Learning to Abide in Your Christ Given Identity Sample

Day 3 Salvation: Finding Your Identity in Christ 

Before you can understand how to abide in your identity in Christ, you have to understand how you get to Him in the first place. We are tempted to find our identity in many things, including our career, our marital status, our race, our sexuality, and our class. But God is the only One who can define you. Your identity should be swallowed up in His identity. 

He loves you where you are, in spite of where you currently find an identity. That love will transform you into His image, moving you away from other identities. The purpose of this study is to help you replace your current identity, whatever you think that is, by abiding in your identity in Christ and living in righteousness. 

Within humanity, there is a sin problem all of us are born with. Most of the world’s religions and institutions have been created to answer this problem. Most people try to do good and try not to do badly in hopes that this will balance out the scales and please whatever god they believe in. I believe that most churches are filled with people who are simply doing their “Christian duty” in hopes that their good works are enough to appease God and eradicate the sin problem in their lives. They hope that their good works will outweigh the bad works and that God will save them based on these works, but the sin problem is not reconcilable without God’s intervention. In this fallen state, the identity that you have is bleak and depressing. According to the Bible, all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are “by nature children of wrath” This has many devastating implications, but the most damning of all is that sin separates us eternally from a holy God. There is nothing that we can do to save ourselves; we are in dire need of a savior.

You must understand that you cannot save yourself. No amount of good works will be good enough to redeem you from sin. Because of this, we are under the heaviness of God’s wrath. Since God is perfectly just, He has to punish sin, one way or another. His invitation to you is to put your faith in Christ, who bore God’s wrath for sinners on the cross. Christ takes the punishment your sin deserves, and He makes you right with God. 

When you respond to Christ’s free gift, there is an action on your part. You receive Christ’s salvation. You do not earn it but reach out in faith to receive it. When you receive Christ’s salvation in faith, you are promised eternal life and a new identity in Him. But what does that mean? What exactly is your new identity in Christ as a believer? 

It is uncomfortable to be reminded of how sin kept you separate and distant from God, but you can rejoice all the more in who you are in Christ. Colossians 1:12–14 makes it clear that you have been delivered from darkness, forgiven, and redeemed. Now you are qualified to partake in this inheritance. Once you have been found by Christ, you are born again, and your nature is changed. Not only do you have Christ’s righteousness as your new identity, but you also have access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ, your High Priest. When you are in the righteousness of God, there is nothing that stands between you and Him. You have full access to Him all of the time. This is a love story of God bestowing His righteousness upon you. 

It is only because of Christ’s great act on the cross that you are accepted and not found guilty before God. Biblical righteousness accomplishes two main things. First, righteousness restores all that was lost at the fall of Adam and brings you into a father–child relationship with God Himself. Second, righteousness moves you to love others fervently because you have experienced the tremendous power of God’s love. Your response to receiving God’s love is to extend that love to others, knowing that love covers so many things. 

Remember that God’s imputed righteousness is not based on your behavior but on Christ’s finished work. God’s love is without condition. It does not waver based on whether you choose obedience or disobedience. As a Christian, you cannot be any more righteous than you are right now. 

God looks at you with love in His eyes. He created you in His very image and likeness. Sin marred that, which distorted the image. When you were born again, God restored the marred image and recreated you in the “newness of life”. However, you look in the mirror and see the sinful person instead of the person into whom He has transformed you. God is saying, “Look in the mirror of the Spirit of God and see that I truly created you in My likeness.” We must not gloss over this fact if we are going to abide in Christ and find our identity in Him. Colossians 3:8–10 says that we are to bear the image of Christ. Did you know that you actually reflect the image of Christ? You are newly created in Him. Are you starting to see the power of abiding in your identity? If you receive this revelation, it will transform you forever. Don’t fall for the lie that you are the way you are and continue to live in your sinful nature. Dare to abide in your identity in Christ. If you do so, it will change everything.

Use the STAR Journal Method and process through some of the verses or thoughts mentioned. 

#1 Scripture Read/Promise Given/Question Asked

Read the verse and/or question. Pause and prayerfully meditate on what is being said, read, or asked.

#2 Thought Conveyed

Write down what this means to you to clearly understand the question, Scripture thought, or promise. Make it personal to get the most out of it.

#3 Application Made

How does this teaching apply to me right now? How does this apply to my leadership context?

#4 Response Given

What can I do to immediately apply this to my life? How should I respond/react to this promise or instruction now and long-term?