Hook
Good morning all, my name is Conrad and I am one of the pastors here. If you need a Bible to follow along in our Bible study this morning, put your hands in the air and one of our ushers will make sure you get one.
I have long said that my two favourite seasons are Christmas and baseball. And they play perfectly into each other. The World Series wraps up in early November, the tree goes up the evening on Remembrance Day. The Christmas decorations come down in January, and pitchers & catcher report to Spring Training in February. It’s all quite magical.
And everything about Christmas is wonderful. Family, friends, pretty lights, warm fires, and presents. Ever since I was a kid I have loved Christmas. But something that never made sense to me was New Years. I think because it was always tied to resolutions. Anyone here ever make New Years Resolutions?
It always struck me that every New Years Eve all the adults would talk about how they were going to improve themselves next year. They were going to start working out and eating better. So as a kid I thought that all adults shared the same plight: they felt they were fat and lazy. They knew they needed to do something about this problem, but their plan seemed to start and end with a kickoff date. They didn’t really seem to consider HOW this might be accomplished.
No, no, I have evidence for this theory. The adults knew they wanted to eat right and work out in the New Year, but on the Eve of this life-changing event, everything they ate or drank was primarily comprised of sugar, salt, chocolate, cheese, or alcohol. Seems to me that you are really are not starting off on the best footing here, folks. I guess perhaps the thinking was, “If I just lower the bar enough…”
It also struck me that adults maybe didn’t realize that the New Year in which they’d hoped to ‘seize the day’ actually started at midnight, but by the time that ball dropped and the countdown reached ‘zero’ every adult in the room was in quite varied states of consciousness and/or inebriation. Some were better, some were worse, but I think it’s safe to say that nobody was quite at their peak performance.
So January 1st is already a wash. Every slept in and needs extra recovery time, so that following night wasn’t great… now the 2nd is gone as well. There are still exceptional amount of chocolate and cheese-based leftovers… wouldn’t want to waste those… 3rd and 4th are in the rear view mirror. Before you know it, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, you’ve gained 10 pounds, forgotten what your feet look like, and are vowing to change…. next year.
Because the fact is that we all want to be better than we are! At the heart of it every man wants to be Batman; brave, just, smart, rich, and totally ripped. And every woman wants to be Barbie; beautiful, fashionable, resourceful, and exceptionally qualified for every career path imaginable—from doctor to rock star to Canadian Mountie.
But both of those—the superhero and the supermodel—are lies that twist the truth into narcissism. So let’s take Batman and Barbie—the superhero and the supermodel—and put them in our pocket. We’ll come back to them later.
Turn with me now to 2 Corinthians 5:12. I am reading—as usual—from the New King James Version.
Book
2 Corinthians 5:12–21: 12 For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Look
[Pray for God to change our perspective]
v12
(2Co5:12,NKJV)For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
My mom used to tell a made-up story about a very real kind of person. Maybe you know them. This guy loves himself, so we shall call him Mr. Me. And Mr. Me’s favourite subject is the thing he loves most—himself. Mr. Me has no problem whatsoever monopolizing the whole conversation to tell everyone about how amazing he is. But then, by some great stroke of luck, Mr. Me grows tired of the sound of his voice and turns to the room and—with a satisfied smile smeared across his face—says, “But you know what? I’m tired of talking about me. Why don’t you talk about me now?”
At first blush it looks like verse 12 is painting the Apostle Paul as a kind of Mr. Me. But that’s not what is happening here. Let’s break this down so we can see what Paul is really saying. Firstly, that word “commend” is often translated as “recommend” or “boast about”… but this is not the best possible translation. The word “commend” means “to draw together”. The phrase “on behalf of” means “because of”. And the word “boast” means “to express an unusually high degree of confidence”. With those nuances in mind what we end up with is something like this:
(2Co5:12,CUT)We are not going to continue to demonstrate why we are on the same team; we feel that we have equipped you well to stand confident in the true Gospel despite the bravado of false teachers.
There is no shortage of people who are willing to twist, distort, alter, amend, and water-down the Gospel in order to tell us what our flesh wants to hear. Make no mistake, those who do this are preaching a different gospel than the one with power to save. Their desire is to lead you astray in order to profit themselves. And some of these people come on strong with such confidence that it can be tempting to just believe them.
