Nothing will separate; Nothing can ever take Your love away; And though our memories fail; The plans You have for us will all prevail . . . This is who we are . . . We are a chosen people; We are of royal blood; We are a holy nation; Redeemed and bought by love; That we would show Your glory; A house of living stones; Treasured and called Your own; This is who we are, this is who we are. This is a couple of verses from my son’s latest release, This Is Who We Are (Available on iTunes and www.midtownfellowship.org/sanctuary). As I listened to it the first time, I wondered how many Christians really know and understood who they are in Christ.
A list I handed out in theology classes names 215 identities we have in Christ—I am holy and blameless (Eph 1:4); I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:14); I am God’s workmanship (Eph 2:10); In Him I have been made complete (Col 2:10); I am righteous in Him (2 Corin 5:21). These five examples still leaves 210 more verses telling us, this is who we are. Many believers live in defeat because they focus on their weaknesses and the failures of their flesh instead of seeing who God declares they are in Christ. It was always a shock to students when I would tell them that the Father sees them as righteous and holy today as they will be in eternity. “Oh no, you don’t know all my failures and defeats,” was the typical response. The reply to that is “neither does the Father.” He sees you through Christ who paid the penalty for all our sins. By faith, we know He declared us righteous. You may feel unrighteous, but in God’s eyes, you are righteous.
Two essential theological terms are necessary to gain a better grasp of who we are—impute and impart. Impute is forensic term referring to man’s legal standing with God. Before receiving Christ, our spiritual bank account of righteousness was far in the negative. We fell short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) because our righteousness was like filthy rags (Is 64:6) leaving us dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1). This is how the Father saw us. However, God made Jesus “who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). When we received Christ, God accredited Christ’s infinite righteousness into our account. This imputed the legal standing of being forgiven and no longer liable for the debt of sin. No matter how many withdrawals we make through failure, our legal standing does not change and neither does our account. Simple math says an infinite amount minus a million or a billion still leaves a balance of infinite.
On the other hand, imparted righteousness is Christ actively working in us helping us become who God has legally declared us to be. He imparts the power to change, gives us spiritual gifts, give us the armor of the Spirit, etc. We grow in these areas but realize that falling short in these impartations never changes our imputed legal standing before God. We remain who we are in God’s eyes—righteous. However, this is where a conflict with the old nature begins. Satan accuses us of being unrighteous before God and the old nature tempts us to doubt who we are. We must remember who God said we are. We are free from condemnation. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). Regardless of how we feel or what others say about us, the only thing that matters is what God says. He says we are righteous without condemnation.
Like 85% of the world’s population, I struggled with low self-esteem most of my life. Becoming a Christian did little to change that. Psychology defines self-esteem as “the opinion you have of yourself”. Low self-esteem comes from basing our value and worth on the wrong sources. A major cause normally begins in childhood with negative statements from our parents and peers, lack of approval, failures, unrealistic stereotypes, or a wrong perspective of God. For believers, a continuing low self-esteem results from not knowing who we are in Christ.
The second verse of the song, This Is Who We Are, from 1 Peter 2:9, 10 says We are a chosen people; We are of royal blood; We are a holy nation; Redeemed and bought by love; That we would show Your glory. For me from a rejected no body, I am a chosen person; from being a poor uneducated country boy, I am a royal priest; from being perceived as worthless, I am a valuable person for His possession; and by being who He declared me to be, I show His glory. Don’t focus on who you are in the flesh, but who you are in Christ. Don’t focus on your failures but on Christ’s victories. It’s not who you can become with enough effort, but who you are now in Christ.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Learn from the Bible who you are and stand firm in God imputed legal declaration. This is who we are.