Lifetime Guarantee
Embracing Your Identity in Christ
In moments of deep pain, God often strategically inserts key people and resources into our lives which forever marks us and has a transformative impact on our future. 1991 was one of those times in our lives. The previous year we had experienced a deep wounding. While we didn’t fully understand it at the time, we now can see that God was using that experience to shape us on many levels. He knew that I needed flesh patterns addressed and that we needed to learn more intimately about the abiding life. That’s why God dropped Myron and JoAnn Holmgren into our lives.
Myron and JoAnn were a “seasoned” Godly couple who had as intimate a walk with God as anyone we had ever met before. Our new friends met us in our pain and loved us unconditionally – really loved us – while pointing us to Jesus and the Life He wanted to live in us. Myron and JoAnn helped us to see how God was using our circumstances to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we could be free to know Him. They taught us that yielding to Him is where our life is found. It is an understatement to say God used them to transform our lives.
As we transitioned to our next ministry in another state, Myron and JoAnn gifted us with what would become one our favorite books: Lifetime Guarantee: How to Make Your Christian Life Work and What to Do When It Doesn’t by Bill Gillham. The principles in this book were catalytic in helping us understand the fullness of our true identity in Christ. Over the years we have given away more copies of Lifetime Guarantee than any book other than our own. I even made it required reading for a course on spiritual formation that I taught at Carver College.
When we put our faith in Christ, everything changes. Paul made this clear in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” What changed? What old passed away and what new has come? The simple answer (there is a much more detailed answer in the book) is that the “old” is our identity in Adam that has passed away, and the “new” is our identity in Christ that has come. Who we once were in Adam has been exchanged with who we now are in Christ.
Identity is established by birth. We are all born in Adam. We carried his DNA/family line, with all the sin and death that came with it. In essence, we were all born in sin. Yet when we put our faith in Christ, we were “born again,” indicating that we have a brand-new DNA/family line, with all the righteousness that comes with it. Our Adam life died (passed away) with Jesus on the Cross so that we could have a whole new inheritance! We no longer are heirs of Adam’s sin. We are now heirs of Jesus’ righteousness. While we still have to deal with our flesh, (something else explained in Gilliam’s book) we now have been set free from the “law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Everything about our identity was transformed.
We are not who we used to be; we are who God now says we are.
One of the most significant gifts to us in Lifetime Guarantee is the list found in Chapter 5 detailing what the Scriptures says is now true of your new identity in Christ. Here is what God declares about you:
You are justified and redeemed (already). (Rom. 3:24)
Your old self was killed (crucified). (Rom 6:6)
You are not condemned. (My performance is condemned when I don’t trust in His life through me, but God does not condemn the performer, just the performance.) (Rom. 8:1)
You are free from the law of sin and death. (Rom. 8:2)
You are accepted. (All my life I’ve sought to be accepted. Now I am!) (Rom. 15:7)
You are sanctified (holy, set apart). (1 Cor. 1:2)
You have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption (I am ransomed - restored to favor). (1 Cor. 1:30)
You are always led in triumph (whether it appears so or not). (2 Cor. 2:14)
Your hardened mind has been removed. (2 Cor. 3:14)
You are a new creature. (Even though I don’t always feel or act like it, my deep desire is to do so.) (2Cor. 5:17)
You are the righteousness of God. (You can’t get more righteous than this.) (2 Cor. 5:21)
You are liberated. (Gal.2:4)
You are joined with all believers (not inferior to anyone). (Gal. 3:28)
You are a son and an heir. (Gal. 4:7)
You are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Heaven. (Eph. 1:3)
You are chosen, holy, and blameless before God. (Eph. 1:4)
You are redeemed, forgiven. (Eph. 1:7)
You have obtained an inheritance. (Eph. 1:10, 11)
You are sealed with the Spirit. (Eph. 1:13)
You are alive (formerly a dead spirit). (Eph. 2:5)
You are seated in Heaven (already). (Eph. 2:6)
You are created for good performance. (And I can let Christ live through me to perform it.) (Eph. 2:10)
You have been brought near to God. (Eph. 2:13)
You are partaker of the promise. (Eph. 3:6)
You have boldness and confident access to God (not slinking as “whipped dog”). (Eph. 3:12)
You were formerly darkness, but are now light. (Eph. 5:8)
You are a member of His body (not inferior to other members). (Eph. 5:30)
Your heart and mind are guarded by the peace of God. (Peace is knowing something, not always feeling it). (Phil. 4:7)
You have all your needs (not greeds) supplied (Phil. 4:19)
You are complete (perfect). (Col. 2:10)
You are raised up with Him. (Col.3:1)
Your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:3)
(From Lifetime Guarantee by Bill Gillham ©1987. Used by permission.)
Everything is new about us in Christ! Believing this will change not only how you view yourself, but it will change how you conduct your life. One of my Seminary Professors Dr. Bill Lawrence put it this way, “We don’t live like we used to live because we aren’t who we used to be.”
A few years after we left, Myron and JoAnn moved out west and, in the pre-cell phone days, we lost contact with them. Several years later we heard through the grapevine that they had graduated to Heaven. Our time together was only a few months, but their impact continues to this day and is part of the foundation that Forgiving Forward rests on.
Let me encourage you to review this list at least once a day for the next 32 days. Read the list in full and spend a little extra time each day studying the passages listed for one of the 32 declarations. For the rest of the day, let your mind mull over what God is saying to and about you. If you take on this challenge, you will be amazed at what God will do in and through you.
If you want a deeper dive into your new life in Christ, I highly recommend that you grab your own copy of Lifetime Guarantee at www.lifetime.org. You’ll be glad you did!