A number of years ago my brother worked as Best Buy as a salesman, one of his fellow salesmen was a man we’ll call ‘Bob’. On Bob’s last day it was all smiles and hugs. He thanked everyone for their camaraderie and friendship. Bob told his now-former team how much he would miss them. And walked out with a 75“ television on a flatbed trolly as he waved goodbye to everyone. And as the team sat in the warm glow of Bob’s friendship as he drove out of their lives for the final time my brother asked the group… ”Hey, does anyone know if Bob actually paid for that TV?” As they went around one-by-one they all said they had not charged Bob for it and so they realized that Bob had stolen a $3000 television in broad daylight while waving goodbye.
When we do not know what we believe and why we believe it, we can be ‘blown about by every wind of doctrine’. But every truth we study and learn and know adds another item to the armoury we can use to defends ourselves and our friends from the lies and distractions and dangers of those who would encourage us to judge things by how they appear so that we can be more easily mislead.
v13
(2Co5:13,NKJV) For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
This one is a head-scratcher. Is Paul really saying that when he seems crazy, he’s doing it for God, and when he seems sane, he’s doing it for the Corinthian church? Some make this argument, but I find it unconvincing. I don’t think Paul is shifting back and forth between two different personas! Notice the word “For” at the beginning of this verse! It shows that Paul is building his argument. Don’t forget; we’ve just come off Paul’s telling us that we should be confident in the true Gospel, and not in the appearances of man.
Paul is not saying that he acts differently at different times; Paul is saying that he is perceived differently by different groups! Remember his first letter to the church in Corinth?
(1Co1:18,NKJV) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
These men with a false gospel are blind to the truth of Paul’s actions! He looks foolish, out of his mind, beside himself to them. But to those who have tasted and seen the goodness of our Lord and the power of the Gospel in our lives, Paul’s own life and works make complete sense. What 2 Corinthians 5:13 is telling us is this:
(2Co5:13,CUT)The people trying to convince you I’m nuts are blind to the truth. But you have witnessed how the true Gospel has changed you. You know that I’m not crazy!
To provide an example from my own life: when people find out I left a career as a web developer to return to the pastorate they think I’m nuts. It’s foolishness to them to give up good money and weekends off so that I can make less, work longer hours, and be on-call 24/7. They simply cannot see why anyone would do that. One of those people was my wife!
[Pause for laughter]
I’m kidding of course. My wife was very supportive and deeply understands the value of such choices, but that fact that we laughed shows that we get why people are skeptical. We understand why it doesn’t “make sense” to outsiders, yet we are called to live lives that are honouring of the Lord and responsive to His call in spite of how that might affect other circumstances. Maybe you laughed because you yourself have done something “foolish” for the Lord?
v14–15
(2Co5:14–15,NKJV) For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Paul continues to build his argument from verses 12–13. He tells the Corinthians that they have seen first-hand the incredible power in the Gospel and so they should know that Paul isn’t crazy, for the love of Christ compels him—because the love of Christ compels him.
And that word “compels” is an interesting one. In the Greek it means to enclose or secure. The love of Christ is not the wind at our backs hurriedly ushering us from one place to the next like an episode of ‘Quantum Leap’! Instead it is an amour, a tent, a hedge of protection that surrounds and shields us. One which is not centred around us as we lead the way, but one in which we seek to centre ourselves as it leads the way.
Christ’s love doesn’t just motivate us; it defines and bounds our lives. Our part is to follow its direction in every step without running ahead, falling behind, or diverting on our own path to the left or to the right.
Let me make this clearer: We all have a motivation. Something that inspires us todo what we do, respond how we respond, and prioritize what we prioritize. This is our WHY. But our old why—from before we met Jesus—is gone. Jesus is our why now. We are no longer ego-centric—with ourselves at the centre of our lives—instead we are Christocentric—with our Saviourat the centre of our lives. If I say with my mouth that Jesus is the King of my heart, but still living for my old why, then Jesus isn’t King of anything in my life! That’s not Christianity, that’s Hedonism! That is living for self-pleasure—what I like. That is not Christ worship, that is self-worship! That dethrones Jesus and puts the crown on my head. If that is me, I have just stolen Jesus’ place.
