God's Blood Covenant - Part 7 - Identity, Answered: Who You Are In Christ

Searching for who you are can feel like grasping smoke—titles change, seasons end, and the mirror tells different stories on different days. We go straight to the root by exploring what Scripture means when it says we are “in Christ,” not as fans or followers at a distance but as people joined to Jesus in a living, organic union. That union reframes worth, quiets shame, and turns receiving from God into a natural response rather than a guilty reach.

We unpack C.S. Lewis’s vision of glory and trace five sweeping promises: being with Christ, becoming like Him, sharing His glory, receiving divine celebration, and carrying real responsibility in God’s world. From there, we open the New Testament’s imagery—vine and branches, head and body, temple of the Spirit, bride and bridegroom, living stones—to show how oneness with Christ is both intimate and communal. You’ll hear how Jesus’ prayer in John 17 grounds identity in the Father’s love and why being “God-inside minded” changes how we work, forgive, create, and endure.

Then we get practical: identity as adopted sons and daughters, co-heirs with Christ, new creations called saints, chosen and dearly loved, crafted as God’s workmanship for meaningful good works. This isn’t motivational varnish. It’s covenant reality that dismantles spiritual impostor syndrome and invites a steadier life, even amid grief and loss. We close with a clear invitation to respond to that love and step into the blessings of the new covenant.

If this message met you today, share it with someone who needs hope, subscribe for future parts on security, benefits, and position in Christ, and leave a review so more people can find their footing in a truer identity.

