Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning
in to the weekly sermon podcast. We pray this
message encourages you, strengthens your faith,
and helps you to take your next step with Jesus.
If this content blesses you and you'd like to
be a part of helping us continue to bring the
gospel to life, we'd love for you to consider
supporting the ministry of Village. Your generosity
makes it possible for us to keep creating and
sharing resources like this podcast. You can
give safely and easily by visiting sacvillage
.org slash give or by heading to our website
at sacvillage .org. Thanks again for listening.
Now let's dive into this week's message. Well,
last week we introduced our 2026 theme. as well
as the sermon series that's launching it, and
that is True and Better, a Gospel Identity. And
we said that identity is not something you invent
or discover within yourself or inside yourself,
but it is something that you receive in Christ.
But I think if we're honest, that does raise
a question, a very practical question, and that
is if my identity is new in Christ, why do I
still war with sin? If I'm a new creation created
in Christ Jesus, why do the same familiar struggles
keep showing up in my life? And that gap, the
space between who you are in Christ and how you
actually live, that gap can be confusing, can't
it? I think for some people, it's downright discouraging.
We'll wonder, am I doing it wrong? Or maybe this
salvation thing, this redemption thing, it didn't
take in my life. And we'll question the very
foundation of our faith. Or others might respond,
well, they hear the idea of grace and they think,
you know what? Well, if my identity is secure,
why fight so hard against sin? I'm good with
God. I'm secure. Let's go. Let's party, right?
And so we can swing between two ditches. On one
side, passivity, grace means it doesn't matter
how I live. And on the other side, pressure to
produce. If I were really changed, I'd be further
along in my walk. And I think, friends, that
misses the point. The Christian life is not about
pretending the gap between the new life and the
old habits of sin doesn't exist. The New Testament
teaches again and again that in Christ, identity
is given instantly but is lived into gradually.
You are not working toward an identity. You are
being formed by the identity you've already received.
And formation is not mere self -improvement.
It's not behavior modification or white -knuckling
your way into holiness. Formation is the slow,
faithful work of God shaping your life to match
what is already true of you in Christ. Think
about it this way. Becoming a Christian is not
like flipping on a switch. It's more like becoming
an adult. Tomorrow, is my youngest son's 18th
birthday. He'll be 18 years old. Nate, give it
up for Nate. He didn't do anything, just grew
up. That's all he did, and we're giving him a
applaud over that. Good job doing that thing
that we all do. He turns 18 tomorrow. And in
the eyes of the law, his status will change instantly.
He'll become an adult tomorrow. But as I think
all of us know, adulting, it's hard, isn't it?
Forming adult habits takes time to develop and
they grow with knowledge and more responsibility.
You know, choosing a healthcare plan and do I
go HMO or PPO? I don't know, right? Getting a
mortgage payment, raising kids, picking a retirement
plan. You are fully an adult in the eyes of the
law when you turn 18 but learning how to live
like one happens over years and years and years
doesn't it for some of you it never happens huh
the goal of the christian's life is not becoming
someone else altogether it's becoming who you
already are in christ and so if you feel that
tension if if you feel the pressure of the gap
between, if you feel like you're not there yet,
don't worry because you're not failing, you're
being formed. And today we're going to look at
what the Apostle Paul says about identity as
formation in two places, Romans chapter 6 and
Ephesians chapter 4. If you're taking notes,
I have four points. The first point is formation
is not self -improvement. Romans chapter six
and beginning in verse one reads, what should
we say then? Should we continue in sin so that
grace may multiply? Absolutely not. How can we
who died to sin still live in it? Or are you
unaware that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore,
we were buried with him by baptism into death
in order that just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too
may walk in newness of life. See, Paul knows
exactly how people are tempted to respond to
grace. And so in Romans chapter six, he doesn't
wait. He just lays it out there. He jumps right
to it. He says, what should we say? Should we
just go on sinning? Because grace is so abundant.
God's grace covered over our sins. So let's just
keep going and multiply that grace by sinning
more. And I think that question also tells us
something about the gospel and its understanding.
