On Father’s Day, 1978, I was indeed a sinner saved by grace, and for over thirty years after that, I continued to believe it. Then I came to understand my new identity as a full-fledged, card-carrying citizen of the kingdom of heaven on earth! I came to understand the Spirit was continuously transforming me from a sinner to a saint, and Jesus died for far more than to merely forgive sins.
I am now—as anyone who elects to take the journey can be—a saint motivated by the power of grace to be who my Savior says I am: new creature, royal priest of His holy nation, friend to whom He reveals all things, chosen one, fruit-bearer, and son who will receive much!
In Revelation 1 and 5, John agrees, telling me what Jesus has made those to be who elect the calling and the journey: “a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.” All this is possible because He has made me dead to the sinner and alive to my righteous identity in Christ.
If you are to elect the kingdom of heaven on earth, you must also elect to shed the identity of sinner saved by grace. While that was who you were at the moment of your conversion, and only that moment, from then on you became a saint in training. Even though you will at times succumb to the antagonist, that is not who you are when you “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13).
Determine you will no longer allow your flesh to define you, even though that old antagonist sometimes gains the victory over you. Ask God to define you and transform your thinking into the identity He imparted to you, “and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
No longer buy in to your former doubts and fears, which make you believe you are only a sinner saved by grace or you are somehow unworthy of His kingdom. With God nothing is impossible!
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