Daily Devotion - July 11, 2023

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20). 

An old car commercial boasts, “You are what you drive.” I don’t know how others reacted to the ad’s character analysis, but I found it insulting. 

Perhaps the reason I was so concerned was that, at the time, I was driving a dented Ford Pinto that had over 100,000 miles on it, and needed new tires and a paint job.

Of course, I really shouldn’t have been upset. The good news that our Savior makes possible is that our identity before God is not based on what we drive but in whom we trust. 

The Apostle Paul reminds us that our past faults and failures – the dents in our lives that we would love to paint over – are dead to us and to God. The sins that once identified us were nailed to the cross of Christ, crucified with him when we trusted that he died for us. Our sinful identity died with Jesus.

But Jesus did not die forever on that cross. He lives! And by the Holy Spirit’s work that same Jesus lives in us by faith. So, if your sinful identity is dead, and Jesus is alive in you, whose identity do you have now? His!

Jesus bore your sins by dying on the cross and shares his identity by living in you through the Holy Spirit. That means when you unite your heart to his by faith, you have the status of a child of God – which is what you really are! 

God loves you, as much as he loves Jesus, because you are united to him by faith.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to realize that my worth is not determined by my faults and failures, but by my union with Christ. Because I trust that Jesus loved me and gave himself for me, I am your child no matter what others think of me. Thank you for loving me as you do Jesus.