The Basis of Our Identity

We so easily lose sight of our identity in Christ!  How quickly we can forget who we are before God, and who we are in this world.  Temptations abound for us to look to things we see as the basis of our identity:  our abilities, our circumstances, our background, our relationships, our accomplishments, our approval/acceptance from others, etc.  And depending on how we subjectively evaluate these very murky indicators, we’ll either be puffed up with arrogance, or crushed with despair.  Such living by sight leads to an endless identity crisis!

 

How much better (and right!) to base our identify fully on who God is, what He has done for us in Christ, and what He has called us to in Christ!  In short, how much better to live by faith in God, and in all the spiritual blessings He has lavished on us in Christ.

 

Such a call to live by faith is at the very heart of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  He wants believers to understand the glory of God’s provision and purposes in Christ (Eph. 1-3), and to live accordingly by faith in these great truths (Eph. 4-6).

 

Dr. P.T. O’Brien, in his excellent Commentary on Ephesians, observes that Paul…

 

“…writes Ephesians…with the intention of informing, strengthening, and encouraging [believers] by assuring them of their place within the gracious, saving purposes of God, and urging them to bring their lives into conformity with this divine plan of summing up all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10).  Paul wants to ‘ground, shape, and challenge’ his readers in their faith.  In other words, the main purpose of his letter is ‘identity formation’”. (pg. 57)

 

Beloved, is your identify being formed through faith in God’s revealed word, or through the things you see and experience in this fleeting world?  May God ever strengthen us in this walk of faith – for the glory of His great name!!

 

Praying for you, and with you to this end (Eph. 1:15-23; 3:14-21),

Greg