When we face our identity and see ourselves for who we are, we may find we don’t like what we see:
- conflicting relationships
- lack of depth
- hypocrisy
- little influence
- lack of value
- disappointment
We work really hard to change our identity. If we don’t like something, we find a treatment, cover it up, Photoshop it, or cancel it. Our attempts are usually short-lived. Once we see our old identity for what it really is, we know we need help to change it. God doesn’t leave us without hope.
- God has a great love for us.
- God took initiative when we were not lovable.
- God is willing to make us new in Christ.
- God can make the old identity pass away.
- God is RICH in mercy, holding back what we deserve.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.(2 Corinthians 5:17)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10)
For anyone who has moved from the old identity to the new, we can ask the next big question.
So what is my identity in Christ now?
- I am a new creation
- I am loved by God
- I am alive with Christ Jesus
- I am saved by grace (that means giving me gifts I don’t deserve)
- I am going to receive God’s kindness in the future in heaven
- I am changed because of my faith in God
- I am a recipient of a new identity through God’s Son
- I am not changed because of my work, but my works show my change
- I am free from my past identity
- I am able to be obedient to my righteous, loving God
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18)
Finding my identity in Christ means I am now beloved of God Himself as His new creation. I may not make the Women of the World 2013 list, but I have great worth and significance to God. When He looks at me, He sees His Son Jesus covering me. I LOOK BEAUTIFUL TO HIM! And He is working to make me more and more like Him.
Now that we know who we were and who we are, next week we’ll look at who we are in the world.
How would today be different if you BELIEVED you are beautiful in God’s eyes?
