What does having an identity in Christ mean? What Jesus did on the cross forever defined your identity as a believer—something many people wrestle with today. Have you ever wondered what happened from the time Jesus was on the cross to when He sat down on the throne? More importantly, have you ever fully comprehended what He did for you personally in that span of time? For example, Galatians 2:20 tells us, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (NKJV).
Jesus died on our behalf, but this verse shows us that when we made Jesus our Lord, we partook of what He did for us. When He was crucified, spiritually speaking, we were crucified with Him; we died with Him; we were buried and made alive with Him; we were raised up together with Him, and we were seated in heavenly places together with Him.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6, NKJV).
What’s more, 2 Corinthians 5:17 assures us that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (KJV).
A New Creature In Christ
To illustrate the reality of this, Mark and Trina Hankins recently shared with Brother Copeland the testimony of their grandson Dylan who had a bone marrow transplant (stem cell transplant) a few years ago. Dylan’s brother Gavin was his donor. For four days they took blood from Gavin and gave it to Dylan. For the next three months, as Gavin’s stem cells were grafted into Dylan’s, he became a different person. At three weeks, medically in his blood, Dylan was 50% himself, and 50% Gavin. At three months, Dylan was 75% Gavin and only 25% himself. Today, Dylan is 100% Gavin. There’s nothing left of the cells that had leukemia and if you tested both boys’ blood for DNA, they would appear to be the same person.
So imagine what happens spiritually when you make Jesus the Lord of your life? He transforms you into a new creature in Christ. And think about who your donor is—Jesus Himself! His blood doesn’t flow through your veins literally, but this is what people mean when they say we have Jesus’ blood flowing through our veins. Spiritually, we do! It’s part of our identity in Christ, something we find in God’s Word.
Be One With God
Imagine finding your identity in The WORD of God. You will never wrestle with who you are or why God put you on this earth. It’s possible if we’ll go to God and find our identity in Him. In fact, one of the best ways to discover, and study our identity in Christ is to read through Paul’s letters. He wrote to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians; and every time you see two-word phrases such as…
- in Christ.
- in Him.
- in whom.
- in the beloved.
…highlight, circle or underline those phrases. Those two-word phrases describe who you are and what you have as a born-again believer. They describe who He is in us. These phrases are found 130 times in the Bible. They describe what God has already done for you and in you, in Christ. Seek His word daily to discover one of the most powerful ways to develop strong faith.
Transformed In His Image
Who better to get into agreement with than God?
Romans 10:9-10 (KJV) shows us “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
The WORD will come alive to us when we spend time in it, the same way Jesus found Himself in the book. The spirit of wisdom and revelation will cause the words to become revelation, and revelation in our lives is transformative. As believers, all we want is to be transformed into the image of Jesus.
Declaration of Faith
Kenneth Copeland has said that if you want all the “in Him, in Christ, in whom, etc.” scriptures to come alive for you, then take the “Ephesians 1 Prayer” and pray it every day. The Ephesians 1 Prayer comes from making a declaration of faith based on verses from Ephesians 1:17-23.
Father God,
I’m asking you to give to me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You. I pray that the eyes of my understanding would be flooded with light, that I may know the hope of Your calling, what is the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in the saints, what is the exceeding greatness of Your power toward us who believe, according to the working of Your mighty power which You worked in Christ, when You raised Him from the dead and sat Him at Your own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality, power, might, dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also that which is to come.
For You put all things under His feet, gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