People are already accusing the gospel of being
too free. If grace really forgives completely,
if identity really is received and not earned,
well, what's the motivation to change? And Paul's
response is, should we go on sinning? Well, absolutely
not. How can we who died to sin still live in
it? And notice what Paul does not say. He does
not say, because sin is bad. He doesn't say because
God will be disappointed with you. He doesn't
say because you'll lose your salvation. He says
because something has already happened to you.
Paul grounds formation of identity and from identity,
not in fear. but in the identity we received
in Christ Jesus. And he reminds them what happened
at baptism. Are you unaware that all of us who
were baptized into Christ, Jesus were baptized
into his death? And the word into matters there.
Baptism is not merely a symbol of your commitment
to Christ. It's a declaration of your union with
Christ. Paul is saying you didn't just believe
in Christ, you were joined to Christ. His death
counts as your death. His resurrection counts
as your resurrection. And then he says, therefore
we were buried with him by baptism into death
in order that just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too
could walk in the newness of life. And this is
the logic of formation. New life does not come
from trying harder. New life flows from participating
in Christ's life. And what that means is formation
is not self -improvement. Self -improvement says
change so you can belong. And the gospel says
you belong and now learn to live like it. And
that's completely different fuel and motivation,
isn't it? Why does that distinction matter? Well,
because some of us approach formation with a
sort of pressure to perform. Man, if it really
took, if I'm really being changed, if I'm really
being formed, I wouldn't struggle like this.
And others of us approach it passively. Man,
if grace is real, then effort doesn't matter.
And Paul rejects both of them. Paul does not
excuse the need for transformation. And grace
doesn't come in and replace transformation or
the need for transformation. What grace does
is grace empowers transformation. Struggle doesn't
mean that grace is failing in your life. It means
that grace is active in your life. And formation
is not about proving yourself to God. It's about
participating in what God has already done for
you in Christ Jesus. It's not about self -improvement.
Number two, you are united before you are changed.
We'll read just a little bit further in Romans
6, Romans 6 beginning in verse five. For if we
have been united with him in the likeness of
his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness
of his resurrection. For we know that our old
self was crucified with him so that the body
ruled by sin might be rendered powerless. so
that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since
a person who has died is freed from sin. Now,
if we died with Christ, we believe that we will
also live with him, because we know that Christ,
having been raised from the dead, will not die
again. Death no longer rules over him. For the
death he died, he died to sin once for all, but
the life he lives, he lives to God. So you too
consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God
in Christ Jesus. Paul is pressing the logic deeper
and he's saying, if we've been united with him
in the likeness of his death, we're certainly
united with him in the likeness of his resurrection.
And that word united is doing a whole lot of
work there, isn't it? notice what Paul is not
saying Paul is not saying this is about mere
imitation that formation is just about imitation
he's not saying try to be like Jesus he doesn't
say that And this is a point where the concept
that is kind of a popular Christian concept in
works today about discipleship, and folks will
kind of equate discipleship as being kind of
an incomplete word, and instead we need to adopt
more of a word of like apprenticeship. But I
think that fails to capture all that's going
on in true discipleship. Because he's not talking
about be like Jesus. He says, he's talking about
participation. He's talking about union. He's
talking about connection. The life of Christ
flowing into your life. What happened to Christ
has happened to you. It's like in marriage, right?
If I win the lottery, so does my wife. And if
someone comes to repossess our house or my house,
they repossess my wife's house as well, right?
Why? Because of our union. Our union. And this
is one of the most important truths, I think,
in the gospel that many Christians just never
fully get. And that is Christian formation does
not begin with behavior. It begins with union.
It's not forming an identity. You are living
from one. Paul keeps going. He says, we know
that our old self was crucified with him. so
that the body ruled by sin might be rendered
powerless, so that we may no longer be enslaved
to sin. Notice the tense in that. Was crucified.
Not will be, not might be, not needs to be again.
Was crucified. The body was crucified. The self.
Paul is not describing a goal. He's describing
a fact. Your old self, the self that was defined
by sin and guilt and condemnation has already
been dealt with at the cross. I'll say that again,
Christian. Your old self defined by sin, guilt
and condemnation has already been dealt with.
