Finding Your Identity in Christ

Posted on Mar 16, 2022 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Neil T. Anderson

You Are a Child of God

Nothing is more foundational to your freedom from Satan’s bondage than understanding and affirming what God has done for you in Christ and who you are as His child. Your attitudes, actions, responses, and reactions to life’s circumstances are greatly affected by what you believe about yourself. If you see yourself as a helpless victim of Satan and his schemes, you will probably live like a victim and be in bondage to his lies. But if you see yourself as a dearly loved and accepted child of God, you will likely start living like one. That is what John said in 1 John 3:1-3: “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are… Beloved, now we are children of God… and everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

Every defeated Christian I have worked with has had one thing in common. None of them knew who they were in Christ nor understood what it means to be a child of God. Scripture is very clear: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” ( John 1:12). “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ… so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:16-17). Our identity and position in Christ is not only the basis for living a liberated life in Christ but the foundation upon which we minister to others. We can’t impart to others what we don’t possess ourselves.

You Are Spiritually and Therefore Eternally Alive

God created us to have a material self and an immaterial self, or an outer nature and an inner nature (2 Corinthians 4:16). The material self is your physical body, and the immaterial self is your soul/spirit. Because we are created in the image of God, we have the ability to think, feel, and choose (the combination of mind, emotions, and will are usually identified as the soul), and the ability to relate to God (if we are spiritually alive). As a Christian, your soul/spirit comes into union with God at the moment of your conversion, and that makes you spiritually alive. (Note: I use the terminology soul/spirit because conservative theologians don’t unanimously agree about whether the human soul and spirit are the same or separate entities.)

As a believer, you are no longer “in Adam,” you are “in Christ.” Because the life of Christ is eternal, the spiritual life you now have in Christ is eternal. Eternal life is not something you get when you die physically; you receive it the moment you are born again! “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:12).

Contrary to what Satan would like you to believe, he can’t separate you from God, who has promised to never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). You don’t have to physically die to get rid of tormenting spirits, which is a lie that deceived people commonly believe. You can submit to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you ( James 4:7).

You Are a New Creation in Christ

If you don’t fully understand your identity and position in Christ, you will likely believe there is little distinction between yourself and nonbelievers. Every verse in the list at the beginning of the chapter is true about every believer, and none of the verses are true about the natural person. The accuser will seize that opportunity, pour on the guilt, and question your salvation if you don’t know who you are. Defeated Christians confess their sins and strive to do better, but inwardly they think, I’m just a sinner saved by grace, hanging on until the rapture. Having my sins forgiven was the only thing that happened at salvation. I am still the same person I was before.

Read how Paul describes who you were before you came to Christ: “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air… and were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3). As a believer you have become a partaker “of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1:4).

As a born-again child of God, you are no longer “in the flesh”; you are now “in Christ.” “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9). “You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). “From now on we recognize no one according to the flesh… If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17). Paul doesn’t identify believers by their flesh patterns. We are not alcoholics, addicts, codependents, pedophiles, or victims. We may struggle with some of those flesh patterns, but that is not who we are.

The New Testament refers to the person you were before you received.

Christ as your old self (old man). At salvation, your old self, which was motivated to live independent of God and was therefore characterized by sin, died (Romans 6:6); and your new self, united with Christ, came to life (Galatians 2:20). Because your soul is in union with God, you are identified with Him:

In His death (Romans 6:3; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:1-3)

In His burial (Romans 6:4)

In His resurrection (Romans 6:5,8,11)

In His ascension (Ephesians 2:6)

In His life (Romans 5:10-11)

In His power (Ephesians 1:19-20)

In His inheritance (Romans 8:16-17; Ephesians 1:11-12)

Your old self had to die in order to sever your relationship with sin, which dominated it. Being a child of God doesn’t mean that you are sinless (1 John 1:8). But because your old self has been crucified and buried with Christ, you no longer have to sin (1 John 2:1). You sin when you choose to believe a lie or act independently of God.