Because we are going to die one way or the other! We are either going to die IN ourselves or TO ourselves. We die in ourselves by pursuing the fleeting pleasures of this world—whether riches, recognition, or relationships. We die to ourselves by staying centred in the will of God and following the lead of the Holy Spirit even when it looks insane to a world that doesn’t “get it”.
Church, Jesus did not come to share our fate! He came to steal it! And if we insist on returning to our old lives—like a dog to its vomit—then we are not victims of Satan, sin, death, demons, the grave, or hell… we are victims of our own narcissism. We got so full of ourselves that we thought we didn’t need Jesus!
If I am captaining the good ship Conrad in the pitch black night and I see the lighthouse up ahead signalling the impending shore, but I plow ahead anyway because I want to forge my own destiny, I can hardly be surprised when I run aground and destroy my vessel!
The death of Christ is that lighthouse, signalling the path to life, and we must orient our lives to it or we, too, will run around and destroy ourselves… possibly here on earth, but certainly in judgement.
v16
“Therefore” is signalling a summary statement; We must be confident in the true Gospel (v12) because the true Gospel has changed us (v13) because we have centred our lives on Jesus who died in our place (v14–15)…
(2Co5:16,NKJV) Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
We are to regard no one—including Christ—according to the flesh. Good… so what does it mean when we say that “we [should] regard no one according to the flesh”? More fundamentally, what does it mean to “regard someone according to the flesh” to begin with?
Thinking “in the flesh” means limiting our view to the natural world and the material realm with no regard for the SUPER-natural world and IM-material realm. We ignore these because they are weird and abstract and unknown. We like what we know and we know the real world, the here-and-now. We love these meat suits called bodies dearly. We love them so dearly that we will seek to protect them at all cost. This is why it rings true when the Apostle John says there is no greater gift than to lay one’s life down for a friend. The deep-seated self-evident truth of that statement is why we recognize Remembrance Day every November 11th.
And it is also why the cross is considered foolishness! Jesus’ crucifixion was at the hands and for the benefit of those who hated him! Even saying it out loud I find myself thinking it’s crazy! But the mind-bending craziness of it is exactly what made Jesus such a compelling figure who has endured throughout history. And we can see that because everybody wants a piece of Jesus.
The Jews claim Him as one of their own. The Muslims call Him a prophet! Jehovah’s Witnesses call Him an angel. The Baha’i call Him a manifestation of god. The Hindus say He was a guru. The Buddhists call Him an enlightened teacher. The Unitarians call Him a moral reformer. Even some Scientologists consider Him and enlightened moral figure.
They see that Jesus changed the world, and they are forced to reckon with His presence, but they judge Him in the flesh, and so relegate him to a teacher, a prophet, or a guru—they take away His supernatural and immaterial qualities which allowed him to change the world! This is what is mean to “regard according to the flesh”! Because the temptation becomes incredible to make Him like us when we view Him through a human lens. But the idea that we—who are already dead in the flesh—can see clearly enough to judge anything is laughable when we are blind to the spiritual realm and can only see that which is destined for DEATH!
This world has to reckon with the Jesus who lived and died, so they judge Him by that criteria. But as Christians we do not know a Jesus who lived and died… we know a Jesus who died and lived! And that Jesus, the living, risen Lord, is the one we know, and the one we preach, and the one who saves.
v17
And here we get another “therefore” and another summary statement. We must be confident in the true Gospel (v12) because the true Gospel has changed us (v13) because we have centred our lives on Jesus who died in our place (v14–15) therefore we must look at things from a heavenly rather than earthly perspective (v16)…
(2Co5:17,NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
If you have been coming to church for any amount of time you have heard this before and it can be tempting to quickly skim through the familiar to get to something NEW. But this verse blew my mind during my studies. I literally sat back in my chair and said, “Wow”. My wife was working downstairs in her home office and I went to get her to share what I saw here. Don’t sleep on this verse church.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”. We cannot remake ourselves, we could remodel the house—the meat suit, but we can’t replace the tenant. We cannot remake our soul, our spirit, our inner person. No, we cannot remake ourselves, but we CAN submit ourselves to being remade. We do that by forfeiting our lives to Christ. We are called to die to ourselves and allow God’s life to renew us, we allow His Spirit to animate us, just like His Spirit animated Adam in the beginning.