If you are in Christ, that doesn't mean that
temptation disappears, but it means the authority
over your life has changed. Sin still has a voice.
It still speaks, but it no longer reigns. Jonathan
Lehman once wrote a book called Authority. And
in this book, he talks about two kinds of authority
that are at work. There's the command authority
and there's counsel authority. And with command
authority, command authority is the kind of authority
that has a mechanism of enforcement. You punch
a police officer in the face, They have a mechanism
of enforcement to either punch you back or shoot
you or put you in handcuffs to do something,
right? They have the legal rights, the authority,
the command authority to do something in kind.
Same with the judge who will prosecute you and
the jailer who will keep you contained. They
have command authority because they have a way
of enforcing the authority that they have. But
there's also another kind of authority that's
called counsel authority. And when you think
of council authority, council authority does
not have any mechanism for enforcement. And yet
it still has a weight of authority. I think of
it in relation to my kids, right? For a while,
I had command authority. For a while. Not all
the way till 18, just for a while earlier on.
And slowly that morphed into a sort of council
authority. And with the council authority, you
know what my kids can say to my council authority?
I don't want to. Thanks for the tip. Yeah. Thanks
for the tip. But I'm going to go a different
direction. Maybe my counsel is wise and it comes
from a place of authority. Having lived it out,
I know what I'm talking about. And they can reject
it. Maybe my counsel is not wise. And it's unhelpful
and they can reject that too. It's a counsel
that doesn't have a mechanism of enforcement.
And I'm using that as an example to compare it
to sin because sin still speaks. Sin still may
feel like it has a counsel authority in your
life. It's telling you to do something. It's
calling you, wooing you back to an old life,
an old habit, an old way, an old way of thinking.
But it only has counsel authority in your life
now if you're in Christ. It no longer has command
authority. It used to. It used to hold you in
your sin and had the ultimate command authority
to bring you to death and ultimately separation
from God. It had that authority. If you're in
Christ, it no longer has that authority. It no
longer has that authority. You are freed from
the command authority of sin. It no longer reigns
in your life. It can still speak. It can still
try to steer, but you can say, no, thank you.
Why? Because Paul says in verse 7, a person who
has died is free from sin. Right? If sin is the
condition that we live in, in the body, outside
of Christ, and we have died, sin no longer reigns
in us. And here's the implication. You don't
fight sin in order to become free. You fight
sin because you died and are already free. that
changes the entire posture of formation in our
lives. Because you're not struggling toward freedom,
you're struggling from freedom, which means failure
no longer disqualifies you. And hear this too,
friends, because some of us think this as well.
Failure no longer disqualifies us and obedience
no longer earns you anything. Failure no longer
disqualifies you and obedience can't get you
anything. Because that's not the point of obedience.
Don't hear me wrong, we're gonna get to the point
about the life change that formation brings.
But at the base level, at the root, if your life
has changed, you've died to sin and you now are
in Christ, then failure no longer disqualifies.
Obedience no longer qualifies. Verse eight says,
now if you died with Christ, we believe that
we will also live with him. The death he died,
he died to sin once for all, but the life he
lives, he lives to God. Once for all, no repeats,
no probation, no second crucifixion required.
And then Paul says, so you too consider yourself
dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.
And think about that word, consider. Paul is
not asking you to feel something. Paul's not
asking you to feel something. He's asking you
to think truthfully. Formation involves learning
to reckon reality correctly. To think truthfully.
To say, this is who I am now even when my sinful
habits lag behind. Formation is about learning
to live in alignment. With what is already true.
Which explains why formation feels slow. Because
your identity has changed instantly. But your
patterns have not changed. And that gap. The
gap between union and maturity. Is the normal
space where formation happens. And so you. When
you struggle with. With sin. The question should
not be. What's wrong with me? as a believer.
A better question is, what does union with Christ
mean here? What does union with, in other words,
begin to live out of the identity you have in
Christ? Because the Christian life is not powered
by shame. It's powered by resurrection life.
