Identity in Christ

Ever wonder where your sunglasses are, start rifling through every place you know of and then find them on your head? Have you ever left the keys in the door and then scoured the whole house for them? How about setting your coffee down somewhere and spent forever longing and looking for it?

Problems like these happen rather frequently, and often the issue in these situations is looking in the wrong place for something that isn’t there. This problem doesn't stop with misplaced objects, but rather often occurs when looking for things infinitely more important, and even when searching for our identity, for who we are and what we are worth as people. We search everywhere, seeking that one moment when we have the recognition we want, only to find it slips away, changes, or isn’t as we thought, and once again we’re lost in the search for significance. In our crowded and competitive world, the search for who we are is becoming ever more urgent. And sometimes we look in the wrong place.

Adam Levine sums up our anxious thoughts on who and what has the power to define us when he asks in his song Locked Away, “If I showed you my flaws if I couldn’t be strong, tell me honestly, would you still love me the same?” the mindset here is the common one of believing that what you do, defines you. Thankfully, the answer to who we are is given to us in the Bible, whenever it speaks of God’s love and the sacrifice He made for us.

In the next few moments I would like to encourage to acknowledge your worth in Christ, and realize that past mistakes or doubts of the future don't define you.


Most people search for their identity in other people or things. The web is filled with quotes on self-esteem and how to make yourself loved. The general opinion is that you are what you do, and for many people their job, their sport or their greatest accomplishment is how they define themselves. This is a works based approach to self-worth, and it does not provide the reassurance we desperately need. When you are always trying to please people, you lose a sense of who you truly are. People around us will always demand more from us, society and even others close to us often demand perfection and scorn us when we can't meet that standard. The result is confusion, sadness, and depression. Rather then turning to people or actions for our worth, we should look to God.

But in order to understand who we are to God, let’s first look at who we are compared to God. Because to understand the magnitude of His love, we should look at the significance of His sacrifice for us. Isaiah 40:15 says, “Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.” We are one drop, tiny and insignificant next to the nations of all time.

That is what we should be worth to God. The good news is that He doesn't see us like that.

Compared to God we are nothing, but in His eyes we are everything.

No one can stand when measured up to the perfection and infinite majesty of God, but thankfully, He does not look at us in comparison to Him, rather He looks at us as His perfect creation which can bring glory to Himself, forgiven by His Son. And despite of who we are as sinners we are still loved by Him. To remember how great, how deep the Father's love for us is, we only have to look at his hands, look at His side. Christ’s love for us is greater than the drops in the ocean. And we are His children. His creation. Which He made in His image.

That is our identity as Christians. That is the promise we must run to in the midst of our daily life, the hope we can cling to. He should be the one place we go to for answers, the way we define ourselves. Go anywhere else and your looking in the wrong place, searching for something that is not there. Nothing we do, no acts of charity, no helping the poor, no receiving awards, not even winning nationals, could ever achieve the love we already have.

Our identity is complete in Christ alone.

So if you lost everything you thought made you who you are, if you could no longer be strong in the way you are expected, what would you be worth? If it seems that life would be hopeless, then you are looking in the wrong place for your identity and your salvation. We must realize that only Christ defines us, and while compared to Him we are nothing, in His eyes we are everything.