What does it mean to have your identity in Christ?

What does it mean to have your identity in Christ? This is something that comes up all the time in sermons and lessons. It’s a term that is thrown around a lot, and for a while, I really lost sight of what it truly meant.

There are plenty of verses in the Bible that talk about our identity in Christ- directly and indirectly. For example, Ephesians 2:10 says:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Paul wrote this when he was writing to the church of Ephesus. Most of his epistles are critical letters to churches, but in this case, it is the opposite. The church in Ephesus had been strong in their faith, so he wrote to encourage them and to try to teach them more about God. In this verse, we hear that we ARE His workmanship. There are a lot of places in Ephesians where it talks about how we are CHOSEN and CREATED by God. Paul does this to emphasize we are God’s chosen people.

The second part of the verse says “created in Christ Jesus which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Paul essentially reiterates that we are chosen by God and that we also have a purpose in God. He created us to follow Him and walk in His ways. He has a plan for our lives and our job is to put our identity in Him and follow Him.

Now, how do we put our identity in Christ? The definition of identity is who or what a person is. Putting our identity in Christ means that Christ is who we are!

That is so powerful. CHRIST IS WHO WE ARE!

If Christ is who we are - He defines us. This means:

Our words are defined by Him. Our actions are defined by Him. Our attributes are defined by Him. But a lot of times our words, our actions, our attributes are defined by something else.

I wanted to write this because last year, I had lost my identity in Christ. I focused on tennis, and tennis only. I thought that year was the year our team was going to win league. After all, we had been practicing for nearly 3 years! It went nothing like how I expected - we won games and lost some.

I distinctly remember my thoughts after one super upsetting game. I lost badly, and as I was walking down to the locker room and I thought to myself,

“If I am not a good tennis player what am I”?

This shocked me because I realized I had put God on the backburner and put all my focus on tennis.

This happens ALL the time. We focus on other things besides God… then turn back to God… and the cycle just keeps going. We lose our true identity over and over again.

This always reminds me of the Israelites who turned to God, turned away, turned back, etc. This cycle repeats itself through the Old Testament & we are still stuck in the same cycle as the Israelites thousands of years later!

It is hard to continuously have your identity in Christ because we are sinful people, by nature. We think that other things will satisfy us, but Jesus is the only One who can satisfy!

Some things I like to do is have an accountability partner who keeps you accountable to read your Bible. We weren't meant to go through life alone. God gave us community for a reason. We are meant to love, support, and encourage one another.

-Kayleigh