Welcome back to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

We talked about sonship with Dr. Don Carson last Friday in Pastor John.

A lot of people emphasize who we are in Christ as an important way to help us overcome

our personal discouragements and triumph over personal sin struggles and to walk in fullness

of joy, of course.

But in your ministry over the years, you seem to strike a different note.

You talk about God being the gospel or about enjoying God as our ultimate happiness.

So how do you work with these two categories of number one, our identity in Christ and

number two, our enjoyment of God Himself?

How do you balance those two?

It is true and a great truth that we are, that who we are in Christ is often the motif

of counselors to help liberate people.

I think that's great to help liberate people who are stuck in bondage to sin and depression

and dysfunctional relationships and we want to help them.

Do you know who you are in Christ?

I think that's great as far as it goes.

We are perfect in Christ.

We are loved in Christ.

We are accepted in Christ.

We are, yes, enjoyed by God in Christ and by God's spirit, we are becoming in practice

in reality what we are in principle in Christ, more and more beautiful, like Christ.

I don't want to underplay those unspeakable truths at all.

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