Freedom begins with a proper understanding of who we are in Christ. We will never be able to truly live out our freedom if we do not truly recognize our identity. Anything less than a son's mentality will hinder you from living in the freedom Christ has set us free to have (Gal. 5:1). I want to quickly lay a foundation before I share my testimony.
Jesus Christ won the victory on the cross that made us free to become sons. This would have been impossible without His victory. It has always been God's intention to bring us back into relationship with Him. Freedom includes not only what we have been set free from, but also what we have been set free to. Jesus did not die to whip us into a shape, control our behavior, or cause us to sin less. The main problem Jesus had to correct and solve was to remove the penalty for sin so that we can be welcomed back into the Father's family as sons. Therefore, it is important that we recognize our identity correctly in order to be free from the bondage of sin.
When the Bible speaks of sons, it does not refer to a gender, but includes both sons and daughters. As the men must also identify themselves as the bride of Christ, we have a balance here and refrain from using the paraphrase "sons and daughters of God". 😉
Lk. 15:11-32 - The story of the father, the prodigal son and the older brother is a great image for the topic of identity
This parable is - I think - very well known to most of you and I will not go into all the details here. This parable speaks primarily about Israelites who are in a special relationship with God, but it can also be applied to all people. I found this parable very helpful in understanding the issue around identity. In this story, we see in the younger son the depths to which he has fallen and the height and freedom to which he is brought when he repents.
V. 18 - "...I have sinned against heaven and before you.." V. 19 - "…I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants." What happens in our minds when we sin? The accuser of the brethren brings guilt and condemnation that makes us feel that we are not worthy to be a son. The enemy's #1 attack is against our identity. This is also visible in the temptation of Jesus in Mat. 4:3 - "If you are the Son of God..."
When the prodigal son arrived home, his father was already waiting for him and ran to meet him. The father wanted to make one thing clear: "Throughout your time of rebellion, sin and lavish living, you have never once stopped being my son!" We were either born into our family or adopted - we didn't earn or deserve our position as a son or daughter!
We cannot earn our sonship or do anything to restore it. My son Elijah did not earn his sonship. He was born into our family without having done anything for it and he doesn't have to work to remain my son. The worst rebellious moment of my life did not change the fact that I continued to be part of my parents' family. It did not cause me to stop being a son of my family. So the question arises: "Once I am born into my family as a son, do I ever stop being a son?" The answer to this question is a key to my freedom and yours.
The elder son embodies the mindset and perspective of an orphan or slave. And that is what religions today want to sell us as normal. True to the saying: "Every man is the smith of his own fortune". If we work hard, we move God to do something. If I pray enough, read the Bible, go to church regularly, etc., I might get God's attention or turn his arm around and get him to do something. Maybe if I have done enough at some point, my father will throw me a party and open the "magic box" for me, which is also called promises. I'm speaking sarcastically here, of course, but this is how I lived many years of my life as a Christian. Of course, back then I would never admit to living out the older brother mentality. But my life and my actions were screaming at me! There was a lot of head knowledge about my father that didn't help me live in freedom. Notice also that both sons are referred to as sons throughout the parable.
If you look closely at the body of Christ today, you can see three different mentalities. And this statement has no ethnic, religious, racial, cultural or gender background. You can observe the mentality of an orphan, slave or son. And all of them were a part of my life.
Let me explain what I mean by the three different mentalities.
Orphan
For the longest time of my Christian life, I lived with the mentality of an orphan. After accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior in my younger years, I didn't understand what really happened more than 13 years after the experience. For me, being born again was just a ticket out of hell. Take the ticket so you don't end up in hell, but make sure you don't lose it again by sinning! And then I "tried" to live life according to the standard of the Christian "model man" set at that time. The attempt to live up to this standard brought much disappointment, condemnation, shame, destruction, condemnation etc. into my life.
I remember waking up on a Saturday morning as a teenager and it was very quiet in the house. Normally there was always something going on in our house; after all, I grew up with nine siblings. I ran through the whole house to find someone, but no one was there. There was no one in our back yard either. And then a deep fear came over me, wondering if Jesus had come back and taken all my brothers and sisters with him, but I had been left behind? In my panic, I ran down the street where I knew there were other Christians living. And when I saw someone there, I could finally breathe again.
