Beyond the Battle, Finding Identity in Christ in an Oversexualized WorldSample

You are a serial killer. The memories of your deeds haunt you when you try to sleep at night. You’ve been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. You are spending the remaining months of your life in solitary confinement, living in a pitch-black cell the size of a small closet. A jailer tosses stale bread to you once a day as you await your day to die. You sleep on a cold cement floor and go to the bathroom in a hole.

You are getting what you deserve, and justice is being served.

After weeks without seeing another human face or even a beam of light, your prison door opens and light from the hallway’s fluorescent bulbs blasts into your dungeon. Your eyes take a moment to adjust as you strain to make out the figure standing in your doorway. It’s a familiar face. It’s the judge from your trial.

This innocent, holy judge named Jesus Christ extends his hand to you. He tells you he will take your punishment. He is the judge, the only one in authority who can pull this off. He will die in your place. He will forgive all the crimes you’ve committed. You can walk away a free man.

You know you don’t deserve this amazing offer, but you can’t help but accept it.

Jesus dies.

You live.

The guards lead you to the prison entrance and release you.

You have been pardoned.

The sun shines down on you as you take your first breath of crisp air as a free man. A long, deep breath.

You ponder the depth of love Jesus showed you by paying for your freedom with his life. You can taste it. You didn’t deserve freedom, and Jesus didn’t deserve death.

Jesus rises from the dead and transforms your relationship with God from judge and guilty sinner to Father and beloved son. You are a new creation resurrected to new life in Christ.

How do you feel?

More important, how will you live?

What will you appreciate?

What will you feel entitled to?

The truth is, learning to live as pardoned rather than entitled revolutionizes our faith, our prayers, and our lives as married or single Christians. When you’ve been pardoned the way this hypothetical prisoner was from his dark cell into a new life of Christ-empowered freedom, you’ll never feel entitled again. It will all be consumed by relief and gratitude. 

Our journey is not about manipulating God into giving us what we want, or trying to manipulate our spouse to meet needs in us that no human is capable of meeting. The journey is in learning to enjoy and rest in everything Jesus has already given us. It’s in learning to be overcome by the gratitude and joy that comes with being pardoned. Married or single, it’s in learning that the deep needs we are looking for a romantic relationship to fulfill can only be found in what Jesus has already given us. 

Questions for Married People:

1. Do you ever feel your spouse owes you something? If so, what?

2. How can living pardoned remove your feeling of entitlement?

3. How can living pardoned give you a physiological feeling of freedom and joy, regardless of your circumstances?

4. What does living as a new creation, resurrected to new life in Christ look like?

Married Person Prayer for the Day: Jesus, thank you for pardoning me from the death sentence I deserve, from spending eternity in hell. Thank you for taking my place and my punishment on the cross. Thank you for freeing me. Thank you for life. Thank you for making me a new creation, resurrected to new life in you. Thank you for the air I breathe. Thank you for my spouse. 

Questions for Singles:

1. You might not have a spouse, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel entitled. What do you feel God owes you?

2. How can living pardoned remove your feeling of entitlement?

3. How can living pardoned give you a physiological feeling of freedom and joy, regardless of your circumstances?

4. What does living as a new creation, resurrected to new life in Christ look like?

Single Person Prayer for the Day: Jesus, thank you for pardoning me from the death sentence I deserve, from spending eternity in hell. Thank you for taking my place and my punishment on the cross. Thank you for freeing me. Thank you for life. Thank you for making me a new creation, resurrected to new life in you. Thank you for the air I breathe. Thank you for my singleness. I do not deserve any of your mercies.