Transcript: Taking the Mark of the Lion

Welcome to the Mark of the Lion - Your Identity in Jesus Christ.  My name is Brian DeCook. I'm a member of the Christian Leaders Alliance and  I'm the executive director of a ministry called Peacefire.  

There's a lot of talk these days about identity. How people identify themselves  has taken on a deeper significance in some cultures. “Intersectionality” has  become a popular method of how some people identify themselves.  Intersectionality is a means of classifying and interpreting certain human  characteristics through a lens of discrimination and oppression. These  categories of discrimination and oppression intersect and create unique identity  patterns for each individual.  

Some of the categories considered in the intersectionality approach include  race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual preferences, ability, age and  others. In intersectionality, the higher number of favored categories a person  belongs to, the more discrimination and oppression they are perceived to  experience. Members of groups that intersectionality disfavors are labeled as  oppressors or privileged people groups.  

As more and more people learn about intersectionality and begin to form their  identity based upon its premises, some biblical Christians are adopting an  intersectionality approach to forming their own identity.  

It's not my goal to deconstruct or critique intersectionality in this mini course. But it is my goal to explore what it means to identify as a follower of Jesus Christ  based on his words, and the words of His disciples and how his teaching  intersects with those inherent and diverse categories and characteristics of  intersectionality that are not intended to divide us, but rather to reflect His image and glory.  

This is important because intersectionality promotes an identity that encourages  individuals to blame any number of potential oppressors and systems of  oppression for the challenges and struggles they encounter in life. It fosters a  victim mentality and an “us versus them” mentality; a mindset that divides  people based on inherent characteristics and lifestyle choices.  Identifying with Jesus Christ acknowledges the realities of oppression and  discrimination but overcomes these evils in a way that promotes reconciliation,  healing, inclusion and unity that is found in Jesus Christ and the transforming  power of His love, His grace and His mercy. By contrasting identity in Jesus  Christ with the identity promoted by intersectionality, I think it will become clear  that these are two very different paths of defining identity that lead to different  destinations.  

On a Peacefire trip to Nairobi, Kenya in 2019, I was traveling with a fellow CLA  member and Peacefire Ambassador by the name of Pastor Thinus Pretorius. 

Between our meetings our hosts took us to visit a small game park in Nairobi.  This lion (pictured) lives in that park. Did you know that lions mark their  territory? They secrete a substance that, by its odor, lets other animals know  that the lion claims the territory it has marked.  

What you can’t see in this picture is the piece of Plexiglas that separated our  group from this lion. We were standing in a small enclosure that was  constructed of wood framing with sheet metal along the bottom, beneath the  piece of plexiglass. As we watched the lion, he walked right up to and along the  front of the enclosure to the very point where the Plexiglass met the wooden  frame.  

There was a gap of less than one inch between the Plexiglass and the frame.  Pastor Thinus was standing right behind this gap. The lion turned to walk away  from the enclosure, but before it did, it marked Pastor Thinus through that gap!  After we left the lion, we proceeded to the cheetah exhibit and we were  permitted to go in and pet this cheetah. We went in one by one and Pastor  Thinus was the last one to enter the cheetah’s living space. While each of us  entered the cheetah’s area, he laid in a very calm and docile manner, while  each member knelt beside him, stroked his coat and then left the pen. But when  Pastor Thinus approached the cheetah and knelt beside it, the cheetah lifted his  head to attention and immediately fled from the presence of the man who had  been marked by the lion.  

Have you been marked by a lion? If you are a Christian, if you identify as a  follower of Jesus Christ, you've been marked by the lion of the tribe of Judah.  And just like Pastor Thinus carried the aroma of that lion into the cheetah’s pen, followers of Jesus Christ carry the aroma of their Savior into all of their  relationships when they abide in Him.  

We read in II Corinthians 2, “Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in  triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in  every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are  being saved, and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.”  When you are marked by Jesus Christ, it means you identify with Jesus Christ.  You are his aroma to the world.  

In this mini course, we will consider what it means to be marked by Jesus Christ. In this session, we'll examine what it means to take the mark of the lion to  identify with Jesus Christ. Session Two: The Mark of the Lion and your Personal Identity. Session Three: The Mark of the Lion on your Relationships. Session  Four: The Mark of the Lion on your Relationship with the World. We begin with  the topic of taking the mark of the lion.  

Jesus referred to the beginning of a relationship with him as being “born again.”  in John 3 we read, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again he 

cannot see the kingdom of God.  

To be born again is to begin a new life. To be marked by Jesus Christ is to  identify with his life, his death, and His resurrection. Let's begin with his life.  

To identify with Jesus’ life it is important to understand the relationship between  Jesus Christ and God the Father. The Father sent Jesus Christ to the earth as a man to display the Father's love for humankind. In John 3:16 we read: For God  

so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes  in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  

In order to become a man, Jesus Christ, set aside his position as an equal with  the Father and became like us. Jesus Christ identifies with us because he  became one of us. When you take the mark of Jesus Christ, you identify with  someone who can identify with you! In Philippians 2 we read, Though he was  God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he  gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was  born as a human being.  

