Identity
If you were asked to identify yourself, what would you do? That might depend on who was asking; if it was a police officer, you’d probably pull out your driver’s license. If it was a guard at your workplace, you’d pull out your employee badge. In some instances they might want to see your student ID card, your green card, or a copy of your social security card or birth certificate. On a website you might have a user id and password you have to enter.
All of these types of identification are a physical representation of an association. Your birth certificate shows who your parents are, and where and when you were born. It shows what family you belong to, and what country you are a citizen of.
There are records behind those pieces of identification – someone has gone through a process to verify your identity, and that you have a right to the association with that organization. I.e., someone can type in your ID number at a computer, and gain access to the information that that organization has about you. That information could be your credit history, or your criminal record, your grade transcripts, your tax returns.
With each association comes access and privileges. A student ID gives you access to the campus, classes, the library, etc. A driver’s license gives you the right to operate an automobile on our roads. A green card gives a foreign national the right to be employed in this country. An employee badge gives you access to the company buildings. Being a US citizen (verifiable through your social security number) gives you the right to vote.
That is why identity theft is dangerous – if someone steals your identity, they gain your access and privileges. They can gain access to your financial accounts. Also, what they do goes onto your record. I met someone once who said their no good brother kept getting in trouble with the law and giving his name.
If asked to describe themselves, men tend to answer in terms of what they do – their vocation – and women in terms of their associations – wife of, mother of, daughter of, friend of.
A person gets a sense of purpose from their identity. But earthly vocations and associations can change. A man could retire or get laid off. The kids grow up and move away. A marriage can end in divorce, or by a spouse dying.
If your whole sense of purpose is defined by these transient earthly associations, you can be in trouble when they go away.
Your New Identity
When a person is born again, they gain a new identity through change of associations.
Colossians 1:13 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
The word translated conveyed here means to transfer from one place to another. We have been taken out from under the domain of darkness, and put into the kingdom of the Son. This is a change of citizenship.
John 17:14-16 14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
We live in this world, but we are not of it. We are citizens of heaven (even though we haven’t been there yet!). Specifically, we are ambassadors of heaven sent to the world with the ministry and word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20).
The next part of our new identity is that we have had a change of families.
Romans 8:14-16 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Galatians 3:26 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:18-19 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
John 1:12 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
Galatians 4:4-7 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
1 John 3:1-2 1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
The third thing that has happened through our new identity is that we receive a change of nature.
2 Corinthians 5:17 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
When we are born again, we are transformed into a new creation – a new species of being that did not exist before. You’ve seen the bumper sticker, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”? Although I understand the sentiment, there is an element of untruth in it. We are not just forgiven – we are given a new spiritual nature.
Who do you say that I am?
Matthew 16:13-18 13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Every person needs to answer the question asked by Jesus, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon answered the question correctly, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. But even if we say the same thing as Simon, it is not enough for us, because we would just be quoting what Simon said. The real question is, who is He to you?
Simon’s answer was significant, and Jesus called him blessed, because he wasn’t just parroting what he had heard someone else say – he had a revelation from God. And when Simon told Jesus who he believed Jesus was, Jesus told Simon who he was – “you are Peter, a rock.” He gave him a new name, a new thing to call himself – a new identity.
Substitution and Identification
Christ was our substitute. That means that God counts the things that He did as if we did them.
Romans 6:1-12 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Verse 2 states that we are dead to sin. How can the Bible make such a statement? It is explained in verse 3 and 4: We died, were buried, and rose with Christ. Think of it this way; Christ earned it, but the deposit was made into our accounts. This is now how God sees us – through “Jesus colored” glasses, red with the blood of His sacrifice.
This is substitution – Jesus did these things in our place, so they are now credited to our account.
But there is a second part to it that is our responsibility: we must identify, personally, with what Jesus has done for us. For example, Jesus died for the sins of every single human being on the planet. But a person doesn’t receive the benefit of that sacrifice until they identify with it personally – Jesus died for my sins.
Let’s take an analogy: Someone could deposit a million dollars into an account for you, but it will not benefit you unless you do some things also.
You have to know about the account. You have to know that the account is in your name. You have to know how much is in the account – i.e., if you only believe there is $5000 in the account even though there is a million, you will only receive $5000 worth of benefit.
You have to know when the funds are available to you. I.e., if you think that it is like a retirement account and you can only withdraw funds when you are 65, then you will have no benefit available to you until you reach that age. (There are a lot of Christians who relegate many of the blessings of God to when we get to heaven).
