Your Identity In Christ

In response to one of my messages I told some folks I’d post a sampling I have of what the Bible says about our identity in Christ, so here it is. I encourage you to take each truth on this list and not only SAY it throughout the day, but SEE it and HEAR it and LIVE IN it.  Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2).

In Christ you are …

• God’s beloved child (Jn 1:12; Eph 1:5)
• Christ’s dear friend (Jn 15:5)
• Declared perfectly righteous (“justified”) (Rom 5:1)
• Free from condemnation (Rom 8:1; Col 2:14-16)
• United with Christ, “one spirit” with Christ (I Cor 6:17; Eph 5:31)
• A member of Christ’s body (I Cor 6:15, 12:27)
• The Temple of God (I Cor 6:19)
• Filled with the “fullness of God” (Eph 3:19)
• A “holy one” [saint] (Eph 1:1)
• Blessed with every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3)
• Holy and blameless (Eph 1:4)
• Bought with an infinite price and forgiven (I Cor 6: 20; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14)
• Bathed with wisdom and understanding (Eph 1:8)
• The recipient of an eternal, infinitely rich, inheritance (Eph 1:11, 18)
• Possessed with the mind of Christ (I Cor 2:16)
• Inseparable from God’s love (Rom 8:35-39)
• One who will NEVER be abandoned (Mt 28:20)
• The beautiful bride of Christ who “ravishes” the heart of God (Song of Songs, 4:1ff; 6:4ff).
• One over whom the Lord rejoices, sings and claps his hands (Zeph 3:17)
• One for whom the Lord throws a party (Zeph 3:17; Lk 15:7-10)
• A recipient of God’s own peace (Jn 14:27)
• Filled with the peace and joy of God (Rom 14:17)
• One in whom Christ’s joy is fulfilled (Jn 15:11)
• Given direct access to the Father by the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:18)
• Seated with Christ in heavenly realms (Eph 2:6)
• Seated “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” with Christ (Eph 1:21).
• Hid in Christ in heavenly realms (Col 3:1-5)
• Crucified, Buried and Raised with Christ (Rom 6:1-11)
• Made perfect forever (Heb 10:14)
• Made complete in Christ (Col 2:10)
• Indwelled by a fearless Spirit (2 Tim 1:7)
• One of God’s precious works of art (Eph 2:10)
• Indwelt by a spirit of power, love and stability (2 Tim 1:7)
• A citizen of heaven (Phil 3:20)
• Predestined to look like Jesus and see him in his glory (Rom 8:29; I Jn 3:1-5)
• One in whom God is working to bring good out of evil (Rom 8:28)
• Salt of the earth (Mt 5:13)
• A branch chosen to bear fruit (Jn 15:16)
• A co-worker with God (I Cor 3:9)
• An ambassador of Christ and minister of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-20)
• A priest of the most high God (I Pet 2:5-9)
• More than a conqueror in all things (Rom 8:37)
• One who knows Satan is a disarmed laughing stock (Col 2:14-15).
• One who knows the truth and is set free (Jn 8:32).
• One who can do all things in Christ (Phil 4:13)

I encourage you to reprogram your mind meditating on these truths.  Further help on being transformed by the mind can be found in Seeing Is Believing and (with Al Larsen) Escaping the Matrix.

Be Blessed !

Maybe I should try memorizing some of these verses.  Want to join me in memorizing them?

Related posts:

1. Holy Spirit – More than a side kick
2. Wild Goose Chase – Yawning Angels

The Wild Goose is the Holy Spirit and the chase is pursuing “the Spirit’s leading through life.”

At the end of each chapter are a series of questions.  I thought I would blog my answers to these questions until it becomes too personal.  (Update: Please note that I have decided to make all the other Wild Goose Chase posts protected.  You will need to be registered and logged in to see them.)

The first chapter is named “Yawning Angels” because the author, Mark Batterson, wonders if angels have the capacity to get bored and if they did would our guardian angels yawn as they view our safe lives.

What’s your reaction to the Celtic description of God as the “Wild goose” – untamed, unpredictable, flying free?
I like it.  It reminds me that the Holy Spirit is about adventure, leaving your comfort zone.  But sometimes this illustration can be misleading, as my friend Amy reminded me, because in the end it’s really the Holy Spirit pursuing us, trying to get us to follow Christ.  Also a wild goose chase is a “purposeless endeavor without a defined destination” but as the author points out, with the Holy Spirit it “sometimes seems hopeless, but rest assured, God is working his plan.”

How have you been living “inverted Christianity,” trying to get God to serve your purposes instead of you serving His purposes?
Was there another way?

Right now, where are you on this spectrum?

I am pretty far right on the playing it safe spectrum.  I can’t really think of any risks I’m taking for God.

How does this call to spiritual adventure strike you?  What is it inside you that resonates with that call?
Well, I always liked the Stephen Curtis Chapman song “The Great Adventure.”  Seriously adventure is always appealing especially when you don’t consider the costs and risks.  But then you end up playing it safe.

Of the six cages described at the end of the chapter, which do you think might apply to you the most and why?
The six cages are the following.

1. cage of responsibility
2. cage of routine
3. cage of assumptions
4. cage of guilt
5. cage of failure
6. cage of fear

I think the cage that applies to me the most is the cage of assumptions.  I’m too old.  It’s too late.  I have three young children so I can’t do anything beyond the norm. The cage of responsibility also applies to me too.

What is your cage?

No related posts.