Jesus Christ had an amazing relationship with the Father. He obeyed the Father in all things. He never missed the mark of pleasing the Father. Even down to  the things he said and did, he always obeyed the Father. In John 12, Jesus  said, For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me  gave me a command what I should say and what I should speak, and I know  that his command is everlasting life, therefore, whatever I speak, just as the  Father has told me, so I speak. In John 14, Jesus said, Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me the words that I speak to you I do not  speak on my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does the works.  Jesus and the Father are both on record stating that Jesus always pleased the  Father. Jesus made this statement in John 8:29, He who sent me is with me.  The Father has not left me alone for I always do those things that please Him.  And the Father spoke on the Mount of Transfiguration to Peter, James and John  in Matthew 17:5. He said, This is My beloved Son. In whom I am well pleased.  Hear Him.  

Jesus’ obedience to the Father reached full measure when he laid down His life  for us at the cross and that brings us to our identification with Jesus’ death. The  apostle Paul wrote this in Philippians 2:8: And being found in human form, He  humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a  cross. Jesus lived his life to please the Father, and then went to the cross to die  out of obedience and love for him.  

This powerful relationship between the Father and Jesus Christ during Jesus’  earthly ministry was and still is a love relationship. Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17: Father, I desire that they also whom You have given me, may be with  me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me  before the foundation of the world. 

To identify with Jesus Christ is to identify with God's agape love, His  unconditional love for you. He displayed this love for us when we were  alienated from him because of our sin. We were His enemies when he loved us  by laying down His life for us. Romans 5:8 reads, But God demonstrates His  own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  

When you are marked by Jesus Christ, when you put your faith and trust in Him  and His love sacrifice, you identify as one of his friends. In John 15:13, He said, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  When you identify with the love of God displayed at the cross of Jesus Christ,  you receive many benefits and blessings. We will quickly examine the following  blessings in this session: 1. God's justice; 2. God’s peace; 3. His grace; 4. His  mercy; 5. His forgiveness; and His resurrection life.  

God's justice was satisfied at the cross of Jesus Christ, through the death of  Jesus Christ. Those who identify with him are justified and declared righteous.  This means God the Father treats us just as if we had never sinned. And we  have right standing with Him because we identify with Jesus Christ. In Romans  3 we read: Yet God with undeserved kindness declares that we are righteous.  He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins, for God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with  God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life shedding His blood. This  sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish  those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in  what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his  righteousness, for He himself is fair and just and he declares sinners to be right  in his sight when they believe in Jesus. When you are marked by Jesus Christ,  you identify with God's justice.  

When you identify with Jesus Christ, you are marked by His peace as well.  Through Jesus’ death on the cross we experience peace with the Father. In  Colossians 1 we read: For God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ  and through Him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with  everyone, and everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God, you were his  enemy separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now, He has  reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a  result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and  blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.  

Our justification before God and our peace with God come not through our own  merit, but by placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and identifying with him.  In Romans 5:1 we read: Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have  peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  

When you are marked by Jesus Christ, you identify with God's grace. Grace is 

unmerited favor with God. It's something none of us deserve. It is a gift from  God. In Ephesians 2 we read: For by grace you have been saved through faith,  and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should  boast.  

When you're marked by Jesus Christ, you identify with God's mercy. While grace is receiving something you don't deserve, to receive mercy means that you  don't get what you do deserve. In Titus 3 we read: But when the kindness and  the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of  righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us,  through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He  poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. And in Ephesians  2:4, the apostle Paul wrote: But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great  love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses made us  alive together with Christ.  

When you're marked by Jesus Christ, you identify with God's forgiveness. In  Ephesians 1 we read: In Him we have redemption through his blood, the  forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which he made to  abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. And in II Corinthians 5 we read:  You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. For he forgave all our sins. He  canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to  the cross.  

When you are marked by Jesus Christ, you identify with his resurrection. In  Romans 6 we read: Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into  death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father,  even so we also should walk in newness of life.  

Identifying with the love of God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus  Christ is just the beginning of what it means to be marked by the lion of the tribe of Judah. In the next session, we'll examine how identifying with Jesus Christ  marks your personal identity.  

Let's review the key points of this session. 1. Those who are marked by Jesus  Christ identify with the love of God displayed through the life, death and  resurrection of Jesus Christ. 2. God the Father sent Jesus Christ to the earth as a man to show the Father's love for humankind. 3. Jesus Christ displayed his  love for the Father by obeying Him and pleasing him at all times during His  earthly life. 4. Because he lived a sinless and perfect life as a man, Jesus was  an acceptable sacrifice to satisfy God's justice by going to the cross to pay the  penalty for the sins of humankind. 5. Those who identify with the death of Jesus Christ are justified before God. 6. Those who identify with the death of Jesus  Christ receive God's grace, His unmerited favor. 7. Those who identify with the  death of Jesus Christ receive God's mercy. 8. Those who identify with the death

of Jesus Christ receive forgiveness for all of their sin. 9.Those who identify with  the resurrection of Jesus Christ, receive new life. Thanks for joining me for this  session. God bless you. We'll see you in the next session.