“Christian selfhood is not defined in terms of who we are in and of ourselves. It’s defined in terms of what God does to us and the relationship he creates with us and the destiny he appoints for us. God made us who we are so we could make known who he is. Our identity is for the sake of making known his identity.”
If we’re honest with ourselves, we often feel insecure. Those who hide it best often feel it most. But our insecurity is an invitation from God to escape the danger of false beliefs about who we are and find true peace in who he is.
At the heart of what it means to be a Christian is to receive a new identity. In Jesus, we do not lose our true selves, but we become our true selves, only in him.
Christ is our life — not only the guarantee of it in heaven, but the downpayment of it by the Spirit now, as he lives in us. His joy becomes our joy; his love, our love; his peace, our peace; his strength, our strength.
We cannot experience anything greater than the fullness of union with Christ. Nothing reaches higher or is more theologically comprehensive.
In Christ, we are fundamentally new, and belong to the people of heaven. The language and values and customs and expectations of this world increasingly feel foreign to us. We have been born again for another world, to a greater kind of existence.
A digest from Desiring God