There were a few more experiences that took me further downwards in a spiral. Year after year passed and I lost sight of the meaning and purpose of life. Although today I wonder whether I had any understanding of it at all back then. I had no idea and no solution as to how I could get rid of the condemnation, disappointment and condemnation. It didn't take long for me to question whether I even belonged to the body of Christ. Whenever I opened up to someone, I was always told to repent and then sin no more. Gradually, this led to me developing the mindset that God was punishing me with damnation because I kept falling into the same sins.
Joh 14,18 - "I will not leave you as orphansG3737; I will come to you." (in the person of the Holy Ghost). ESV
(#G3737 ὀρφανός – orphanos: bereft (of a father, of parents); of those bereft of a teacher, guide, guardian (Thayer Definition))
COMFORTLESS, a. Without comfort; without any thing to alleviate misfortune, or distress. (Webster)
Others derive it from the Hebrew חרף charaph, to strip or make bare, despoil, because such a child is destitute of comfort, direction, and support, and is a prey to misery and disease, to sin and to death. (Adam Clarke)
The point I want to make here is that I had absolutely no direction and no grounding when it came to Christ and life in Christ. As long as you see yourself as an orphan, you will never walk in the freedom of a son.
Slave
Our move to Switzerland also meant that I had to step out of my bubble. In a new country, new culture, new environment, etc., some traditions were put to the test. The new environment helped me to let go of the orphan mentality. On the one hand, I began to let go of the orphan mentality and on the other, I unconsciously adopted the mentality of a slave.
A slave identity is based on what you do for God rather than what you become for God. In the mind of a slave, his performance is the basis for his position in a family!
Joh 8:35 - "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever." ESV
Lk 17:7-8 – «Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’?» ESV
As a slave, you have accommodation, food and sometimes even care, but no possessions or inheritance to pass on to your children. That is why they strive to find their place in the family. They know that nothing is permanent with their master. They need constant attention and recognition, mistakes could see them thrown out of the family at any moment. And this is exactly how I viewed God as my father. A clear sign of a slave mentality: they are not free!
I know now that I saw myself as a slave because at the time I was constantly led by my feelings to go in and out before God. He loves me - He doesn't love me. "If I work really hard, God will love me. If I perform well, God will be pleased. If I stop working hard, God will be disappointed in me." I would have always claimed that I had the mentality of a son and that I was a child of God and not a slave. My actions, however, testified otherwise.
Joh 8:36 - "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (Kontext: von der Sklavenmentalität) ESV
I had never seen myself as an overcomer. I couldn't see myself from Christ's perspective because I had never understood Jesus' work on the cross. I realized that I was not living in freedom and my only solution was to work out freedom for myself because the focus was on the old man's own performance.
Something to think about: God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through Moses, but it took 40 years for them to leave the slave mentality behind.
Son
In addition to the Gospel, it was also the story of the prodigal son mentioned above that influenced and changed me the most. Lk. 15:22 ff - The father gave the son a robe, a ring, shoes - and his son received it. The older brother was in the field working for it - he was angry and jealous of his brother and accused his father of favoritism. His father's response: "Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours." (In other words, you don't have to work for it). After I stepped out of Adam, I was born in Christ. And in Christ I was given the position of the son. Joh. 1:12 - "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, " ESV
I don't have to earn my position as a son, God's blessings etc. through performance. I have chosen to accept what Christ has said about me. In Gal. 4:1-7 it says - If you are a son, you are loved, you are safe in the family, you are redeemed, and you are an heir. V.7 - "…and if a son, then an heir through God." (ESV) There is only one thing to do to become a son and heir today: Believe and receive! Religion will make this step as difficult and complicated as possible. Religion will never let you get to a place where you have achieved and worked enough!
V. 6 - The spirit within you calls out: "You are a son and an heir, he is your father. Stop living like a slave!" No matter what you did this week, last week, last month, last year, five years ago, the offer is the same - sonship, freedom, inheritance! Every area in my life changed when I realized my true identity and accepted the position as a son. Today, there are always areas in my life where the Holy Spirit shows me that the mentality of a slave still prevails. But that doesn't make me despair. I am then simply faced with the decision of whether to follow the Spirit and allow these areas to be renewed through the truth. Joh. 8:32 - «…and the truth will set you free!» This verse is one of my favorite and core verses that I keep reminding myself of. Step by step, it transforms me and leads me further and further into the freedom I am already in!❤️🔥
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