SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                                                                                               1041

“Identity”

…for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:26)

One of my favorite job interview questions with all prospective new hire candidates was “Who are you?” The responses were as varied as the candidates themselves and told a lot about how they viewed themselves and their purpose in life. Many people answer the question as to who they are with what they do – they identify themselves with their profession. This is dangerous ground. If you lose your job, you stand to lose your identity.

Identity has to do with distinguishing characteristics and character. Facial recognition technology and fingerprint matching work on distinguishing characteristics. These can all be altered and distorted and are an incomplete definition of who we really are.

Our world system uses a horizontal identification system and it is easily confounded, convoluted and corrupted by the enemy who seeks to steal our foundational identity as God’s creation in His image. Today’s societal confusion concerning gender identity, gender neutrality, and transgenderism are a result of Satan’s influence on a godless society. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them…when they were created. (Genesis 5:1-2)

As Christians we should use a vertical identification system. We should initially see ourselves and others as God’s creation who He loves and for whom Jesus died. This is our identity under Adam’s lineage. It is the foundation from which we become born-again through Jesus. …Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ (John 3:3-7)

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:22 &47)

We are who we are by our identity in Christ Jesus. This is the core of our being from which the character of Christ manifests itself in our life by the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come; …put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness; For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 2:9-10)

In Paul’s ‘job interview’ before the apostles he defined who he was as: 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. (Galatians 2:20)

Imagine answering my job interview question thus, ‘I am a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.’

This is your true identity and it cannot be stolen from you.