Identity Gift: The Truth of Christmas

I’m a sinner living a righteous man’s life. 

It would be identity theft, except for the fact that the man gave me his identity on purpose, willingly, intentionally. I never even planned on asking him for it. In fact, I didn’t know he existed, or that I needed his identity, but he knew. He woke me up from a death sleep, and then I knew, too. I asked him for his identity. I told him mine was worthless–I had nothing to give him in return for his, but somehow it seemed he realized that already. 

Whatever I had done before–education, volunteering, charitable giving, working hard, good deeds, wealth–looked like manure and ashes compared to the beauty of my new identity. There wasn’t a single blemish of envy, anger, lust, discontentment, sorrow, impatience, greed, pride, arrogance, gluttony, sloth, laziness, or idolatry anywhere. 

It is the Truth of Christmas. It is the Gift of God that I, sinner that I am, can receive the righteousness of Jesus my Savior, so that when God the Father looks upon me He sees His Son’s righteousness and not my sin. I live in the righteousness of God, forgiven, justified by grace through faith. It would be identity theft if God were not the giver, by his Spirit.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” ~Ephesians 2:1-10 (ESV) http://www.biblegateway.com