Who and Whose We Are

Let's look at some of the principles laid out in the book of Romans. Principles that answer questions such as: who we are and what our actions say about whose we are.

Who and Whose We Are
Photo by Jack Sharp / Unsplash

Let us do some reflection on biblical truths and the tragedies of life.

We have refused the testimony of creation and rejected our creator to our own condemnation.

I remember several years ago; I was given an orchid as a gift. I was so excited and just in awe of the beauty of the flower. It was white and purple This captured my attention and I looked on thinking what an amazing Creator we have.

This is what should happen as we behold the wonders of creation - the rivers, the trees, the beautiful unique faces. This marvellous blueprint points us to the God who has purpose in His plans for us. However, what should be a place of worship and adoration has become instead a place of scepticism and disbelief. Many conclude that the Creator does not exist. We engage in futile thinking with our darkened minds.

We admire His work of Art, but we don’t give due credit to the Master Artist.  Would you feel good about that? If you did a painting that people admired…but no one acknowledged you? Then what if that admirer proceeds to destroy your beautiful artwork? You would get mad at that person. Do you understand why God can be angry about the people who deny Him as Creator?

But it doesn’t stop there. We allow this attitude to blind us even to the great work of salvation that God has completed for us in Christ Jesus. We are so caught up in and distracted by the cares of life that we miss the Christ who gives life.

May our spiritual eyes open so that when we see God speaking to us – even through creation – we will be able to praise Him.

We are a ruined creation if we go after the flesh and not after the spirit.

Have you ever looked at a majestic three-story building and marvelled at the architecture. I have. Let’s liken it to created man. The top floor represents the spirit, his soul the second floor and then his flesh on ground level. When man fell, the building collapsed into the basement. Predominantly, man became ruled by his lusts and his need for self-gratification – the flesh. When we focus on satisfying the desires of our flesh we are headed to ruin. No matter the appeal of it, the end result will be death for we are reminded in scripture that the wages of sin is death.

After the fall, the soul then took second with the emotions overriding the spirit which got subsumed by it all.

We have destroyed the order designed by our Heavenly father. He is the Architect and has the blueprint for the construction and maintenance of the building. We have to trust our lives to His great design for when we take things into our hands and re-order them, we are asking for chaos and confusion. Isn’t that what we see now in our world? Disobedience, Death, Disease, and Destruction?

It is the Spirit that should rule over the emotions and keep our fleshly desires in subjection to His will. This is the only order that is possible to live a victorious life.

The majesty of that building can only be reconstructed when we surrender to the Grace of God and accept the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

We have become idolaters and have made gods of ourselves forgetting the one true God.

Hey, have you ever been in a service where you felt that the Pastor was talking about everyone else but you? Yeah, where you can think of a name to fit into the description of the message. The truth is, sometimes we can insert our own names. The messages don’t always point to those who we may call heathens and sinners, we too are guilty of the vices being preached about – we too are idolaters. The way we have exalted our religious pride and have worshipped our doctrinal beliefs instead of elevating the one true God.

We sing “we place You at the highest place, for You are the great High Priest” but this is not always so…our investments; our gold; our family, our children; our churches have taken the highest seat in our lives.

People think less about God and think it can remain without consequences. This is not so. There are serious consequences to the sin of idolatry for God will share His glory with no one. And when we move away from the true God we suffer from the loss of that fellowship. Not just in an eternal sense but even now in this present world.

God is calling us back to a place of repentance and if we want our Father to take pleasure in us then we have to burn the altars we have set up with these false images.

Will you return to God and give Him the glory?

A CBS Talk
Written by: Susan Dean