And here’s the amazing part you might not have considered before: God made Adam, then God made Eve, then God rested from His creative work. God stopped creating. BUT! We just read that anyone who is in Christ is a what? NEW CREATION! God has resumed his creative work! Every time a someone repents, turns from their sin, confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believes in their heart God raised Him from the dead they are re-created. And this shows in the life of the believer that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is Saviour, Creator, and Lord!
But that’s not all! Do you realize what this means?! God promised to remake creation without pain, sadness, sickness, suffering, or sin. Through the prophet Isaiah God said:
(Isa65:17,NKJV) For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
Do you get it? We are the beginning of that new creation! It is not something coming in the future for which we are still waiting! It has already begun and we are witnessing it. Right! Now! Every time a sinner receives life from a Holy God another brick in the wall of creation is laid! The glory of God’s new creation has been under construction all around us and we have been blind to it!
And we’re over here thinking we’re qualified to judge something? We don’t even know what’s going on!!
“But Conrad, you gifted orator and snazzy dresser”, I hear you say, “Paul also says the whole of the old creation has passed away and all things have become new. What do we make of that?”
An excellent question with an interesting answer that speaks about God’s faithfulness. To address this, let’s look at the book of Joshua:
(Jos21:43) So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.
There was one small problem here, though… at this time Israel only possessed approximately 30–40% of the land promised to them! In fact to this day Israel has never possessed all of the land promised to them by God! But Joshua could see that the fulfillment had started and—knowing that God is faithful—had confidence that God would bring to completion that which He has begun.
The promises God made to Israel in Joshua and Isaiah are as sure as the one God has made to you… to each of us. The promise that the good work that God has started in you—both as an individual as well as the whole of creation—will be brought to completion. Sure, you’re not perfect—neither am I. And life can be hard; I get that too. We are still in a sinful world. And that ‘new you’ God is making—we call it “sanctification”—is both a status and a process. God is remaking you, and that work goes much faster when we participate in it; when we are constantly working to take next steps in our relationship with the Lord—which we’ll talk more about those in a moment.
So we are all new creations and the first bricks in the construction of the new heavens and earth… now what?
v18–20
(2Co5:18–20,NKJV) Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
“Now all things are of God”. With the coming of the new creation—a work started with Jesus and continuing in us—all things are of God. Because God is the reliable, eternal constant. God is the steady hand. God is the firm foundation. “All things” are no-thing since they will all be destroyed in order to be remade anew anyway!
Reconciliation is a big word, but it just means to reunite. To bring back together, like rebuilding a collapsed bridge. To restore friendship. And who broke that friendship? We did! The separation came from our side! I was reading in Revelation this week—as any of you doing a one-year Bible reading plan likely also are—about God pouring out plagues and disasters and judgement on the earth and even in the midst of that Revelation 9:23 records, “But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent…” even as the Wrath of God is poured out on the earth He STILL wants to save these hard-headed and rebellious people while they shake their fists at Him!
And here’s the coolest part: Every time someone is reconciled to God—every time someone restores friendship with the Lord—that reconciliation represents their status at the final judgement before the Lord. They are friends of God. Church! Reconciliation is the final judgement brought forward and that judgement does not bring condemnation! It brings hope!
We are first reconciled through Christ (we’ll dig into that more in verse 21) then we are given the mandate to share this good news of what God’s done in our lives to others who need God to do the same thing in theirs! We are evangelized, then deputized! Saved and sent. We’ve been conscripted, commissioned, purposed.
But! Lest we start thinking we’re a big deal, Paul rephrases his opening statement in verse 19 when he tries his best to remove us from the equation. God sent Jesus to restore our broken relationship, not to condemn us for our sins—again, we’ll talk more about that in verse 21. And now God, through Jesus, is asking us to tell people about this restoration. God is asking us to bring people to the altar to meet the living God who can do for them what He has done for us. WE ARE NOT ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING, but we can introduce folks to the God who is able, amen?
