Who You Say I Am

The following notes were recently taken during a study on our identity in Christ. I hope it encourages you in the same way that it encouraged me! 

What does it mean to be in Christ?

To be in Christ is to be adopted into God’s family. We are children of God (John 1:12), accepted by Christ (Romans 15:7), united with Him in spirit (1 Cor 6:17), no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:6), made in God’s image (Gen 1), known by God in a personal way, part of the body of Christ (the Church, His bride). We were bought with a price and deeply loved by Him (1 Cor 6:19, 1 John 3:1). Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” 

Reflections from Psalm 139

• He knows me completely yet still loves me completely, in spite of all my flaws 
• He protects me and guides me constantly; He is always with me  
• He created me and knew me before I was even born
• His thoughts are innumerable and He is all-knowing 

• People are God’s greatest creation--it is wrong to stand in wonder of mountains or the ocean and ignore that people are the most incredible thing He has created on earth because they are each made in His image. 

• We must pray and ask Him to “search our hearts” in order for us to see our sin and be led in the way everlasting. He doesn’t sanctify us and perfect us without our consent; it is a deep, intimate relationship that lasts for all eternity.

What do you think the Bible means when it says that we are made in the image, the likeness, of God? How do you feel about being made in God’s image? 

We have emotions and a moral compass (people who aren’t believers try to do what is “good” and usually can identify what is evil), and we are made to be in relationship with Him and with each other. Being a sinner does not mean we have ceased to be in the image of God, but when we sin our image needs restoration and redemption. When we sin it easy to feel like our worth decreases, but this isn’t true. We are not defined by good works. We are defined by what Christ did for us on the Cross. Our salvation is described by Paul in Colossians 3:10:  “We have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.” He is sanctifying us and making us more and more like Him each day as we obey and abide. People (both believers and nonbelievers) often try to find their worth in things other than God, but nothing else (and no one else) provides us with eternal, steadfast worth. Only God does. Nothing we do can change the fact that He loves us and we are His children. 

More evidence of our identity in Christ, as revealed in Scripture: 

• 2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
• Colossians 2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
• Romans 6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
• Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
• Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
• Eph 2:6 And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
• Eph 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
• Eph 1:7-10 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
• Eph 1:11-12 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
• Eph 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
• Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
• Gal 3:14 So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
• Gal 3:26-27 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
• 1 Cor 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
• 1 John 2:1-6 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.