Who am I in Jesus Christ?

I am the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13)
I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)
I am a child of God (John 1:12)
I am a part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life (John 15:1,5)
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15)
I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit (John 15:16)
I am a slave of righteousness (Romans 6:18)
I am enslaved to God (Romans 6:22)
I am a son of God; God is spiritually my Father (Romans 8:14,15; Galatians 3:26; 4:6)
I am a joint heir with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him (Romans 8:17)
I am a temple - a dwelling place - of God. His Spirit and His life dwells in me (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19)
I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17)
I am a member of Christ's Body (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 5:30)
I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)
I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18,19)
I am a son of God and one in Christ (Galatians 3:26,28)
I am an heir of God since I am a son of God (Galatians 4:6,7)
I am a saint (Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2)
I am God's workmanship - His handiwork - born anew in Christ to do His work (Ephesians 2:10)
I am a fellow citizen with the rest of God's family (Ephesians 2:19)
I am a citizen of heaven, seated in heaven right now (Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 2:6)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)
I am an expression of the life of Christ because He is my life (Colossians 3:4)
I am chosen of God, holy and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4)
I am a son of light and not of darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5)
I am a holy partaker of a heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1)
I am a partaker of Christ; I share in His life (Hebrews 3:14)
I am one of God's living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5)
I am a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession (1 Peter 2:9,10)
I am an alien and a stranger to this world in which I temporarily live (1 Peter 2:11)
I am an enemy of the devil (1 Peter 5:8)
I am a child of God and I will resemble Christ when He returns (1 John 3:1,2)
I am born of God, and the evil one - the devil - cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)
I am not the great 'I am' (Exodus 3:14; John 8:24,28,58), but by the grace of God, I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Since I am in Christ, by the grace of God …

I have been justified - completely forgiven and made righteous (Romans 5:1)
I died with Christ and died to the power of sin's rule over my life (Romans 6:1-6)
I am free forever from condemnation (Romans 8:1)
I have been placed into Christ by God's doing (1 Corinthians 1:30)
I have received the Spirit of God into my life that I might know the things freely given to me by God (1 Corinthians 2:12)
I have been given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)
I have been bought with a price; I am not my own; I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:19,20)
I have been established, anointed and sealed by God in Christ, and I have been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge guaranteeing my inheritance to come (2 Corinthians 1:21; Ephesians 1:13,14)
Since I died, I no longer live for myself, but for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14,15)
I have been made righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21)
I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am now living is Christ's life (Galatians 2:20)
I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)
I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him (Ephesians 1:4)
I was predestined - determined by God - to be adopted as God's son (Ephesians 1:5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven, and I am a recipient of His lavish grace. (Ephesians 1:7)
I have been made alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)
I have been raised up and seated with Christ in heaven (Ephesians 2:6)
I have direct access to God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:18)
I may approach God with boldness, freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12)
I have been rescued from the domain of Satan's rule and transferred to the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13)
I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. The debt against me has been cancelled (Colossians 1:14)
Christ Himself is in me (Colossians 1:27)
I am firmly rooted in Christ and am now being built in Him (Colossians 2:7)
I have been spiritually circumcised. My old unregenerate nature has been removed (Colossians 2:11)
I have been made complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10)
I have been buried, raised and made alive with Christ (Colossians 2:12,13)
I died with Christ and I have been raised up with Christ. My life is now hidden with Christ in God. Christ is now my life (Colossians 3:1-4)
I have been given a spirit of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)
I have been saved and set apart according to God's doing (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5)
Because I am sanctified and am one with the Sanctifier, He is not ashamed to call me brother (Hebrews 2:11)
I have the right to come boldly before God's throne of grace to find mercy and grace in time of need (Hebrews 4:16)
I have been given exceedingly great and precious promises by God by which I am a partaker of God's divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)

[Highly recommended further reading are works by Larry Crabb (Understanding People, Inside Out) and Neil T. Anderson (Victory over the Darkness), the latter book being the one from which the above list was taken.]

When a Christian begins to believe and appropriate the above truths, he/she is thinking rationally* and in accordance with reality. And as Jesus said, when you know the truth, the truth sets you free (John 8:31,32). Consider the following tables to help establish rational thinking:

[* Note: That is, thinking accurately and appropriately about ourselves, others, and the world around us, thinking realistically, thinking in accord with biblical truth.]

So what we can see is that the essence to right thinking is appropriating the great truths of what God did for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; it is applying and believing the truths concerning our new birth:

Grace
"Understanding grace is the only answer. Grace is divine acceptance of us where we are. It deals with human weakness and brokenness. It enables trust to replace anxiety, acceptance to restore honour where there was shame, and forgiveness to deal with guilt."

Propitiation
"Christ fully satisfied God's wrath on the cross, therefore I am viewed favourably by God and am deeply loved by God (1 John 4:9-11)"

Justification
"God has not only forgiven me of my sins but has also granted me the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Because of justification, I have Christ's righteousness and am, therefore, pleasing to the Father (Romans 3:19-25; Romans 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:21)"

Reconciliation
"Although I was once hostile toward God and at a distance from Him, I am now forgiven and have been brought into an intimate relationship with Him. Therefore, I am totally accepted by God (Colossians 1:21-22)"

Adoption
"I am adopted into sonship in God's eternal family alongside of Christ, God's beloved Son (Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 1:3-7)"

Regeneration
"I am a new creation in Christ (John 3:3-6; 2 Corinthians 5:17)"

[The above tables and definitions were gleaned from Bruce and Petranella Litchfield. Christian Counselling. 4 vols. Dickson, ACT, Australia: Christian Counselling Services, 1992]


Perhaps the final checklist we may use to see how we are progressing in our appropriation, with the help of the Holy Spirit, of these truths concerning who we are is the standard of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). It does us well to work down the following list and mark which aspects we are still lacking in, and if we are still lacking, let us endeavour to humble ourselves and walk in His Spirit, for love is the fruit of walking in the Spirit:


Love is …

patient
kind
does not envy / not jealous
does not boast
not proud / arrogant
not rude
not self-seeking / insist on own way
not easily angered / irritable
not resentful (keeps record of wrongs)
does not delight in evil / the wrong
rejoices with the truth / the right
always protects / bears all things
always trusts / believes all things
always hopes
always perseveres / endures
never fails / ends

And so we see that coming to a true understanding of who we are in Christ is one of the most important and practical things we can ever do, for it prepares us for being in relationship with others, that is, for being in community, which is what we all deeply long for. And the fact is that the above truths concerning who you are in Christ are also true for every other born again Christian you meet! Thus the Christian community should be the most awesome experience of love and acceptance any person could ever encounter. The fact, however, that it isn't in many cases shows the serious lack amongst our churches of understanding these truths for ourselves, let alone perceiving the same truths in others. We must therefore never neglect establishing our identity in Christ.