Sunday message · Identity series
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Message Summary
On Easter Sunday 2019, Pastor Phillip Santillan begins the Identity series on how the resurrection of Jesus changed everything. Easter marks a defining moment in human history, he says, and the Christian faith rests not on Jesus’ teachings or miracles but on that historical event. He tells newcomers it is okay not to have everything figured out, and that God loves them and wants to be loved in return.
The series begins with the question “Who am I?” Like fun-house mirrors, our minds can distort how we see ourselves because of what was said or done to us. In a Dartmouth experiment, women shown a fake facial scar that was secretly removed still felt stared at and treated differently. Social media deepens the problem as we compare our unfiltered lives to others’ highlight reels. Everyone struggles with insecurity, he says, because we measure ourselves against the wrong standard.
But for followers of Jesus, identity has already been determined. In Ephesians 1, Paul writes that even before God made the world, he loved us, chose us and adopted us into his family through Jesus, purchasing our freedom with his Son’s blood. Before we did anything good or bad, God invited us to find our identity in him rather than in achievements, possessions or popularity. Without knowing who we are, we chase love, acceptance and approval in the wrong places.
Living with a false identity, Phil says, is like using a book as a broom: frustrating and sometimes dangerous. Identity leads to tendencies: if it rests on what people think, we tend to exaggerate or hide the truth; if on accomplishments, we tend to use people. Tendencies lead to actions, actions to consequences, and consequences to our reality. When life disappoints, Phil admits, we tend to blame everyone and everything, but our reality often traces back to who we believe we are.
Ephesians 2:8–10 says we are saved by grace as a gift and are God’s masterpiece, created anew in Christ Jesus to do the good things he planned long ago. No one is their own masterpiece, Phil says; our lives are God’s project, and the spiritual life means receiving power from his Spirit to become who he had in mind. Because God sees the finished masterpiece, as Michelangelo saw David in a block of marble, the worst days of our lives do not have to be the defining ones. God’s grace can and will shine through.
Finally, embracing our identity in Jesus means changing our perspective. Romans 6:1–4 says those joined with Christ in baptism now live new lives; Phil stresses that is new life, not a second chance. He points to a news story of two men freed after 43 years in prison when found innocent; imagine them choosing to stay. Believers are no longer slaves to sin but children of God, and “your identity should determine your behavior.” He closes with the gospel: before we were born, God knew us, loved us and chose us, and nothing can make him love us more or less.