Transcript

Welcome And Series Context

Lynne 0:00

You are listening to Higher Realm with Lynne Little. Our program highlights strategies for living through life's difficulties and finding your path to healing. We tackle issues particular to those who have experienced painful loss in any form. Lynn is the founder and president of Lynne Little Ministries and the author of Missing Lisa, A Parent Griefs, and Finding God in Death and Life, A Passage Through Grief. Now, here's Lynne. Hello, and welcome to part seven of God's Blood Covenant. An identity crisis pandemic is sweeping the land. People are searching for answers to questions such as, who am I? Or what am I here for? Or do I even matter? Everyone at some point has pondered these issues, but much of the time we ask the questions rhetorically, not really expecting definitive answers. In view of this, we'd probably be astonished by God's responses to the questions that perplex us. We may be even more surprised to discover that he's anticipated the questions and already provided the answers well in advance. So, how does this relate to walking in the blessings of God's new covenant? Without fully comprehending what God has to say about us, how He really views us, we are hindered from receiving from Him. Feelings of unworthiness, guilt, shame, or blame can make us feel like we don't deserve good things. Knowing who we are is the key to receiving what we have been given. In an essay entitled The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis writes several astounding statements. I'm quoting, "it is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses. To remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship." End quote. The promises of Scripture, he says, may very roughly be reduced to five heads. It is promised, firstly, that we shall be with Christ. Secondly, that we shall be like him. Thirdly, with an enormous wealth of imagery, that we shall have glory. Fourthly, that we shall in some sense be fed or feasted or entertained, and finally, that we shall have some sort of official position in the universe, ruling cities, judging angels, being pillars of God's temple." He continues. "I turn next to the idea of glory. There is no getting away from the fact that this idea is very prominent in the New Testament and in early Christian writings. Salvation is constantly associated with palms, crowns, white robes, thrones, and splendor like the sun and stars." As we look at some of God's responses to the questions, such as, Who am I? Fasten your seat belts, because you are about to discover the glorious truth of what C.S. Lewis was alluding to. Because God Himself, in at least one instance, refers to us as "treasures in earthen vessels. "And what we were about to discover should permanently deliver us from every form of a spiritual inferiority complex. The journey to revelation begins when a person first makes Jesus Christ the Lord of their lives. When we name him as Savior, we automatically become recipients of a substantial list of what the Bible calls in Second Peter 1:3 "exceedingly great and precious promises." The Amplified version of this verse provides more detail. "For his divine power has bestowed on us absolutely everything necessary for a dynamic spiritual life and godliness through the true and personal knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and excellency." By a most remarkable design, every single one of these benefits is housed in the expression "in Christ." Fully comprehending what it means to be in Christ is the gateway to receiving every promise of the new covenant and experiencing unbroken victory in this life. Now, depending on the translation, the language of being "in Christ" comes up over two hundred times. The Apostle Paul uses it more than a hundred and sixty times alone. Variants such as "in him" or "with him" or "by him" also appear throughout the New Testament. So what does it mean to be in Christ? The phrase is used to describe a believer's complete and total spiritual union with Jesus. It includes four different facets, such as our new identity, our position, our security, and all the benefits. Take note, this is not a description of an allegiance or alliance with Christ. It's not like aligning ourselves with a movement or a political party or a sports team. It even eclipses, listen carefully, the concept of being a follower of Christ. Instead, it carries with it the reality of a total joining to him. It is intimate, organic, and vital. In this journey, we're not merely being inspired or directed by an entity separated by the vastness of time and space. We are instead experiencing a total immersion in and oneness with Jesus. This new way of thinking rather puts the kibosh on our mental image of Jesus walking alongside us through life, doesn't it? Because he dwells within the believer. Now I don't mean to infer that we don't follow Jesus in his example. We certainly do. But the oneness is exactly what enables us to do so. So stop for a moment and think about this. We are to become God inside-minded. With this perspective, we see that we no longer work within our own strength and limitations. All that we do instead flows from the God who lives inside us. The point is reinforced in the following verses found in John 17: 22, and 23. Jesus is speaking. "That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them, and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." This scripture is life-changing, for not only does Jesus point to the reality of his indwelling presence, but he tells us that the Father loves us in the same way he loves Jesus. Let this begin to revolutionize our thinking about the believer's true standing. This oneness is further demonstrated by Paul's assertions in 2 Corinthians 6: 14. "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God." According to this passage, the believer is equated with four things: righteousness, light, Christ, and temples. As we ponder these truths, may the light of God's revelation dawn on our spirits. The scriptures are rich with metaphors that describe this phenomenon of oneness. Jesus speaks of his people's union with him as being like a relationship of a branch to a vine. He states in John 15: 5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." In 1 Corinthians 6: 19, we are called temples that God inhabits. "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have received from God? You are not your own." We are also considered one of God's living stones, built up in Christ as a spiritual building, a house that God Himself resides in, according to 1 Peter 2: 5. Another analogy is the bride and bridegroom found in Ephesians 5:31 and 32. "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother, and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." Here, this analogy signifies a deep, intimate, and loving covenantal union, where Christ and the Church are described as one flesh. This culminates in the marriage supper of the Lamb described in the prophetic book of Revelation 19:7. "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready." Finally, the theme is carried through in the analogy of the head and the body. Colossians 1:18 reads, "And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." And again, in Ephesians 5:23. "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body of which he is the Savior." Imagine your body going around headless. It's the stuff of fiction. Now imagine the head going about bodiless, another total impossibility. These word pictures are meant to help us grasp the reality and the significance of our oneness with Christ. Where the head is, the body is. What the head commands, the body does. The flow of being in Christ should be as effortless as our brain commanding our body to breathe. So we see that we are permanently joined to Jesus. First Corinthians 6: 17 states what happens "that he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him." As a result of this oneness, we can confidently rely on several factors that are automatically put into place at the point of our salvation. To reiterate, these four factors are identity, position, security, and benefits. First, our identity is established forever. We become children of God, as stated in John 1:12. God adopts us as a son or daughter. Romans 8:15 tells us: "for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry Abba, Daddy, Father." With that sonship, we become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, sharing his inheritance with him according to Galatians 4: 6 through 7, and Romans 8:17. And when we begin to study further what Jesus has inherited and then made available to us, it will blow our minds. Add to that is what we're learning about our inheritance in the new covenant. We are also made fellow citizens with the rest of God's family, as stated in Ephesians 2: 19. At salvation, God has made us brand new creations, where 2 Corinthians 5 17 states that "the old is gone and the new has come." 2 Peter 1:4 tells us that God's divine nature has been placed into us. And did you know that we are referred to as saints in Scripture? You might say, I'm no saint. Well, if you're in Christ, look again. Specifically in 1 Corinthians 1: 2, Ephesians :1 1, Philippians 1:1, and Colossians 1:2. Amazingly, we are considered by God to be holy. Ephesians 4 :24 encourages us, "put on the new self or the new man, which is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Another facet of our identity in Christ is that of chosen ones. God chose us, the Word says, before the creation of the world. This is found in Ephesians 1:4. Both Colossians 3:12 and 1 Thessalonians 1.4 state that we are chosen by God, holy and dearly loved. 1 Peter 2:9 describes us as members of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. We are called "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." according to Ephesians 2.10. This all should impress upon us the intention of God for our lives from the beginning. He counted us worth sending his son to win us to him. All of the above scriptures should serve to settle once and for all the question of who we are. Our identity, wrapped up as it is within his, in totality, is our true reality. So, to recap, we are adopted children of God who possess God's divine nature, making us one with Christ, chosen before time began, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God's unique workmanship as righteous saints. Self-image just took a quantum leap. Take time to pray, say, and reflect on these truths this week. In the next few episodes, we will discuss our security, benefits, and position in Christ as inheritors of God's blood covenant. Meanwhile, would you like to get in on the blessings found in Christ? It is so easy to reap those amazing benefits. The first is receiving an assurance of a blissful, eternal destiny. The Bible says, For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. It is also written, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Pray with me. Repeating these words and meaning it with your heart. Heavenly Father, I believe you sent Jesus to die on the cross, to pay the price for my sins. I believe He rose again on the third day. I ask you, Lord Jesus, to come into my heart, forgive all my sins, and give me a brand new start. I confess you as my Lord and Savior. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, let us know. Lynnelittle Ministries @ gmail.com. Have a wonderful week meditating on who you are in Christ. Thank you so much for listening. Lynne Little Ministries is a 501c3 whose mission is to assist those who have suffered loss and to help them discover hope, peace, and restoration. For books, resources, or to make a tax deductible donation, go to lynnelittle.org.