And Paul wants you to know that You are not pretending
to be someone you're not. Some of you have taken
that approach in your Christian life. It's pretend
to be someone you're not. Pretend to have it
all together. Pretend to have all of your sin
under wraps. And Paul is not inviting us to pretend
to be someone we're not. He's saying you are
learning how to live as someone who is already
alive in Christ. Number three, formation requires
renunciation. Because at this point, you might
be thinking, well, if my identity is secure,
if I'm united to Christ, if I'm already new,
then what am I supposed to do? And Paul's answer
is in Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians 4, 20,
he says, but that is not how you came to know
Christ, assuming you heard about him and were
taught by him as the truth is in Jesus to take
off your former way of life, the old self that
is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed
in the spirit of your minds and to put on the
new self, the one created according to God's
likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
Let me read that one more time. Verse 22, you
were taught to take off your former way of life,
the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds
and to put on the new self, the one created according
to God's likeness in righteousness and purity
of the truth. In Ephesians 4, Paul gives three
movements of formation. And these are not ladders
to get to the top. These are not steps to earn
anything. But these are the repeated pattern
of growth for people who are already in Christ.
And the first one is to put off the old self.
Paul says, you took off your former way of life.
He's not saying the old self is still who you
are. He's saying it's who you were. The old self
is the pattern of living that was shaped by sin,
habits and reflexes and assumptions and coping
mechanisms that no longer fit who you are in
Christ Jesus. Pornography and sexual sins, drunkenness,
sinful anger and impatience, lying and dishonest
gain, unwholesome speech, bitterness, malice
and unforgiveness, these are all shapes of of
life that belong to the old self, that no longer
fit who you are in Christ. And he says, take
those off. Formation begins with renunciation,
naming what no longer belongs. And a lot of folks
get stuck here. We want renewal without renunciation,
right? We want resurrection without a tomb. We
want change without surrender. But you cannot
cling to an old identity and grow into a new
one at the same time. Putting off the old self
means telling the truth. This no longer is me.
Even if it still tempts me. This no longer is
me. So the first one is put off the old self.
The second movement that he gives in formation
is be renewed in the mind. And you notice two
things when Paul says you are being renewed in
the spirit of your mind. First, he said it's
ongoing, right? You are being. It's ongoing.
It's an ongoing work in the life of the Christian.
But not only that, it's passive. It's in the
passive. In other words, it's an ongoing work
that is being done to you. It's an ongoing work
that's being done to you, not an ongoing work
that you're doing. that you're earning, that
you're producing, but a work that is being done
to you. Well, how? Well, formation happens as
your thinking changes. Your assumptions, your
reflexes, the internal narratives that have governed
your life, as those things begin to shift and
change, formation happens. How do they shift
and change? How does our thinking change? Well,
that's where scripture comes in. Scripture as
the supreme means of God shaping his people.
Scripture and prayer, the songs that we sing,
the songs that we sing reinforce truths. They
help us to think truthfully. Or not, if it's
a bad song, right? But the good ones, the ones
that are scripturally formed, help us to think
truthfully, right? The songs, the worship, the
prayers we pray, our disciple groups that get
together and talk about truth, village recovery,
where they work through truth and try to find
freedom, a new growth track that's coming later
this year. Same purpose is to help us to think
truthfully. Help us to think truthfully. And
we do that well in community. You cannot live
differently until you think truthfully. Most
sinful patterns are sustained by lies that we
believe. This will satisfy me. This will fulfill
me. I need this to be okay. This is just who
I am. A baby, I was born this way, in the words
of Lady Gaga, right? Lies we believe that feed
our sinful patterns. Renewal is learning to let
God interrupt those lies with truth. And this
takes time. And friends, God is patient with
the process. And the third, Movement of formation
Paul gives in Ephesians 4 is put on the new self.
Take off the old. Be renewed in the spirit of
your mind. Put on the new. And this is not about
creating a new self. It's not about imagining
a new self. It's putting on the self that already
exists. The new self is not some future version
of you. It's the real you in Christ. Created
in God's likeness. Formation is learning to live
in outward alignment with the inward reality.
