The Exchanged Life

Hebrews 3:1-6 

It is amazing how others define us.  Many who knew you as a child or teenager have established your identity in their minds, though you are no longer that person.  As a person who was blessed to work for one of the great companies of this century I was often referred to as a 3M’er and to many including myself that was my identity.  I knew what the term meant, it was more than a job, or a place to work, there were many who worked for 3M who were not 3M’ers in my way of thinking. 

Knowing my need to be defined by others, to have an identity; if I had been a Jew living in the time the book of Hebrews was written, I would have wanted to be seen as a son of Abraham and I would have looked to Moses as one who I should emulate.  Being a Jew is not that much of a reach, to look at myself as a 3M’er my identity was wrapped up in a company, and in the Jew’s case it was Abraham and Moses.  But they had by faith received Jesus Christ as Lord, they had entered into a relationship with God and His church, but they were still holding fast to the only identity they had known.

As a Christian my real identity was never in 3M Company, and when it was it was a misplaced identity.  3M was never my source, God was the one who formed me in my mother’s womb, he has blessed me with all that I know and all that I have, and by His faith and grace He gave me the desire to bow my knee to Him and ask Jesus to come into my heart and be my God.  So I have some understanding of how easy it is to misplace our identity.  But my need came from a person who wanted to be identified as part of something greater than myself, where as the Jew knew, they had been taught from a child that they were the “Chosen” of God, they were different from all others who lived on this earth, and because of that identity they are the object of hate from many.

If I hung-on to a title, can you imagine the difficulty these Jewish Christians had in looking to Christ and leaving the identity of Moses or Abraham!  Let us pick-up the story in verse 3, “For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses – as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.  (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things, is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son.  And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”  What these Jewish Christians had to understand is no different than what the church of 2011 must understand, when Christ came into our life, we exchanged our identity with His, that is why it is referred to as the exchanged life; we exchanged a dead spirit to God for a live one, we exchanged hate for love, no hope for a living hope.  In fact, the Scripture states this truth clearly in Galatians 2:20.

Two men who God has used to help me understand these truths and I quote the following from them: "Those who believe that they aren't fully acceptable to God will find it difficult to experience intimacy with him.  It's not easy to warm up to somebody if you don't think that they particularly accept or approve of you.  One of Satan's most effective tools is to cause Christians to feel that God frowns when He looks at them."
(Dr. Steve McVey of Grace Walk Ministries.)

"One of the best kept secrets in Christianity is that God accepts us.  True, He can't stand our sinful acts, but he loves us.  He doesn't have us on performance-based acceptance.  He has us on Jesus-based acceptance."
(Dr. Bill Gillham of Lifetime Guarantee Ministries.)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice