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LIFE MEETS THEOLOGY:

My True Identity

by Greg Williamson (c) 2008

COPYRIGHT RELATED INFO

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS

ARE FROM THE  New American Standard Bible.

LIFE: I became a Christian in prison while serving a 17-year sentence for two counts of armed-robbery. (Click HERE for my full testimony.) While prison is a severe testing ground in general, it is even more so for anyone desiring to live as a Christian.

I recall one incident in particular that was especially trying. Not very long after I gave my life to Christ, a new inmate arrived on the camp where I was being housed. Having confused me with someone else, he immediately began a one-man smear campaign against me. It got to the point that, quite literally, I could not go anywhere without people pointing and whispering. During all of this I was determined not to retaliate or try to defend myself. I had chosen this particular strategy for at least three reasons.

First of all, rumors are a daily part of prison life, as unsaved and uneducated inmates try to drag others down to their level. As the saying goes, I was determined to live in such a way that anyone who spoke ill of me would be proved wrong by my conduct. Secondly, even as a new Christian I realized the battle was essentially spiritual in nature, and so was determined to let God do the fighting. For my part, I did a lot of trusting and a whole lot of praying. Lastly, the actions of which I was accused allegedly took place prior to my salvation experience. And so even if the accusations had been true, they would have been a part of my old life in the flesh and not my new life in Christ.

Eventually the inmate who had ignited the firestorm of ill will against me was caught in an escape attempt and sent to a maximum security unit. Not long after that I developed a medical condition that required a visit to the central prison hospital in the state capital. While there I was informed I had made my next custody level and so was eventually sent on to a minimum security facility. It was during my stay in the hospital that I received a get well card from some of the guys at my previous unit. The card was handmade and contained so many signatures they had to be placed on a separate fold-out. It provided a much-needed boost, and it served as a tangible reminder that not everyone was against me.

THEOLOGY: Since being paroled nearly 17 years ago, God has blessed me with a wife (of 14 years and counting), two incredible little boys, a college degree, and lots of solid Bible reference resources (commentaries, theological dictionaries, etc.) to help satisfy my insatiable hunger for God's inspired, authoritative Word, the Bible. I am active in church, and I maintain my own Christian discipleship website, A Century 21 Disciple of Jesus (AC21DOJ.org).

While I will never be able to forget everything I went through in prison, I remain grateful to God for his having kept me safe through it all. Above all else, I remain grateful beyond words for all that I am in Christ, including (but not limited to) the following:

• I am justified as a gift of God's grace in Christ (ROMANS 3:24).

• I am dead to sin but alive to God in Christ (ROMANS 6:11).

• I am the recipient of God's free gift of eternal life in Christ (ROMANS 6:23).

• I am free of condemnation because I am in Christ (ROMANS 8:1).

• I am set free from the law of sin and death because of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ (ROMANS 8:2).

• I am inseparably linked to God's love in Christ (ROMANS 8:39).

• I am an indispensable part of the one body of believers in Christ (ROMANS 12:5).

• I am sanctified and thus called to be a saint in Christ (1 CORINTHIANS 1:2).

• I am a new creature in Christ (2 CORINTHIANS 5:17).

• I am reconciled to God in Christ (2 CORINTHIANS 5:19).

• I am justified by faith in Christ (GALATIANS 2:16).

• I am a son of God through faith in Christ (GALATIANS 3:26).

• I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (EPHESIANS 1:3).

• I am God's workmanship, created for good works in Christ (EPHESIANS 2:10).

• I am thankful in everything, since this is God's will for me in Christ (1 THESSALONIANS 5:18).