Sunday AM Service
Teachers
Lesson Summary
In this Sunday AM Bible study, Richard Sutton addressed the concept of a new spiritual identity in Christ, drawing from Colossians 3:1-3. He emphasized that, just as physical identities are unique and unchangeable (illustrated through fingerprints and passports), our spiritual identity in Christ is transformative and permanent. The lesson contrasted the old self, bound by sin, with the new self, raised with Christ and united to Him. Central to the teaching was the resurrection of Jesus, which makes this new identity possible, as seen in Romans 6:3-5 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. Sutton clarified that this spiritual identity is not based on human effort but on God’s work in believers, freeing them from the old self to live in alignment with Christ. The class also included practical announcements about the church’s food drive and mission activities, reinforcing the connection between faith and action.
Key Scriptures
Since you have been raised with Christ, set your minds on things above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Now I declare to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.