Galatians 4:21-31 - ”A Tale of Two Sons” - Brent Stephens / November 24, 2024

We live in a world that values personal identity. We identify ourselves and others by pronouns, tattoos, sexual preference, political party, color of skin, and a hundred other varieties of differentiation. However, all these self-identities are frivolous and vain. Identity politics is the force that draws people away from each other instead of pulling us together. “I’m this, and you’re that, I’m from here and you’re from there…” Can you see us cannibalizing ourselves? But we are more than we think we are and we always have been. Our deepest identity can only truly be found in one place: Jesus Christ! The entire book of Ephesians is a testimony to this truth. We are no longer defined by things that fragment us from each other, but by being one new creation and one new humanity in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:14-19). Only in Christ can we truly find ourselves. We might have all kinds of struggles and engage in all types of sin, but God is constantly calling us upward and home. This is the gospel. This is the call of Jesus: repent of sin and turn towards Him. Any other form of identity will be our demise. Only in turning to Jesus will we find our salvation.