Primary Identity

We have been given a new identity in the Kingdom of God - a better identity. Mike King continues our study of the book of Galatians.

Primary Identity

Galatians | Week 2

June 12, 2016 | Mike King

Resident Aliens

Galatians 2:1-2 (NIV)

Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.

Galatians 2:6-9a (NIV)

As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel...For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the Jewish people, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me.

Our Christian passport trumps our birth passport.

Galatians 2:11-12 (NIV)

When Peter came to Antioch, I (Paul) opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

Galatians 2:14-16 (NIV)

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

How is it that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

1 Peter 2:11 (NIV)

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

When Christ changed our core identities He also gave us the power to live out of those new identities.