Where to find confidence

    I have always squirmed when people talk about being "nothing" without Christ, being able to do "nothing" on our own, etc. In our self-esteeming culture, it doesn't easily integrate with our personal philosophies. I've never been the type to beat myself up; I don't really struggle much with feelings of failure. But through reading (again) The Search For Significance (by Robert McGee), I've realized that's because I don't often try the things I would probably fail at. So my confidence is based on my own performance just as much as a discouraged person's lack of confidence is based on their performance.

     So how have I been dealing with this? By thinking more about my identity in Christ. It's a concept I had heard references to for years, but didn't really start to grasp it until a Moody professor taught me and my classmates to notice all of the references to Christ in the first few chapters of Ephesians. In looking at those chapters, I realized Christ is mentioned SO often, that  I usually skimmed over the references to him. My new perspective was one of those formative lightbulb moments. It turns out that the Gospel doesn't just include groveling about how we're nothing. In tandem with recognizing our hopelessness without Christ, we can rise up in the hope we receive in Christ. Our identity as a "new self" is so much more than being "saved." 

Read these verses with special attention to what being "in Christ" means for you (especially as a member of His body, the church):

• "he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph. 1:4)
• "In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will." (1:4b-5)
• "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." (1:7)
• "In him we have obtained an inheritance..." (1:11)
• "...what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places..." (1:19-20)
• "But God... made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (2:4-6)
• "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (2:10)
• "But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one." (2:13-14) ("both" is in reference to Jews and Gentiles)
• "For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." (2:18) 
• "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God..." (2:19)
• "...in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (2:22) ("you" is in reference to the church)
• "...Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him." (3:11b-12)
• "No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body." (5:29)

So we can have confidence, because in Christ we are adopted by the Father, have redemption and forgiveness, are alive and raised up and seated with Christ, we have peace with God and access to Him, we are part of Christ's body and a dwelling place for God. I would much rather put my confidence in these unwavering truths than in my inconsistent performance! Delve into the bottomless Gospel...