When Paul publicly confronted Peter for hypocrisy in the church.

A simple explanation of three big words that might be intimating for newer Christians. 

CHILDREN OF GOD THROUGH FAITH
​If you have turned to Jesus for the salvation of your soul based on His life, death, and resurrection, then you are a child of God. This is your identity in Christ. Who am I in Christ? Who are you? We are beloved children of God through faith in Christ.

• John 1:12–13, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, [13] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. "
• Galatians 3:26–29, "for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. [27] For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise."
• Ephesians 5:1–2, "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. [2] And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
• 1 John 3:1–2, " See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. [2] Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is."

Learn who you are in Christ as a child of God through faith. Rest in Him alone; and walk in the newness of life in Him by faith. Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 2 Corinthians 5:17–18, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." Rest and rejoice in your identity in Christ. God’s Word to you about your identity in Christ will be to you a flowing river, and your heart will be a well-watered field in the things of God.

In Christ, children of God find rest for the soul and walk in newness of life. Let us never, therefore, seek to build our identities or find fulfillment through things in the world, i.e., our style, appearance, hobbies, possessions, job, pleasure, or affiliation with a particular subgroup in the culture. Let us not build our identities and seek rest for our souls with things below, but rather, let us learn from God of our identity in Christ, who teaches us in His Word the glories and liberties of who we are in Him. 

• Matthew 6:19–21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, [20] but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
• Colossians 3:1–4, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

Yes, we are sinners. But by grace through faith, we are saved sinners who are united to Christ and filled with His Spirit. Based on His righteous life, substitutionary death, and glorious resurrection, ascension, and enthronement in heaven, I exhort you to humbly receive God’s truth about your identity in Christ over and over and over again, till the Lord returns or calls you home. 

Before Christ, I was dead in sin, devoted to Satan, disobedient to God, deceived by lust, and doomed for judgment (Eph. 2:1-3), and so were you. But now, by grace through faith, we are recipients of supernatural love, mercy, and kindness in Christ, alive in Christ, united to Christ, saved in Christ (i.e., saved from sin, Satan, death, and divine judgment), and set apart in Christ for obedience and humble service for the glory of God (Eph. 2:4-10).

PRACTICAL VALUE 
The Holy Spirit will motivate our hearts and enable us to put into practice the good news of our new identity in Christ. Your thoughts come only from your mind and not from others, but your Spiritual growth comes only from God’s might and not from yours. God grows His children by His Word and Spirit. Spiritual growth makes us more like God, not the world. This growth is the purpose of contemplating our identity in Christ (Eph. 5:1).

First, knowing who we are in Christ will strengthen us in our ongoing battles against sin, self, and Satan. It is food to nourish the troops. “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. [12] Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Pet. 2:11-12). We all need strength for the battle. God is faithful. He will provide. Let us look to Him and not ourselves. For comfort, let us look to Him. For guidance, let us look to Him. For wisdom, endurance, assurance, and victory over temptation, let us look to Christ above and lean on His great might. 

Second, knowing who we are in Christ will guard us against the unending of distractions, discouragements, and disappointments of life. It is a helmet that preserves us from the death-strike. “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm… and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, (ESV)” (Eph. 6:13, 17). Left to our own devices and walking in our own wisdom, we would stray off the path of godliness onto the path of worldliness in a second. We cannot guard ourselves, but Christ above is might to guard His beloved bride. Jesus loves you. Jesus wants to keep you. Jesus wants to serve you. And Jesus is always and everywhere present to guard your heart in these days of trouble. 

Third, knowing who we are in Christ will establish us in both God’s love for us, and consequently in our love for God rather than ourselves and the world.It is the voice of wisdom in a concert of fools. It is the road of truth in world of opinions. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. [17] And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17). 

Fourth, knowing who we are in Christ will sanctify us into the likeness of Christ. God purifies our hearts and renews our minds by the Word of truth and the power of grace, and our identity in Christ is a keystone truth for the people of God. “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). Remember, church, we are being sanctified, and it is the truth of God that sanctifies us. Jesus teaches, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). God alone kills sin within us. God alone cultivates godliness within us. And God alone increases our hunger for the Word, deepens our affection for Christ, and intensifies our sense of need for the Holy Spirit. Only God can sanctify us into the likeness of Christ. Do not pursue worldly riches that you cannot keep, but pursue therefore the riches of Christ for godliness, contentment, and gratitude before the Lord. 

