Who Am I In Christ?

All mankind are descendants of Adam, who, though created to live forever, are swallowed up in death. I cannot live forever, because Adam’s life had become corrupt and began to decay. As my most ancient ancestor, he defined me. He was my truth. My power to know was written in the map of life that I inherited ultimately from him. Adam was my way. I could experience only what he could. He was a rebel, so how could I be more than him? What Adam gave up, I cannot inherit from him.

Jesus fills the void in the human race by providing the missing sense that is not found in the life I inherited from Adam. This sense is the sense of God in my life, his authority in the guise of a still small Voice within me. It was this that was lost in Eden (Genesis 3:9), causing the life of Adam to become ruined and prone to sin and corruption (cp. Genesis 3:17-19, 23). The good news of the New Testament is: Jesus has come, and he has become my Life. I have a new identity, a new name and a new reputation that is defined by Jesus within me. He is my hope of glory, my hope of bearing fruit to God and working the works of God that have been ordained for me to act out since before Adam’s rebellion (Colossians 1:27; Ephesians 2:10).

Who, then, is Jesus? If I cannot know myself, unless I know him, who is he? His mother was told he was the Son of the Highest, the Messiah (Luke 1:30-35). Joseph was told he was the one who would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:18-21). The shepherds knew him as Savior and Messiah, the Lord as a newborn babe (Luke 2:10-14). The people of Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, knew him as Joseph’s son (Luke 4:22). The Jewish leadership believed he was a blasphemer (Luke 5:21), while the residents of Nain saw him as a great Prophet (Luke 7:16-17). Herod thought he was John the Baptist, risen from the dead, while others believed he was Elijah or one of the prophets (Luke 9:7-9). Pilate crucified him under the accusation that he was the Son of God, the King of the Jews (Luke 23:1-3). Even one of the criminals, who died with him, called him Lord! But more than all these, the testimony of God concerning Jesus is: “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased” (2Peter 1:17; cp. Psalms 2:7).

Jesus is an enigma! Those who have their eyes opened, have that missing sense restored. For them he is Lord, God, Savior and King. For those whose inner sense remains severed from God, he has become all sorts of things from deceiver and blasphemer to a good man who was misunderstood. Yet, no one is able to completely remove him from his or her thoughts. He is both loved and feared, but no one can take him for granted. When Jesus enters our lives, we find that just as he was an enigma, so are we to this world (1John 3:1; 4:17). There will be something unearthly and mysterious about us that will bring both love and hatred to our doors. We will be welcomed and feared, sought after and misunderstood, praised and ridiculed, but we will never again be able to just blend into the crowd, unnoticed.

I am told in Scripture that I have the mind of Christ (1Corinthians 2:16). What does this mean, and where did I get it? When did I receive it? 1Corinthians 2:9-16 says I have been given something by God that the world does not have. No one has ever seen it, heard it, touched it, tasted it or smelled it. It does not come into the heart through our five senses (1Corinthians 2:9). God has prepared something for his people that cannot be perceived through the faculties possessed by Adam’s descendents. I perceive the things that God has prepared for me through the spirit of God, which he has given to me for fellowship with him and with brethren of like faith (1Corinthians 2:10, 12). The world may think I am foolish, because they have no real understanding of spiritual matters. They have no spiritual connection with God (1Corinthians 2:11, 14). Nevertheless, I have this connection with him and need to acknowledge it in my walk with Christ, trying the spirits (1John 4:1), and learning to trust his still small Voice. Something happened to me when I began to associate myself with Jesus. When I received him, I was forever and irrevocably changed. I have new Life in me. He is becoming stronger and stronger, while my old self, becomes weaker and weaker (John 3:30; cp. Acts 9:19b-22). I can trust the word of Jesus. What does Jesus require of me concerning our relationship? In a word, I believe He requires confession! He is always near and his words are in my heart and on my tongue (Romans 10:8-13). If I confess him openly as Lord of my life (both in word and example), believing in my heart that he is alive (in me), I am saved.

When I am born again (John 3:3; 1Peter 1:23), I become a new creature, a new creation. All else has begun to fade away in me, because I have a new outlook (2Corinthians 5:16-17). This new Life is not mine, but Christ’s in me. My own life is now reckoned dead at Calvary. An exchange has been made (Galatians 2:20). Now I am not only God’s workmanship created for good works, but I am his habitation, a Temple or House for his pleasure (Ephesians 2:10, 19-22; 2Cointhians 5:1-4). Together, we (God and his people) build up the Body of Christ. I labor with great care, knowing that no foundation other than Christ can be laid, or else I defile the Temple of God (1Corinthians 3:9, 11, 16-17). Nevertheless, I have this confidence, that so long as I abide in Christ (John 15:4, 7), I shall glorify God (John 15:8) in all that I do, because it is Christ in me accomplishing all I need to be, as I work the works of God (Colossians 1:27).

I praise God that, though I love my parents, I am not imprisoned by a biological code to repeat their errors (nor do my children need to repeat mine). I am related to them, but I am also God’s. I belong to him. I am a new creature, created in Christ Jesus (2Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 2:10). I am no longer Adam’s but Christ’s. I am not utterly hindered by the inadequacies of Adam’s life, because I am enabled by Christ to soar above my old life. Therefore, I am no longer identified with Adam, but with Christ. All things have become new. My identity, my new name is found in Jesus. We are inseparable, and I would have it no other way. What Jesus was, I have become in him. He was the Light of the world, and because he is in me, I am become a light in the realm of my influence. Just as light that cannot be hid in the darkness, I can no longer be overlooked or blend into the crowd. Like Christ, I am loved and hated, sought after and despised, praised and ridiculed. The world didn’t know him, and it doesn’t know me. There is a price to pay when I became one of his, but the reward is great, and I have no regrets. Praise the Lord!