The followings are just a few points that will help us shed some light on the importance of understanding your identity in Christ, though this is not an exhaustive list.
Focus
A man with no direction is a man of many directions. When you understand who you are in Christ, it helps you to focus on what is important. The Bible says, “therefore if you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, sharing in His resurrection from the dead], keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value]. For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. So, put to death and deprive of power the evil longings of your earthly body [with its sensual, self-centered instincts] immorality, impurity, sinful passion, evil desire, and greed, which is [a kind of] idolatry [because it replaces your devotion to God]” (Colossians 3:1-5 AMP).
Once you realize that you are a New Creature, a person of great nationality and Christ’s ambassador, it will help you focus your attention and desire on things above just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did. “These men of faith I have mentioned died without ever receiving all that God had promised them; but they saw it all awaiting them on ahead and were glad, for they agreed that this earth was not their real home but that they were just strangers visiting down here. And quite obviously when they talked like that, they were looking forward to their real home in heaven. If they had wanted to, they could have gone back to the good things of this world. But they didn’t want to. They were living for heaven. And now God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has made a heavenly city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16 TLB).
Brother or sister, understanding your identity in Christ will help you live for heaven at every moment of your life. It will help you to know that this world is not your real home, but that your real home is heaven. It will help you “stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God; for all these worldly things, these evil desires - the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance - these are not from God. They are from this evil world itself. And this world is fading away, and these evil, forbidden things will go with it, but whoever keeps doing the will of God will live forever” (1 John 2:15-17 TLB)
Forbearance
Understanding your identity in Christ helps you to have self-control in order not to over-react on every little matter that arises. James and John were the disciples of Christ who after spending about three years in the school of Christ’s ministry failed to understand their identity. They had irrational temperaments, lacked self-control, and so they wanted divine judgment to come upon those who did not buy into their Master’s agenda. This account is recorded in Luke 9:51-56:
“Now when the time was approaching for Him to be taken up [to heaven], He was determined to go to Jerusalem [to fulfill His purpose]. He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went into a Samaritan village to make arrangements for Him; but the people would not welcome Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and destroy them?” But He turned and rebuked them [and He said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them”…” (AMP)
Jesus quickly called their attention to the realization of their identity in Him – “You do not know what kind of spirit you are.” If they had known the kind of spirit they were made of – the spirit of forbearance, - they would desire and engage in saving souls, not destroying souls.
Forbearance engraves love for others, even your enemy in your heart, thereby preventing you from rendering evil for evil, railing for railing, by thoughts, words or deeds.
As a citizen of heaven, a priest, and a salt of the earth, you would desire to follow the steps of Jesus Christ, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrew 11:2)
“Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” (Colossians 3:13)
Forgiveness
One of the things that characterizes who you are in Christ is that you are allergic to unforgiveness. It pollutes your being, imprisons your ability to function effectively, and mars your relationship with God. The understanding of the manual that reveals the picture of who you are in Christ makes you determined to forgive whosoever sinned against you. Many mistake forgiveness to be a two-way kind of thing. But no, it is not so. Forgiveness is what you can do without the offender asking for forgiveness. You forgive to let yourself out of the hook of the devil, the accuser of the brethren. To forgive a person, you do not need him or her to come back and apologize in order to forgive such individuals. You simply forgive. This is different from reconciliation, which indeed involves two parties, and sometimes with the intervention of a third party. Reconciliation is done to regain trust and seek to continue the friendship or the relationship.
Fellowship: Hebrews 10:25; Romans 14:5-8
Christians are exhorted to fellowship with one another, never to forsake the assembly of God’s children (Hebrews 10:25). However, such fellowship could be hindered when the brethren begin to employ magnifying glasses on every issue that does not add to a man’s purity or holy living.
“As for the one whose faith is weak, accept him [into your fellowship], but not for [the purpose of] quarreling over his opinions. One man’s faith permits him to eat everything, while the weak believer eats only vegetables [to avoid eating ritually unclean meat or something previously considered unclean]. The one who eats [everything] is not to look down on the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat must not criticize or pass judgment on the one who eats [everything], for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? Before his own master he stands [approved] or falls [out of favor]. And he [who serves the Master—the Lord] will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
One person regards one day as better [or more important] than another, while another regards every day [the same as any other]. Let everyone be fully convinced (assured, satisfied) in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord. He who eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who abstains, abstains for the Lord and gives thanks to God. None of us lives for himself [for his own benefit, but for the Lord], and none of us dies for himself [but for the Lord]. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For Christ died and lived again for this reason, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
But you, why do you criticize your brother? Or you again, why do you look down on your [believing] brother or regard him with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God [who alone is judge].” (Romans 14:1-10 AMP)
Frustration
Understanding your identity in Christ will help you live up to God’s expectations for your life and help keep you enjoying your rights and privileges in Him.
“But God, being [so very] rich in mercy, because of His great and wonderful love with which He loved us, even when we were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us [spiritually] alive together with Christ (for by His grace - His undeserved favor and mercy—you have been saved from God’s judgment). And He raised us up together with Him [when we believed], and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, [because we are] in Christ Jesus, [and He did this] so that in the ages to come He might [clearly] show the immeasurable and unsurpassed riches of His grace in [His] kindness toward us in Christ Jesus [by providing for our redemption]. (Ephesians 2:4–7 AMP)
As a Christian, you are loaded with many spiritual blessings. Understanding your identity in Christ will help you to overcome the problem of identity crisis. When a prince does not know his rights and privileges, he thinks, speaks and acts like a slave or a commoner. Such a prince will end up living a frustrated life, walking bare-footed like a slave while the real slave would be riding on horses. A vivid example of this is recorded in Ecclesiastes 10:5-7 TLB: “There is another evil I have seen as I have watched the world go by, a sad situation concerning kings and rulers: For I have seen foolish men given great authority and rich men not given their rightful place of dignity! I have even seen servants riding, while princes walk like servants!”
There is no need for you to live a frustrated life. You are powerful, redeemed of the Lord. Don’t chicken out like Gideon (Judges 6:1–11)! Knowing who you are in Christ help you live to your full potential.
“It happened on the same night that the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, and you shall hear what they say; and afterward, your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.” Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand, God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.” And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.”“ (Judges 7:9-15 NKJV).
It is believed that God has used this book to help you understand your potential and strength, act on it so that you will not live a frustrated life but function to your God-given capacity.
