Transcript: The Mark of the Lion and Your Personal Identity

Welcome to Session Two of the Mark of the Lion. In this session, we consider  how identifying with Jesus Christ intersects with your personal identity. We'll  look at what Jesus Christ said that it means for an individual to identify with  Him.  

One of the ways Jesus described identifying with him was to invite people to  “follow” Him. Here's how he invited two of his disciples, Peter and Andrew, to  follow Him in Matthew 4. Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brothers  Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they  were fishermen. And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of  men.  

When Jesus invited people to follow Him, He challenged them to turn from their  previous way of life in order to follow him. He challenged them to make Him  their first love. In Matthew 10:37, he said: He who loves father or mother more  than Me is not worthy of me and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me. In Luke 9:23, Jesus put it this way. He said, If anyone desires to  come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.  The cross was an execution stake. Jesus is saying to us, “If you want to identify  with me, pick up your execution stake daily. Die to yourself daily and walk with  me … identify with me.  

The apostle Paul wrote about it this way in Galatians 2:20, He wrote, I have  been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and  the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.  

When we are marked by Jesus Christ, and follow Him, everything becomes new. Everything in our life becomes identified with Him. In II Corinthians 5 we read:  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed  away, behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God who has  reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.  

When you identify with Jesus Christ, you become His dwelling place. His  temple. And you are. You're filled with the Holy Spirit. In I Corinthians 6 we  read : Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is  in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own?  When you're marked by Jesus Christ, He transforms you to reflect His image  and to do good works that he has prepared for you to do. In Ephesians 2:10, we read, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,  which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.  The apostle Paul referenced this transformation in Romans 8 and II Corinthians  3. In Romans 8:29, he wrote, For whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many  brethren. And in II Corinthians 3, But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a  mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into what? Into the same 

image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.  

When you are marked by Jesus Christ, your relationship with Him reflects Jesus’ relationship with the Father that we talked about in session one. Jesus said this  in John 5:30: I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge and my judgment is  righteous because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent  Me.  

Likewise, in John 15:30, Jesus said that those who identify with Him can do  nothing unless they remain in relationship with Him. In John 15:5,8 He said, I  am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him bears  much fruit, for without Me, you can do nothing. By this my Father is glorified,  that you bear much fruit. So you will be my disciples.  

Those who identify with Jesus Christ display the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Their  lives are marked by the love of Jesus Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is described  in Galatians 5:22. We read, But the fruit of the Spirit is love. joy, peace. long  suffering or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self  control.  

How does identifying with Jesus Christ impact the categories, attributes and  characteristics that help people identify under the approach of intersectionality?  Those who are marked by Jesus Christ become one with others who identify  with Jesus Christ, regardless of their ethnic background or gender. God is not a  respecter of persons. In Romans 10 we read, For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord overall is rich to all who call upon Him. And in Galatians 3, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on  Christ. You've been marked. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither  slave nor free, there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ  Jesus.  

Those who are marked by Jesus Christ do not lose the unique distinctions of  their personhood. It is not that ethnicity or gender become insignificant in Christ. To the contrary, those who identify with Jesus Christ find that their unique gifts  and characteristics are part of the Father's design for their life. But those who  identify with Jesus Christ recognize that our gifts and characteristics have also  been marked by the lion. Every potential identity that I might claim under the  intersectionality approach, my ethnicity, my gender, my sex, my age, and so on, is territory that's marked by Jesus Christ.  

The attributes and categories of intersectionality can become idols that compete with our identity in Jesus Christ when we define those attributes and categories  in ways that go beyond their biblical definitions. Take race for example. While  the Bible teaches that there are many ethnic groups, and that people from every ethnic group and every language group will be in the kingdom of heaven, the  Bible teaches that there's only one race … the human race.  Racial superiority or favoritism is not a biblical system or concept. God is no  respecter of skin color. He loves people of all colors. He identifies with each 

person. He identifies with you and the life experiences you have encountered  related to race. Jesus Christ has given clear instructions to those who identify  with Him about how to respond to the life experiences we encounter, and how to treat people who only see us as a collection of identity categories. We will  discuss that topic in our next session.  

Let's review the key points from this session. 1. Jesus Christ invites those who  identify with Him to follow Him. 2. Jesus Christ invites those who identify with  him to take up their cross daily and love Him above all others, even self. 3.  Those who identify with Jesus Christ receive new life, all things become new. 4. Those who identify with Jesus Christ become His dwelling place and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 5. Those who identify with Jesus Christ become his  workmanship and are transformed day by day, more and more into the likeness  of Jesus Christ. 6. Those who identify with Jesus Christ are dependent on  Jesus Christ, just as Jesus Christ was dependent on his father during His  earthly ministry. 7. Those who identify with Jesus Christ display the fruit of the  Spirit in their lives. Their lives are marked by the love of Jesus Christ. 8. Those  who identify with Jesus Christ do not make idols out of their gifts, attributes or  characteristics that establish their intersectional identity. Rather, they recognize  that their intersectional identity is subject to the mark of Jesus Christ.  Thanks for watching this session. God bless you. We'll see you in the next  session.