You have to know how to make a withdrawal, and then you have to act on it and make withdrawals. Because even if you have all that money in an account that you know about, if you never make a withdrawal, you will never benefit from it at all.
God no longer sees us as poor old miserable sinners saved by grace. We are not! We were saved by grace! And if you still see yourself as an old sinner, you will not experience victory over sin in your life.
Look at vs. 11 again – we are told to “reckon ourselves as dead to sin”. Now our brains might go tilt over that statement, because we know what we did yesterday. Is it lying to say we are dead to sin when we still commit sin?
No. It is not lying because God said it first. But get it right – we don’t say, “I have no sin”, because that would be a lie (1 John 1:8). But we can say, “I am dead to sin” – which means sin no longer has dominion or lordship over me, it is no longer my master.
Also notice the order in which we do things. First, we are to say and reckon that we are dead to sin. Then, we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.
Most Christians try to do it the other way around – they try to stop sinning before they would ever say they were dead to or had victory over sin.
Legal and Vital Aspects of Redemption
The Legal Aspects are the things God counts as done because Jesus purchased them on Calvary. This includes our spiritual salvation, our redemption from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13), our healing (1 Peter 2:24), and many, many more things.
However, we do not experience any of this redemption in our lives until we accept it for ourselves and apply faith.
- God has purchased salvation for every human being, but we have to accept Jesus as Lord
- God has purchased healing by the stripes on Jesus’ back, but we have to believe
- God has redeemed us from the curse of poverty, but we have to believe and trust to have our needs met
This is the Vital aspect – getting what God has purchased for us to work in our lives. In every case, it is going to involve our believing what He has done for us and in us.
Philemon 1:4-6 4 I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers,
5 hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints,
6 that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
The word “sharing” in the Greek is koinenia, which means fellowship or communication. The Amplified version says “the participation in and sharing” of your faith. It has the obvious meaning in this context of sharing your faith with others, i.e., witnessing, but it also refers to using and exercising our faith. It will become more effective when we acknowledge – admit to be true or confess – every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus.
That last bit is the key – in Christ Jesus. This verse is not talking about enumerating all the good points of your sparkling personality, but finding out and acknowledging what God has wrought in us in the new birth.
God says many things about us in the Bible; these are the legal aspects of our redemption. We are to acknowledge the truth of them in our lives. We are to agree with what God says, and confess them.
The word confess is from the Greek homologeo, which means to say the same thing. We are aware of its use in the confession of sin, but the Bible actually has more to say about confessing positive things than about the confession of sin. For example, Rom 10:8-10, confessing Jesus as Lord.
Romans 10:8-10 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Agree with God
It is going to require faith to agree with God, because He talks about things as though they already exist before you can see them.
Romans 4:17 17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed–God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.
Romans 4:17 AMP 17 As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.
Look in the Mirror
James 1:21-25 21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
James 2:12 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
Vs. 21 the word implanted is able to save your soul. Save – to make whole. This is not talking about being born again here, that is the salvation of your spirit. James is addressing Christians who would already be born again. Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. It is changing our thinking processes and beliefs.
Vs. 22 Be a doer, not just a mental-assenter. A mental assenter agrees with the Word – “Oh, yes, I believe it just that way!” – but does not act on it.
Vs. 23 observing his natural face; lit., the face of his nature, or the face of his birth. Specifically, the face of his new birth.
Vs. 24 He looks and sees the face of his new birth or nature, then goes away and forgets what a manner of man he was.
Vs. 25 The perfect law of liberty. This is the Word of God.
True Knowledge
I believe the perfect law of liberty is summed up in these verses:
John 8:31-32 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Knowledge of the truth brings freedom. But it’s not just head knowledge, or what some people call “mental assent”. The Greek word ginōskō implies a relationship between the one doing the knowing and the thing being known. It is more than being aware of a fact, it means you have made it a part of you and you act on what you know. So just knowing what a Bible verse says, even being able to quote it, is not enough to qualify as “knowing” it in this sense. You have to believe it, and a natural result of believing it means you will also act on it.
2 Peter 1:1-9 1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Vs. 1 We have obtained faith of the same kind as Peter.
Vs. 2 Grace and peace are multiplied to us through knowledge (epignōsis, usually translated as true knowledge.).
