On the Move

Ephesians 5:7-8

Therefore do not become partners with them; for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.

Fall is my favorite season of the year. There are countless reasons to enjoy fall, but for me, it is the return of college football!! This past weekend was the opening weekend of college football and you can rest assured that I took in as many games as I could. Not just my favorite team, but I watched as much college football as I could find on the television.

Now if you know me at all you know that my favorite college football team is the Tennessee Volunteers! I have followed the Vols all my life. However, that is certainly not the subject of this blog today so let me just move on.

At one point, and in honor of my son-in-law who is a huge Ohio State Buckeyes fan, I was watching the Indiana vs. Ohio State game and recognized the quarterback for Indiana. I recognized him because last year he played for my Tennessee Volunteers and thanks to the modern-day transfer portal, he left Tennessee and returned to his home state of Indiana to play for the Hoosiers. He was on the move. He left one team to move to another. Now, how you or I feel about the transfer portal is not the point. The point is that this young man was on the move. One day he was playing for the Vols, and the next day, he was playing for Indiana!

Something occurred to me. That is exactly what happened when you and I came to faith in Christ Jesus. When we turned from our sin in repentance and placed our faith in Jesus Christ alone to save us, a transfer occurred. We were moved from being in Adam, the first man, who was full of sin and rebellion to the second man, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life. And make no mistake about it, we were moved not because we simply decided to change teams, we were moved because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We couldn’t move ourselves, we didn’t just up and choose Christ. We were drawn by the Holy Spirit of God. And when repentance and faith occurred, we were on the move!

There are countless verses in the New Testament that tell us about this move, but today, I have chosen the one from Ephesians 5. The Bible tells us that there was a time when we were once “darkness.” That means sin, unbelief. There was a time when we once could be described as darkness. It is not just that we walked in darkness; it is more than just our life habits and daily activities. Our entire life was characterized by darkness. It was a character matter. That is the result of sin. We were darkness, completely lost in our sin and unable to save ourselves. But then something occurred and no, it was not that we chose the transfer portal. What occurred was a positional change. We were moved by God’s grace from being in Adam to being in Christ Jesus.

And let’s be clear. Everything changed. For example, we received a new eternal destiny, Heaven! We received a new family, the family of God. We received a new Father, Father God Himself. Everything changed… including our identity. Moving from Adam to Christ also created an identity change. There are certain words found in scripture that show us this. For example, before we received Christ Jesus, we were orphans, but now we are sons and daughters of God, Himself. Before we received Christ Jesus, we were enemies of God, but when salvation occurred, we became friends of God! Before we trusted Jesus to save us, we were sinners but now, we are called saints.

Our position changed but so did our identity! Over the next few weeks, I invite you to read this blog and pass it along to someone else who may need to know exactly who they are in Christ Jesus. By the way, when we learn who Christ has made us to be, it changes everything. It takes away trying to “one-up” other people. It takes away insecurity. It takes away intimidation. All of that goes away because we realize that in Christ Jesus, He has given us a new identity. It takes away pride because we realize that what occurs is through Him and not through us.

And is all a result of being transferred from Adam to Christ. So I invite you to join me as we go “on the move” to discover who we are in Christ Jesus!