Has anyone ever asked you a question which was so significant you knew your answer would change your life permanently? It might have been a doctor asking if you wanted to undergo an experimental surgery. It might have been a military recruiter asking if you were willing to sign the dotted line and join the Armed Forces. It might have even been a marriage proposal, a request to spend the rest of your time on earth with that one person. There are countless circumstances where this reality applies, but there is one in particular I want to focus on…it is laid out in Matthew 16:15.
“But what about you? Jesus asked. Who do you say I am?”
Probably one of the most important questions we will ever answer in our lives…from the depths of our own heart and mind, who do we say Jesus is? Was he just a prophet who died like the rest of them? Was he simply a wise man who gave some guidelines to living a good life? Was he a myth, a legend that only existed in stories? Or is He who He says He is: Jesus Christ, Son of the living God and Savior of the world? If He is, this then becomes the lens through which we view everything that He says in the Bible, and ultimately, the foundation upon which we build our faith. Needless to say, it’s an important question to answer!
If you are a Christian and answer this question the same way Peter did, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” then let’s go a step further. Here’s the cool part, we don’t have to stop with simply answering that question from our own perspective…let’s turn the question around and ask it back to God:
“What about You, God?” [insert your name] asked. “Who do You say I am?”
Think about it! What could happen if we gave God the opportunity to answer that question in a personal manner? Every word that He speaks is truth, whether we feel like it or not. His truth is not constrained by our feelings! Imagine what it would do for your identity, your value, and your confidence to know who God says you are!
Let’s step out of the hypothetical for a second and make it personal. As you may recall from a blog I wrote previously (Are You Impressed Yet?), I have placed my identity wholly in my reputation and my successes for most of my life before coming on the World Race. The primary source of who I was, of how valuable I was as a human being, came from the recognition I received due to my accomplishments…and let me tell you, that was not a good way to live! The praise felt good in the moment, sure, but no amount of acknowledgment was ever enough. Ultimately, I was left feeling ever-increasingly empty with no real way to satiate my ravenous craving for more and more approval. Let’s be honest, this was not a great foundation upon which to build my identity…and I would say that our identity is the most significant thing about us. It is the foundation of who we are…everything about us flows out of our identity. Once I came to the realization that my value had a faulty and unsustainable source, I fell into a serious identity crisis…what could I possibly turn to that would give me what I needed without letting me down in the end?
Fortunately, God didn’t leave me hanging. He has been teaching me a lot of things throughout my time on the World Race…a LOT of things…but nothing has made more of an impact on my life than learning about my true identity from the only Source that is never lacking…our wonderful Creator Himself. So I am writing this blog not only to share what I have learned with you all, but also because I need to remind myself often of these truths about my identity in Christ.
Now most of these truths are not new to me, I have known about them for much of my life, but it was merely head knowledge that had little to no actual impact on my life. Through these past ten months, I have come to realize how much of a difference there is between simply knowing something to be true and actually believing it and living like it is true. There is something powerful about making Biblical truth apply directly to oneself, so I asked God to answer this question in a personal way for me…to redefine and rebuild my identity on His terms, and as always, He didn’t disappoint. Here are some of the foundational words He has spoken to me throughout my time on the World Race that have shaped my understanding of my true identity. I would encourage you to read them as a message directly from God to you!
GOD, WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?
“You are My son!”
- To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.
– John 1:12 - Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
– Romans 8:14-16
“You are deeply loved, and there is NOTHING that can separate you from My love!”
- But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
– Ephesians 2:4 - Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– Romans 8:35, 37-39
“You are a new creation, the way you used to live is dead and gone!”
- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, and the new has come!
– 2 Corinthians 5:17
“You are My masterpiece!”
- For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
– Ephesians 2:10
“You are chosen by Me!”
- You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.
– John 15:16a
“You can freely and confidently talk with Me anytime!”
- In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
– Ephesians 3:12 - Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need
– Hebrews 4:16
“You have a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind, not a spirit of fear!”
- For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind.
– 2 Timothy 1:17
“You are established, anointed, and sealed by Me!”
- Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
– 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
“You are My temple, a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit!”
- Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
– 1 Corinthians 3:16
“You are free from condemnation!”
- Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
– Romans 8:1-2
“You are redeemed and forgiven of all your sins!”
- For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
– Colossians 1:13-14
“You have been given unlimited freedom from sin’s power!”
- You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
– Romans 6:18 - Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
– 2 Corinthians 3:17
“You are holy and blameless in My eyes because of Christ!”
- For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
– Ephesians 1:4
“You are worth the price I paid for you…I don’t make unwise purchases!”
- You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
– 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20
There are so many more truths than this that God has to say about each of us, but we will never know our true identity in Christ if we do not seek it out from the true Source. I have only just begun this journey of a lifetime, but if the peace, joy, and freedom I have experienced with the first few steps down this road are any indication, it is the best possible place I can be! I am excited for the process of continuing to grow in confidence in all areas of my life as I grow in my understanding of what my identity in Christ truly is. I can only rightly know WHO I am when I know WHOSE I am!
Who is the source of your identity?
“It is not what I have done or what has been done to me that determines who I am. Rather it is who I am (in Christ) that determines what I do, and how I live. My identity in Christ is not achieved; it’s received. It is the unshakable ground upon which I build my life. I will not base my life upon what circumstances or others or even my own destructive thoughts say of me – but rather what God says about me.”
– Neil Anderson, Victory Over the Darkness
