Only Jesus
Only Jesus gets to tell you who you are.
Only Jesus shed His blood for you. The Creator who with His spoken word assembled the entire universe.
And so only Jesus Christ has purchased your soul by paying a price. He died for you.
Which means only Jesus gets to tell you who you are.
Nobody else. Only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. And nothing else exists to define you.
Only Jesus.
“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”
That Means a Whole List of Items
You're not your past. The past does not define you. It does not equal you.
No matter how bad you were, what you did is not who you are.
You are also not your sin. No matter how deep the transgression was, your past sin does not define who you are.
You are not your addiction.
I don't care how many times you stood up in a meeting and said, "I'm an alcoholic." You may struggle with alcoholism. But your deepest identity is not that you are an alcoholic. You are a child of the living God.
You are not what the world says is your orientation.
Your past affair is not your identity.
You are not your abortion.
And you are not your divorce.
And you may be tapping on your keyboard right now: "But that's the biggest thing that ever happened in my life."
Listen to me. No, it isn't.
If you're a Christian, Jesus dying on the cross for you is the biggest thing that ever happened to you.
That is your identity, and nothing else.
Only Jesus gets the right to tell you who you are.
And He says you are chosen.
You are loved.
You matter.
You are adopted.
And you are called to live and to die for His great purposes.
Only Jesus Christ.
You are His.