Fifth, knowing who we are and what we have in Christ will remind us of what makes life worth living. “But godliness with contentment is great gain, [7] for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. [8] But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. [9] But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:6-9).

We live in a world of sin and a world of sin lives in us. Things are always fighting to draw our attention away from God’s glory, Christ’s kingdom, the Spirit’s leading, the Word’s power, the church’s worship and fellowship, and from all things spiritual, eternal, meaningful, and hopeful. We are weak and lowly sinners. We stand in desperate and daily need for God’s grace in our lives. We need God in Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, guard us, establish us, sanctify us, and remind us of true riches by His grace and for His glory. And God will help us for the sake of His Name. 

In love, God will help us. By reminding us of who we are in Christ, God will help us. He will never leave nor forget you, for in Christ, God has made Himself your Helper, your covenant Lord and Savior. “Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life” (Ps. 54:4).

KEEPING ORDER
A key to keeping order in the Christian life is to be keenly aware of God's gracious work within us and for us by His Word and Spirit. It it the root. Our works must not be the centerpiece of our discipleship. They are the fruit. True good works that honor God are the result of God's work within us; but God's work within us must always be our top concern. In other words, beloved, the core ministry of our lives is God’s ministry in our hearts and minds. And God's ministry in our hearts and minds, among other things, is a preaching ministry: He proclaims to us who we are in Christ and all that we have in Him.

Ephesians 1:3–14, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, [4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. [7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, [8] which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight [9] making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
[11] In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, [12] so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. [13] In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."

May the Spirit give us grace to receive, grasp, and rest and rejoice in the good news of who we are through faith and spiritual communion with the risen Lord (see Eph. 1:16-23).

By God's grace, let us never make our works (which are good things) become idols that we look to for rest, assurance, meaning, and fulfillment (which would be a very bad thing). May our service for God never supplant God’s service for us as the apple of our eye, as the thing we lean on for joy, rest, meaning, and fulfillment. When it does, we are engaged in works-based, self-centered, man-glorifying external religion (Matt. 7:21-23; Luke 18:9-14; 2 Timothy 3:5-7).

Humble servants of God are those who first and always see ourselves as weak and wicked sinners in desperate need of the power of God within us and the grace of God upon us. Beloved, entwine this in your heart, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Php. 2:13). 

A seed needs water to sprout (a one-time thing), but a tree also needs water to grow and bear fruit (an ongoing thing). Likewise, the lost need the gospel to become believers, but believers need the gospel to grow and bear fruit. The gospel bears fruit in the church among believers, not just in the surrounding world (Col. 1:5-6). As the waves always crash upon the shore, the word of God’s grace must always be at work within us. “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thess. 2:13, emphasis added).

The good news that saved us in the past is the good news that strengthens, guards, establishes, sanctifies, and reminds us in the present. We “are being saved” (1 Cor. 15:2). You are called to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Php. 2:12b-13). 

Have you turned to the Son of God in heaven for forgiveness? If yes, then you are a beloved child of God through faith in Christ. Never, therefore, seek to build your identity or find fulfillment through things in the world, e.g., your style, appearance, hobbies, possessions, job, pleasure, or affiliation with a particular subgroup in the culture. Do not build your identity and seek rest for your soul with things below, but rather, learn from God of your identity in Christ, who teaches us in His Word the glories and liberties of who we are in Him (see Col. 3:1-3).

Jesus is faithful; He will give rest for the soul to those who come to Him; and all who come to Him are new creations by the Spirit, the old has gone by the incomparable power of the gospel. 

How we can only attain biblical knowledge and the wisdom of godly living in Christ through faith. 

How the gospel has the power to save because it makes sinners righteous in God's eyes through faith in Christ.

How God is King of heaven and earth, and how we have access to His throne in Christ.

​On how believers are not lawless, even though we are not under law; the second part to the devotional, WHO IS GOD? from Isaiah 33:22.

How Jesus is the New Covenant realization of what the Old Covenant temple symbolized. 

How Christ became poor so that we could become rich. 

A reminder of how the exalted Lord commends, and is pleased by, the faithfulness, love, and obedience of believers.