Our Identity: We Are Forever Alive

“Our identity in Christ”—is it just me, or do you also hear and perhaps even utter these words with increasing frequency? We know our existence as believers in Christ to be a good thing, though surely our notions of this phrase vary widely among us. Yet it is vital that we understand our selfhood in Christ, for truth sets us free,¹ as Jesus said, and who we are informs how we live. Over the next few weeks, then, let’s take time to understand and embrace our identity in Christ.

The Bible teaches us that, ever since “the fall” in Eden, sin has permeated the human condition and we are born separated from Christ² and from the life of God.³ Yet all who place their trust in Jesus go through profound change, ultimately a complete change, for in fact we are made new. In a natural sense, we are no different than before we believed—we live and breathe; we grow, then fade—but inwardly we spring from death to life, for as Jesus said, whoever believes in Him “shall not perish but have eternal life.”⁴ How does this happen? In Christ is life itself,⁵ and when we entrust our fleeting existence to His imperishable one, “the Spirit gives birth to [our] spirit”⁶—His life bears life in us. Moreover, “God’s seed remains in” all who are thus born of God,⁷ sustaining us forever. Knowing this, we can confess with Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”⁸

Our identity is in Christ, and we are forever alive. This is who we are, and we must understand this. For we no longer have reason to fear death, rather we have every reason not to. We can cease our striving to close the gap between ourselves and God, for we are separated from Him no longer. We have good news for those without hope, and also for those with false hope, for we have been “born into a living hope,”⁹ and so may they.

Father, how loving You are that you would send Your Son to pay for our sins. How wise You are to breathe into us the life of Him who will never die. How kind You are to free us from fear and deliver us from death. Thank You. Use us. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 John 8:32
2 Ephesians 2:12
3 Ephesians 4:18
4 John 3:16
5 John 1:4
6 John 3:6 ESV
7 1 John 3:9 ESV
8 Galatians 2:20 AMP
9 1 Peter 1:4