever. Galatians 6:15 says the only thing that matters is the new creation. Notice the word Paul chose. Creation. That is a God-word. It is the same word from Genesis 1, when God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. The same God who spoke the universe into existence spoke a brand new you into existence. He did not patch up the old model. He did not send you to self-improvement classes. He created you new. Religion offers renovation of the old. Grace offers death to the old and a resurrection into the new.

How this applies to you:

— Galatians 6:15 TPT says, “The only thing that really matters is living by the transforming power of this wonderful new creation life.” Every religious label and every old category lost its authority at the cross. It does not matter what people used to label you before you were born again, and it doesn’t matter what religious people try to label you after you were born again. The new creation is the only verdict that counts.

— The new you is not the old you with better behavior; the new you is a brand new species. Your spirit was literally recreated by the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus. 

— 2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT says, “All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” Everything. Not some things. The day you were born again, Heaven re-stamped your entire existence. A new heart. A new nature. A new family. A new destiny. Everything is new. 

— You cannot make yourself a new creation; only the Creator can, and He already did.

— I want you to picture a believer who spends his whole life trying to fix the old man. New habits. New disciplines. New resolutions every January. He is sincere, but he is working on behavior modification for someone who is dead. God is not in the renovation business. He is in the resurrection business. The old man does not need a makeover. He needs a funeral, and the good news is, he already had one. It already happened.

— I got born again on August 27, 1995, inside the chapel on Camp Doha in Kuwait. The old Rick did not get rehabilitated that night. The old Rick died, and a new Rick was born. I have been walking in the newness of that life ever since, and the same is true for every believer reading this today.

— Stop trying to become what God already made you. Your job is to receive what He created, believe what He declared, and walk in what He already made you to be. This is how you live #TheGraceLife!

4. Now I Live FROM My Identity, Not FOR It.

Here is the freedom this revelation brings. Religion teaches you to live FOR an identity you have not yet earned. Grace teaches you to live FROM an identity you have already been given. For years, I lived FOR God’s approval. Every prayer was a transaction. Every act of obedience was a deposit towards the account of “I’m trying to be a good person.” Every failure was a withdrawal from that same account. The said truth is: the account never balanced. Then grace taught me to live FROM His approval. Same God. Same prayers. Same obedience. But now it all flows from sonship instead of servitude. There is a revelation of a difference.  

How this applies to you:

— Grace teaches you to live FROM an identity you have already been given, not FOR an identity you are trying to earn.

— Ephesians 2:10 TPT says, “We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us.” You are not a project God is working on. You are a poem God has already written.

— You are not BECOMING righteous. You ARE righteous.

— 2 Corinthians 5:21 TPT says we “become the righteousness of God through our union with him.” Righteousness is not your performance record. It is your position in Christ. That is why it cannot be earned and cannot be lost by a bad week.

— When I came to God, I had built an identity around: being a Dominican by heritage, an American by citizenship, a Soldier by profession, but a Brooklynite by culture. When I got born again, Heaven issued me a new ID. Son of God. Heir of the promise. New creation in Christ Jesus. I have been walking in that ID ever since. 

— I am called to preach, and I teach students how to preach in Bible college. One of the key things that I teach is that preaching is God’s truth through your personality. My personality was formed by being Dominican, the first American in my family, raised in Brooklyn, and serving in the United States Army. All of those things have lent themselves to my personality, but my identity is a child of the Most High God. Those are two different things. 

— This is why I teach identity before activity. You have to know WHO you are before you can walk in WHAT you are called to do. When you finally see yourself the way God sees you, the striving/stressing stops, the rest begins, and the assignment naturally flows. You are not walking in the newness of the life that Christ Jesus died to give you out of human effort; it just naturally flows when you die to your old man, and you allow Christ to live through you. That’s #TheGraceLife.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, I thank You that I am Your son, not a struggling sinner!

The old me was crucified with Christ, and I refuse to dig him up!

Christ lives in me, and His life is my life!

I am not renovated. I am recreated!

I am a brand new creation, born from above!

I threw away the FAKE ID, and I walk in the identity Heaven issued me!

I am righteous because of what Jesus did, not because of what I do!

I am God’s poetry, God’s treasure, God’s son!

I live FROM my identity, not FOR it!

I see myself the way my Father sees me, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!

I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!

This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!