Choosing practices and habits and obedience that
fit who you already are. And this is why formation
feels both active and like we're very dependent
because you renounce what you no longer fits,
but your mind is renewed, ongoing. passively
through the word as your mind is renewed in truth
and you practice living as the new person God
says you already are. This is aligning your life
with who you already are. And because of that,
it means that growth does not require pretending,
friends. It is grievous as brothers and sisters
when we pretend. When we put on the life we think
we're supposed to look like in Christ Jesus so
that other people will be okay with us. God sees.
God knows the depths of our heart. He knows the
thoughts of our minds. He sees it's okay to be
who we are and to begin to live into the identity
that he's already given us. Formation is not
about speed, but it's about trajectory. And number
four, formation happens in real time. It can
be tempting to think about formation as something
that happens later, like when life slows down
or when schedules clear up or when this particular
situation is dealt with or when this relationship
gets easier, I'll get back to formation. I'll
get back to growing in my identity in the Lord.
But the New Testament doesn't talk about formation
that way. Formation doesn't happen in ideal conditions.
It happens in real life. Formation happens in
the ordinary places where your identity is tested.
It happens in your habits in what you reach for
when you're tired or when you're anxious. And
what you turn to when you're disappointed or
lonely. It happens in relationships, in conflict,
in forgiveness, in patience, in learning to love
people who don't make it easy. It happens in
suffering and in seasons that you didn't choose.
It happens in pain that you can't fix, in waiting
when you'd rather just move on. It happens in
obedience, in small daily acts of faithfulness,
in choosing what aligns with truth. Again and
again, day after day, choosing what aligns with
truth rather than what feels right. We think
formation is about dramatic breakthroughs, but
more often than not, formation looks like the
slow reshaping of our reflexes, the slow reshaping
of those inner dialogues and narratives that
we've believed and we've anchored our lives to.
And this connects back to week one. Genesis three
shows us how formation was distorted in the fall,
how desire turned inward, how trust was replaced
by control. And then we looked at Philippians
chapter three and it showed us how formation
is re -centered in Christ Jesus, how knowing
him reorders what we love and what we pursue.
Formation is about becoming faithful and that
means God uses the very things that we want to
escape as tools to form us. The conflict you
wish would go away, the habit that you wish would
disappear, the season that you want to just skip
over, none of those are wasted. It doesn't mean
your circumstances change suddenly. It doesn't
mean your circumstances change at all. What it
means is you are being changed within them. And
here's a word of encouragement that God is not
waiting for ideal conditions to form you. He
is forming you right now. In the life that you
have, in the relationships that you have, in
the body that you have, God is forming you. Right
now. It's not postponed until you get it all
together. But it does happen as you show up trusting.
As things are brought to the surface. You renounce.
You repent. You turn away. You obey. As you read
truth and your thinking changes. And you begin
to think truthfully. You begin to live out of
this identity that you're. You're walking in
that you've already received and leaning into
grace. And over time, something real begins to
take shape. Not a perfected version of you, but
one that is truer and better. And so in conclusion,
God is not surprised by the gap that you feel,
the distance between who you are in Christ and
how fully your life reflects that reality. Because
in that space, it's the space where formation
happens. The Christian life is not pretending
to be someone that you're not. It's patiently
becoming who you already are. Formation is not
God standing over you with a measuring tape and
measuring your progress either. Formation is
God walking with you, reshaping your loves. reshaping
your desires, retraining your reflexes, rewriting
the narratives you've based your life on and
renewing your mind over time. Think about back
to the garden. We were there last week in the
Garden of Eden. At the beginning, humanity walked
with God, learning and growing in wisdom and
knowledge at the pace God intended. But when
sin was introduced, what was the circumstances
surrounding sin? It was the promise, it was the
temptation that I could take and have it all
right now. I could have all knowledge now, not
at the pace that God wants to introduce it into
my life, not in the way that he intends. I can
have it now for myself instead of having it in
relationship with my creator. And so maybe don't
ask, why am I still like this? Instead, in every
circumstance, ask, what does living from my union
with Christ look like right now? Practice alignment
with reality. And the promise of scripture is
this, the God who gave you a new identity in
Christ, is faithful to form your life to match
it.