Our Identity is In Christ

Romans 8:9—17; “9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 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, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

When the Indian cricket team wins, we are all quick to take credit and exclaim, “We won!” We who? We weren’t on the field, for crying out loud. We didn’t bowl; neither any one of us bat. We didn’t do anything to take credit for the victory. Yet, we take credit for the victory by identification. Because we identify with the team, their victory is our victory. In fact, we gloat so much in the victory, that if we had any friends that were supporting the opposite time, we sometimes make the effort to even call them and taunt them, relishing our victory. On the other hand, it is also true that, if the Indian team loses, we vicariously identify with their loss.

My fellow Christians, our identity is in Christ. This means that when Christ died, we died. When He arose, we arose. When He comes back, we will rise to go with Him, because of our identity is in Him. We have a new identity now.

Stephen Thomas (Bobby)

Stephen is an ordained Christian Minister and a Bible teacher who is a mentor to several youth leaders in Crossway Church and around the globe. He is a regular visiting Speaker in Crossway Church, New Delhi. He can be reached at stephenthomas6400@hotmail.com