Identity
What does the Bible say about your identity in Christ? 10 scriptures on who you are as a child of God, a new creation, and an heir of the Kingdom. New Covenant commentary.
Your identity in Christ is not something you earn or maintain through performance. It was given at the new birth and is as permanent as the new birth itself. You are not a sinner trying to become a saint. You are a new creation who is learning to live from what they already are. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says old things have passed away, all things have become new. This is not aspirational language. It is declarative language. The new creation is already what you are. The work of the Christian life is not building an identity from scratch. It is believing and walking in an identity that was placed in you by the Holy Spirit when you came to Christ.
10 verses on Identity
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Before any covenant, before any command, before any sin, God declared what human beings are: made in His image. The imago Dei is not a reward. It is the design. In Christ, this original image is renewed and restored (Colossians 3:10). You were made to bear the image of God. That is the most fundamental thing about you.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
New creation is a present reality, not a future aspiration. You are not becoming a new creation. You are one. Old things passed away at the moment you came to Christ. All things became new. The old identity, the old nature, the old standing before God: passed away. The new is now what is true of you.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
You have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Not some blessings. Not the blessings you have earned. Every spiritual blessing. The verb is past tense: has blessed. The blessing is done, complete, given. Your identity is the identity of someone who has already been given everything that matters in the heavenly places.
And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
If you belong to Christ, you are an heir. Not a servant hoping to one day receive a portion. An heir. The promises made to Abraham belong to everyone who is in Christ. The covenant blessings are not restricted to ethnic Israel. They are available to every person who has trusted in the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.
and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
You are not only an heir. You are a joint heir with Christ. What Christ inherited, you inherit with Him. His status before the Father is the template for yours. Romans 8:15 says you received the Spirit of adoption. The adoption is complete. The inheritance is yours.
and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
You are complete in Christ. Not almost complete. Not complete once you fix certain areas. Complete. The Greek pleroma means full, filled up, lacking nothing. There is nothing you need for completeness that is not already yours in Christ. You do not have to add to what He has given. You stand in it.
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
No longer a slave. The language of your old identity is slave: obligation, fear, performance. The language of your new identity is son: belonging, inheritance, relationship. You do not relate to God as a worker trying to satisfy a demanding employer. You relate to Him as a son who belongs to a Father who delights in giving the Kingdom.
and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
The new man was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Not projected righteousness. Not imputed righteousness that does not belong to you. True righteousness and holiness. This is who you now are. The putting on of this new man is not creating something you do not have. It is believing and acting from what you already are.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
Fearfully and wonderfully made. The design of your body, your personality, your mind was not an accident and was not inferior. You were made with remarkable intentionality by a God who declared His work marvelous. Your identity begins before your performance, before your failures, before anyone told you who you were. It begins with how God made you.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Chosen. Royal. Holy. His own special people. These are the titles God gives to believers, not as aspirations to earn but as declarations of what is now true. You were called out of darkness into marvelous light. The calling is done. The new identity is given. The life that follows is the living out of what you already are.