On Thursday, Sept 21, we prayed for our fellow Floridians who were still without power and for all the workers who were working 16+ hour days to bring power and order back to us. As always, by God’s grace we have peace in our lives, even when the physical world is not very peaceful.
We brought together our notes and experiences and shared on our Identity in Christ – Justification. Justification – God’s legal decision to acquit man of guilt and sin and declare man accepted of Him. We did nothing to deserve God granting us justification. We can’t pray, work, grovel, pay, or beg for justification. God granted it to us by His grace. This sharing has three sections. First, How we received justification. Titus 3:7 reminds us that God justified us by his grace.
Titus 3:7
That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
The second section focused on How the adversary tries to trick us about our justification. Paul’s First letter to the Corinthians, reminds us of three ways the adversary (the devil) hides behind masks to get us to question our justification.
I Corinthians 4:3
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
The third section was about How we claim our justification and live justified. We spent the rest of our discussion in Romans 8 seeing how we can claim and live justified. We revisited Rick’s teaching on Romans Eight. We are not victims, like the adversary wants us to believe, we are more than conquerors as it says in Romans 8:37,
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Next week 9-28 , we are looking at our Sanctification, and the week after, 10-5, we are breaking bread together in an evening of food, music and the Word. Why don’t you join us?
We have set up a separate page where all our combined notes from the Identity in Christ weekend are filed. Click here.
Batt and Robin 
September 27, 2017 at 10:27 pm
It was a joy attending the weekend seminar on Our Identity In Christ with you Rick and Robin, and then to review our notes together. Robin posed the question to me, “Christine, for you, what was Christ’s role in our justification?” Following is my brief response.
Christ’s role in my justification:
For me, knowing that Jesus Christ took upon himself the penalties of my sins (whether past, present and future) and paid fully that which was due me, to me, this is the ultimate act of love and giving. Knowing the verdict has been given and the gavel dropped to declare me righteous as a result, is mind boggling, not because there is no guilt, but rather, in spite of it, Jesus paid it all. When I am reminded of this reality, it makes me want to live a life worthy of that selfless act that, in his innocence, he paid with his life by submitting his personal will to The Father so that God’s will for His people could be accomplished. It also builds a desire to help relieve oppressions off others who are weighted down in guilt and shame, who may not know the grace God has in store for them.
My biggest take away from the Our Identity in Christ weekend along this topic is to accept the ruling of God and not allow others (or myself for that matter) to put me on trial again with any other ruling than that which God made. Nor to try and justify myself by trying to make up for the deficit of my mistakes when Jesus Christ was enough to cover me. Instead, simply confess, accept, and appreciate what’s been given and then strive to do better in the future; not out of guilt, regret, shame, sorrow or anything else but rather, out of grace and gratitude.
September 28, 2017 at 11:31 am
Thank you Christine for these heart felt comments. You are so right, we have to remember not to put ourselves on trial again.