One of the most important revelations we can get from the Word of God is to understand who we are in Christ. Identifying with Christ will change the way we live and cause us to rise above adversity. Personal identity is one of the most important things to understand about ourselves. Knowing who we are, what make us tick, what makes us laugh, what gets on our nerves, what brings us true joy—those are essential things to name because that understanding affects everything else? Personal identity affects how we look at life, how we deal with conflicts, and even who we choose as friends. Your identity in Christ doesn't depend on your hair color, body type, or which lunch table you sit at. Have you allowed other people to define you? To tell you who you are and who you aren't? God has already defined you in His perfect Son, Jesus Christ!
EPHESIANS 2:4–7 (NKJV)
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
According to this passage of Scripture, we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. Unfortunately, some Christians are having an identity crisis. They don't know who they are in Christ or where they are seated. Instead of identifying with Christ, they identify with the problems that confront them. You can tell they do this because they call themselves by their problems: divorced, bankrupt, and so forth.
If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you're no longer a part of this world soaked in sin. Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. This life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." You're a new creation in Him; the old has passed and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)!
If we’re honest with ourselves, we often feel insecure. Those who hide it best often feel it most. But our insecurity is an invitation from God to escape the danger of false beliefs about who we are and find true peace in who he is. Christ is our life — not only the guarantee of it in heaven, but the downpayment of it by the Spirit now, as he lives in us. His joy becomes our joy; his love, our love; his peace, our peace; his strength, our strength.
