Identity in Christ: My Testimony

Why am I so passionate about making sure those around me understand what it means to have their identity in Christ? It's because I lived a long time as a believer without this knowledge, and when I finally got it, it drastically changed my life for the better.

Show Notes:

I grew up in a Christian home, went to church every week and AWANA every Wednesday, and I believed in Jesus and His sacrifice for my sin at the age of about seven. Even with all that exposure and training, I don't remember hearing the words "identity in Christ" or hearing a sermon preached on what Paul means when he says over and over "in Christ" (which is the New Testament's way of saying "identity in Christ"). Now I don't have a perfect memory, so it's completely possible that these things were talked about some, but I can reasonably conclude that they weren't emphasized as the cornerstone of discipleship that they are.

The first time I distinctly remember hearing the term "identity in Christ," I was sitting in a meeting with the Program Administrator at Grace Adventures, talking about the possibility of doing an internship there. I wanted to do the camping apprenticeship one, and he said the gap year was more what I needed. The purposes of that program would be to help me know what I'm doing with my life and what my next steps are AND understanding my identity in Christ. I knew for sure I needed the first. The second I had heard vaguely from a distance and suddenly had the notion that this was what my spiritual life needed next, but if you'd asked me to define it, I would have been completely incapable.

Those nine months changed my life completely. The first book we read as a group was Victory over the Darkness by Neil Anderson (which I'd highly recommend). In it was a list of things that are true about us as believers, much like the list I read to you toward the beginning of this series. The book instructed you to read them out loud to yourself several times. I thought this was lunacy, and I definitely lied about it when our instructor asked in the group discussion if we'd done it. I thought I knew those truths, and so I wasn't going to do what I thought would make a fool of myself, even if it was just me in the room.

What I didn't realize at the time was that I only knew of those truths. I didn't know them. To really know something is to connect with it mentally and emotionally and then to apply it to your life so that it changes you. In that sense, I knew nothing of identity in Christ. Though I would have adamantly denied it at the time, what I really knew of Christianity was classic legalism. I had head knowledge of much more than that, of course, but it hadn't reached my heart or changed my life.

Later on in that internship, we attended the Christian Camp and Conference Association regional section conference. Basically, it's where a bunch of staff from Christian camps all over the state or wider, depending on the year, get together and learn more about camping, connect, and relax. It's wonderful. The speaker that year was a guy named John Lynch. His first message was about identity in Christ, and he told it in first-person story form. It connected all the dots for me. My head was spinning by the end, and I spent an hour journaling. I felt like giant chains I'd been wearing for years suddenly lifted off. I practically bounced around campus the rest of the conference.

The particular lies that I had been believing were that God's love for me was determined by my performance, good or bad, and that my value as a person was based on what other people thought of me. Particularly, I wanted to be known as the studious one who always does things correctly, knows the answers, and is always willing to help. While there's nothing wrong with those things to a point, since I was basing my value in people thinking that of me, there was no room for anything else. I couldn't be silly or emotional in public. I could never say what I thought if I wasn't 100% sure it was right. And I had a hard time telling people 'no.'

This led to a host of fears. I was scared of just about everything you can think of. It was impressive, really. Every unknown, every possibility for failure, every opportunity where I might not be able to keep complete control of my emotions was to be avoided at all costs. This was not a very fun life to live.

After the conference, it was like the flood gates of emotion I'd been holding back were released. I smiled in public. I couldn't stop smiling, actually. I got in trouble for being too boisterous, and it was okay, because my worth wasn't based on what people thought of me. I was free.

In the six years since then, I've continued to learn what it looks like practically to live out these truths. I have put so many fears to death, taken risks, and made so many mistakes along the way. And I've tried my hardest to help others come to know the incredible truths that if you're saved, God's love is not conditional on your actions, He has no wrath left for you because it was all exerted on the cross, and He has a plan for your life that will boggle your imagination. If you don't truly know that yet, I hope that by listening to this podcast, some of your own chains have started to fall away.

Next week we're going to look at some things we can mistakenly find our identity, the signs of that, and how to reorient our lives based on truth. I hope you'll join me then.