What Does It Look Like to Have Our Identity Be in Christ?

“Can I see your identity, please?”

If I’m asked this question, I know to pull out my driver’s license. It has my name, address (or at least former address), as well as physical characteristics. They can even tell if I’m a kind soul who wants to donate my organs or keep them to myself. But is this really my identity?

There is nothing on my driver’s license that identifies me as a follower of Christ. But I would argue this is central to “who I am.” This is the core of my identity. What does it look like to have our identity in Christ?

What Is Our Identity?

Before we explore what it looks like to have our identity in Christ, it would be helpful to understand a little about the whole concept of identity. The term itself comes from the mid-16^th century by French from the Latin idem. It was predominately used in the social sciences as a way to identify classes of things that were similar. The word itself meant “the quality of being identical.”

When you say, “that is a giraffe” and “that is an elephant” you are both identifying similarities and differences. What makes a giraffe a giraffe and not an elephant? To answer this question, one would look at physical characteristics, eating habits, location, and even personality traits. The same might be said for groups of people. This is how the term played out in sociology.

In the middle of the 20^th century, thanks to Erik Erikson, the concept of identity exploded within psychology. Now, rather than asking about what class one belonged to, the question had more to do with “who am I?” One can see this in Erikson’s definition of an identity crisis:

“The condition of being uncertain of one’s feelings about oneself, especially with regard to character, goals, and origins, occurring especially in adolescence as a result of growing up under disruptive, fast-changing conditions.”

An identity crisis is a fundamental disruption in a person’s view of self. As this concept has evolved, we now have debates about how one acquires an identity. Is it given to me socially? Do I get to define it myself? Where does our identity come from?

How Did the Biblical Writers View Identity?

The biblical writers would not have thought of identity in the same way that someone like Erikson, or even we today, think of identity. For one, they lived in a collectivist culture. This means that before thinking about who “I” am, they’d have thought primarily in terms of “we.” But this doesn’t mean that the Bible is silent on questions of identity. A major thrust of the storyline of the Bible is answering the question, “who am I?” Brain Rosner says it well:

“Everyone has an identity from God in being made in the image of God. But believers in Christ have an identity given to them by being known by God intimately and personally as his child. Our identity, then, is a gift from God. It becomes central to who we are and affects all the other aspects of who we are as individuals.”

Though he would not have used the term “identity crisis,” the apostle Paul outlines something similar in Philippians 3. Here Paul is arguing with a group of false teachers whose identity is based upon being part of the covenant people, and chiefly through the covenant sign of circumcision. In Philippians 3, Paul outlines his own credentials — his former identity:

“…though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:4-7).

Everything listed here was an identity marker for Paul. If you asked him, “who are you,” these would have been part of his answer. Yet, as we see in verse 7, he now counts this “identity” as rubbish. His identity is now found in Christ. This is what he says in Galatians 2:20, “For it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.”

The biblical writers didn’t have the modern view of identity as we have — but nevertheless the Scriptures still answer the same questions we are asking today. And we find that from the perspective of the Bible, it is God and not man who defines our identity. God answers the question of who we are. And the key concept is whether we are “known by God” or “belong to God.” Or to use the language of the New Testament, the key is whether our identity is found in Christ.

What Does It Look Like to Have Our Identity in Christ?

When I was in high school, I thought I’d be cool and attend a college party. To gain entrance, one needed a student ID from the college. My high school ID wasn’t going to cut it. In other words, based upon my own identity, I didn’t meet the qualifications to gain entrance. But my friend, a freshman in college, did have a student ID. And when we got to the entrance, he was able to say, “He’s with me.” I got in not by my own qualifications — but by the qualifications of another.

This illustrates, at least in part, what it means to have our identity in Christ. It means that who Jesus is, is more important than who we are. When God looks at us, he doesn’t see our identification badge. He doesn’t see our record — we hold the badge of “sinful.” Rather, when God sees us, He sees the identification of Jesus. Jesus says over us, “He/She is with me.”

Christian identity, though, means more than this. John Calvin, in his Institutes, can help us here:  

“Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.”

Calvin is saying that who we are (knowing ourselves) is so intimately tied together with knowing God. Who you are is who God says you are. And yet even our ability to know God is tied to a knowledge of ourselves. If we know the story of the Bible (Creation-Fall-Redemption-Glory) then we know who we are.

To have our identity in Christ means that we understand our destination to be the same as Jesus. We understand that His resurrection is our resurrection. What does this mean practically? It means that this world is not our home. The kingdoms of this world are not the driving force behind our life. Rather, the kingdom of God is what drives our actions. Our primary identity isn’t found in a nation or even within our own family. It’s wrapped up in God’s kingdom.

To have our identity in Christ also means that our fears and our failures do not get the last word. Our sin doesn’t get the last word over our lives. Jesus does. We aren’t defined by the bad things we’ve done or even the good things we’ve done. We are defined by the finished work of Jesus Christ. We are defined by His death and His resurrection.

Practically speaking, this means that “sinner” isn’t your fundamental identity anymore. You are no longer a helpless wretch bound in the shackles of sin. You have a new identity. You have a new team. You have a new owner over your heart. You belong to Jesus. This changes everything.

Becoming More and More Like Jesus

What does it look like to find our identity in Christ?

It looks like being who God made you to be. But it means who God made you to be in Christ. That means that you might flash that driver’s license, you might retain personal accomplishments, etc. But the identity that you pull out when asked, “Who are you” is one that looks like Jesus. And the Christian life is that who we are is increasingly brought into conformity to Jesus. To be more and more like Jesus means to be more and more who we were made to be. It means to regain our God-given identity.

Source
Webster’s New World Dictionary, 1979, p. 696.

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