So then, we are ambassadors—envoys, representatives—for Christ. Think about that: when you are at the supermarket, you are representing Christ. When you are stuck in traffic, you are representing Christ. When you are posting on social media, you are representing Christ. When you are talking to people who HATE YOU—or people you hate, you are representing Christ.
BUT! We are not merely letter-carriers; postal workers for God’s Kingdom. We are called to be ambassadors, proudly wearing the colours and symbols of the kingdom we represent. We are called to be a living testament to the power of the Gospel. Come and see! Come and see what the Lord has done in me!
Now some of you might hear that and be terrified! I don’t want people to look for Jesus in me! I’m a mess! I’m not a good representative of Jesus! How do I fix this? There are two things you should know about this problem.
Thing #1
You don’t need to be perfect! I have a problem whereby any time a human intends to enter my home I feel the intense compulsion to clean #AllTheThings. In my mind, my house is only appropriate to show people if it looks like no one lives there. My wife has pointed out that my desire to live in a ‘Good Housekeeping’ photograph could be just as off-putting as the mess I so deeply dread. That said, a little mess—some imperfection—can actually put people at ease. It can make people feel like they are allowed to still be working on stuff.
This is true in our lives as well. We are all in process and none of us will be perfect until we are standing before the throne of the King in glory!
Thing #2
But what if my life isn’t just a little messy? What if it’s, like, legendary? I mean, not ‘leave some dishes in the sink’ messy—more like ‘a goat could get lost in here’ messy. What if I’m so far from perfect that I feel like a walking Before picture? What can I do if I am not just an imperfectambassador, but actually a terrible ambassador? How can I fix it?
When I was a youth pastor I would have students come up to me pretty regularly and tell me they had a hard time following God. There was too much temptation out there, they felt alone and far from God, or whatever else. And I used to reply with what appeared to be a non-sequitur—an unrelated statement from out of nowhere. I love non-sequiturs. So a student tells me they are struggling and I would ask them…
Do you know how gravity works?
What?
Every object in the universe generates gravity.
Really?
Yes. Everything. You, me, this Bible, the chairs, the earth, all of it.
Woah.
Bigger things have stronger gravity and smaller things have weaker gravity.
Okay. So what?
Why doesn’t this chapstick stick to me? Why—instead of being attracted to me—does it fall to the ground?
Because of the earth’s gravity?
Right the earth has stronger gravity because it’s bigger than me. But what if I was the size of Jupiter?
The chapstick would come toward you instead?
Bingo!
Do you see the connection? You will be pulled toward whatever the biggest influence in your life is.
- If you spend most of your time doomscrolling social media, you really shouldn’t be surprised that you have anxiety or self-esteem issues.
- If you spend most of your time with people that are snarky, negative, or sarcastic, you really shouldn’t be surprised when your outlook shifts that direction.
- If you allow work to dominate your life, you really shouldn’t be surprised that you feel isolated and alone.
- If you don’t spend time in prayer to the Lord, the pages of Scripture, and with the people of God, you really shouldn’t be surprised that you are a mess who doesn’t look like Jesus!
If you want to look like the King, you gotta spend time with Him. In Prayer, in the Page, and with the People. It really is as simple as that. You want proof? Don’t ask me. Ask my wife. She’ll tell you what the Lord has done in me from when we met until today. And I hope that in another 20 years she will be able to tell you what the Lord has continued to do in from from this day to that.
Just like gravity pulls objects to the largest mass, we are shaped by the biggest influence in our lives. Let’s make that influence Jesus!
v21
Now, the final question we’ll address this morning… why. Why are we ambassadors for Christ? The answer is found in this verse:
(2Co5:21, NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
This verse is the cornerstone of today’s message—dense, profound, and foundational. If this sermon were a meal, this would be the steak. Let’s savour it.
To clarify, “He” refers to God the Father, and “Him” refers to Jesus, the Son. This verse shows us the core of God’s rescue plan. It reveals that the Father intended the Son to take our place, to steal judgment away from us. This substitution is both entirely inclusive and entirely exclusive. It’s inclusive because it’s available to everyone. But it’s exclusive in that it’s only effective for those who accept it.