Vs. 3 All things pertaining to life and godliness – that covers everything, doesn’t it? The word “life” in the Greek is zoe, from which the word zoology comes from. In secular Greek it meant the element of life that is shared by men and animals, but in the New Testament it is most often used to refer to the quality of life as God has it, and passed on to the believer in the new birth – i.e., eternal life. All these things are given to us through the epignōsis of Him.
Vs. 4 Through precious and magnificent promises we are made partakers of the divine nature. What does that mean? It means we take on God-like qualities, in character, how we act, how we think. The fruit of the Spirit is the character of God manifest in a believer. (Note: partakers is the Greek word koinōnŏs, from koinōnía.)
Vs. 5-8 is a list of Christian virtues. If these are yours and abound – this word has the meaning of increasing. The NASB translates it that way. So if we are increasing in these things then our knowledge is bearing fruit.
The key word here is increasing; i.e., that we are growing. We don’t have to be fully grown or have fully arrived, just growing. Different people grow at different rates and are at different stages; God is pleased if we continue to show progress.
Vs. 9 Doesn’t say that if you lack these things you are carnal or a sinner. It says you are blind or shortsighted – you can’t see straight. You’ve forgotten that you were purified from your sins.
You’ve forgotten what manner of man you are.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Vs. 17 liberty again.
Vs. 18 uses the concept of a mirror again. What do you see when you look in a mirror? Yourself. Here it says we should look in the mirror (God’s Word, the perfect law of liberty) and behold the glory of the Lord. Col 1:27 says that it is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
As we see in the Word of God the way God sees us, the way He has made us in our new, spiritual nature, we are transformed into that image.
Be Transformed
Romans 12:1-2 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Transformed is the Greek word metamorphoō, from which we get the word metamorphosis. This is the process by which a tadpole turns into a frog, or a caterpillar into a butterfly. The key is that the nature of a butterfly already exists inside that caterpillar, but it is hidden. When it goes through the metamorphosis, that nature built into its DNA transforms its outward appearance, so you can now see on the outside what was on the inside.
Kenneth Wuest, one of the translators of the Amplified Bible, has authored what he calls the Expanded Translation – he uses as many words as he needs to get across what the Greek is really saying. He translates Rom 12:2 like this:
(Rom 12:2 Wuest’s Expanded Translation) And stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being, but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your mind.
This transformation process takes place by renewing our minds. Our spirits were already transformed and renewed when we were born again. Our soul – the mind, will, and emotions and the seat of our personality, also needs to be transformed, but that is an ongoing process.
We Shall Be Like Him
1 John 3:2 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Why will we be like Him when He is revealed and we see Him face to face, as He really is?
1 John 4:17 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
As He is, so are we. 1 John 3:2 says that we will be like Him in heaven, and nobody has a problem with that. But 1 John 4:17 says as He is, so are we in this world! We are already like Him on the inside. When we see Him face to face, we shall behold that glory of the Lord and the last transformation will take place.
So why aren’t we more like Him now?
1 Corinthians 13:12 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
In this life, our view in the mirror is dim. Now we have partial knowledge, but then we shall know ourselves even as God fully knows us. And we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free!
How to look in the Mirror
The transformation that takes place by the renewing of the mind is a lifelong process, which will be completed when we come face to face with Jesus. But as long as we are on this earth we should be growing. We can make progress towards that goal by acknowledging the work God has done in us and identifying with it.
The Bible is full of verses that contain phrases like “in Him”, “in Christ”, “with Him”, “through Him”, “by Him”, etc. These verses tell us Who we are in Christ, what we can do in Him, and what we have in Christ.
For example, one of my favorite verses,
2 Corinthians 5:21 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
In Him, we are the righteousness of God. That means I am righteous. And so any place the Bible talks about the blessings that come on the righteous, I qualify. That’s exciting!
Now some of these you’re just going to have to take by faith. God said it, so I believe it. Maybe my outward behavior doesn’t reflect it yet, but I don’t let that stop me. You want to identify with the butterfly on the inside, not the caterpillar on the outside.
Next, you have to change what you are saying. That is the number one way to act on what you believe. This is another whole subject by itself, but James 3:2 says that if we can control our tongue we can control our whole body.
The goal is to make those scriptures real on the inside of you – so you know them. Then, they will have an effect on your outward behavior.
Kenneth E. Hagin has a marvelous little minibook called “In Him” that lists these verses. Many years ago I took all these verses (144 of them) and wrote them out longhand to help get them inside of me – I still have that notebook.