But what does substitution mean here? What exactly is being substituted, and for what? That’s the significance of the phrase, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.”
Jesus never sinned—not once. He never lied, never lost His temper unfairly, never stole, never put anything before God. Yet, He “became sin.” How do we understand this? Did Jesus actually become sin? Yes. This is the substitution.
We are inherently sinful. Sin is baked into who we are. I never had to teach my kids to lie or be selfish—they figured that out on their own! And we need laws just to keep us from cheating, stealing, or murdering each other. It’s part of our nature. We are sin. That’s why we can’t separate ourselves from it, why we need Jesus to make us a new creation.
On the flip side, Jesus is inherently righteous. He didn’t merely behave righteously—He was the righteousness of God in human form. And so, in this divine exchange, Jesus was regarded as sin itself, stealing our punishment, while we are regarded as the righteousness of God, granting us eternal life.
Here’s what’s truly astonishing: God’s righteousness doesn’t just become an attribute we possess. It becomes our identity. It transforms who we are. We’re no longer defined by our sin but by His righteousness.
If you’re like me, you might wonder, Why this way? Why substitution? Why did it have to be Jesus? The answer lies in God’s nature. God is perfectly good, just, and loving. He created us with free will, knowing we would rebel. Because He is good, He cannot coexist with evil. Because He is just, He cannot ignore sin. And because He is loving, He couldn’t leave us in our sin.
Jesus is the solution to this dilemma. By living a sinless life and willingly dying in our place, He satisfied God’s justice without compromising His love. This is what we theology nerds call Penal Substitutionary Atonement—God’s justice met by His love through Jesus’ sacrifice.
And that brings us back to our opening story.
Took
Let’s pull those superheroes and supermodels out of our pocket.
Why does every guy want to be Batman? Because these characters represent everything humanity wants to be: the perfect balance of brains and braun. Paragons of virtue. Fighting for truth, justice, and the American way! Someone willing to use every resource at their disposal to save everything that is worth saving.
And why does every girl want to be Barbie? Because she represents the best of what we humanity has to offer. She is smart, kind, caring, representative of beauty, elegance, and all that is aesthetically pleasing. She is the best of us. She is a prize worth saving.
Do you see the narcissism of these archetypes? We want to be the Saviour, and we think we can earn worthiness to receive that salvation. These two archetypes take everything that is good about God and every good gift from God and attributes them to us. To our hard work. It puts all of these things under our control.
And by pursuing Batman & Barbie we unwittingly become victims of our own hyper-inflated self-perception.
We are not Batman. We cannot save anyone, not even ourselves. Nor are we called to! God is not asking us to dig deep for some Rocky Balboa-type motivation or dedication or work ethic. we are not called to bear-down or knuckle-under… we are called to DIE.
We are not Barbie. We cannot do anything that makes ourselves worth saving. Anything good we do is just the common grace of God bestowed upon us. We can never be smart enough, kind enough, caring enough, or beautiful enough to force God’s hand into saving us. We simply are. Not. Worthy.
Batman & Barbie are not the identities we should be pursuing. They are an illusion. Each of us can only have one of two identities: Christians or NOT Christian; children of God or NOT children of God. Any other identities are obstacles getting in the way of our pursuit of God. In fact, I—personally—would go so far as to call them idols that we chase and pursue when Jesus Christ should be our one pure and holy passion.
Identities like husband, wife, father, mother, pastor, gardener, guitarist, or whatever else you think “defines” you… these things are NOT identities! They are vocations, jobs, and gifts from God. But if any of those things were taken away—if all of those things were taken away, it would not change WHO you are.
Who you are is a child of the King, saved from hell and sent to tell. So if you want to be Batman or Barbie. If you want to represent the best of humanity or be a hero, then give your life to God and let Him remake you into something beautiful—then go and tell the world about it.
If you are here today and you are not yet a child of God, I will invite you to come up to the front and talk with myself, Pastor Steve, or Pastor Brad. We would be thrilled to introduce you to the King.