Who are you? Do you know? The only way to know who you were created to be is to know your Creator and learn what he says about you. The devil and the world will speak a false identity to make you conform to the world. But God, the source of truth, reveals your true identity. Your identity is not your assignment – what you were created to do – but rather who you are to God. It cannot be found in your work, although your work will flow from your true identity because it shapes your values and desires. Your identity is found through relationship to God, specifically who you are by being united to Christ.
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:3-8). This is the good news that forms the foundation of our identity in Christ.
Colossians 3:3 says that “your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” We cannot understand our identity apart from Christ because it’s hidden in him. However, we have been given the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to us and the spiritual blessings that are ours when we are united to Christ. As the Spirit of God reveals Jesus to us, we discover who we really are. As we learn about what Jesus was called to do and fall in love with him, desiring to be where he is and do what he’s doing, the Spirit empowers us to join Jesus in his ongoing work of redemption. Your true identity is in Christ, and your calling is to bring Christ in you to those around you wherever you are in the way God created you to represent him. Your job, homelife, activities and connections are where Jesus in you loves people and shines the light of truth.
Most of us want to be fruitful, to live a life of purpose that matters. Jesus tells us how in John 15:4: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” The word “me” in the Greek is ego. When you describe a guy as having an ego, it generally means he is full of himself, always thinking of and promoting himself, and generally wrapped up in himself. To remain in Jesus’ ego is to be full of Christ’s self as he remains in us, always thinking of Christ and promoting him. To remain in Christ is to be wrapped up in his identity, enveloped by him in the cloud of his glory instead of seeking our own.
Paul describes this mystery in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I (ego) no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (NIV, emphasis mine). Apart from remaining in Jesus’ identity we are just building up our own ego and can’t produce the kind of fruit that lasts for eternity. Paul tells us that the solution is to let our ego – personal ambitions, self-centered focus, striving for glory – be crucified with Christ to make room for the fullness of Jesus’ life. We lay down self-focus so we can be filled with the selfless love of Jesus who gave his life out of love for us. When we allow ego to be crucified with Christ, the Holy Spirit rebuilds our identity on the solid foundation of Jesus’ life. In Matthew 7:24 Jesus says, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.”
In this study we will build our identity in Christ like building a pizza. We start with the crust of the pizza, which is the identity of Jesus, the Bread of Life. In Deuteronomy 8:3 Moses declares that “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” In the time of Moses, God fed the people with bread from heaven called manna. Jesus reveals in John 6 that he is the Bread from heaven who came down to feed us God’s word as the visible representation or living Word of God. His life and teaching are the daily bread that feeds our spiritual life. According to John 1, Jesus is the Word or “logos” in the Greek, which means written or spoken word. Jesus is the embodiment of scripture and revelation of God who makes himself known to people.
In John 15:7-8 Jesus says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” When Jesus talks about his words remaining in us, he uses the Greek word “rhema” which is a spoken word, meaning the message Jesus preached. If his message remains in us, the Father will give us whatever we ask to illustrate the message. The Apostle Paul declared, “Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). When the words of Jesus remain in us, the Father gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate the message of Jesus.
Studying the identity, life and teachings of Jesus helps us build our identity on the solid foundation of Jesus, the Bread of life. But it is the Spirit who enables Christ to live in us and empowers us to be like him. Just as pizza sauce covers a pizza crust, the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters at creation to bring forth life when God spoke. The Spirit gives life to the words of Jesus in us by helping us apply them in our daily lives. He flavors our lives with the holy love of Christ and anoints us to do good works. Classic pizza sauce is made from tomatoes which are technically fruit. Jesus promised that by remaining in him we would bear fruit. How? The Holy Spirit connects us to the life of Jesus like an umbilical cord as we remain in him so that we can bear the same fruit as Jesus, becoming like him in character and works. Jesus declared, “Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I do” (John 14:12).
We can do the works of Jesus by being anointed with the spiritual oil of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is so important that Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem before going out to minister until they had been “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). When Jesus warns us that we can’t do anything apart from him, he’s telling us how important it is to be born of the Spirit and anointed with power by the Spirit. Pizza sauce contains both fruit and oil. The Bible describes 9 fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – and 9 gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 that empower us to do the works of Jesus by the oil of the Spirit’s anointing. Fruit is produced by remaining in the Vine, Jesus, connected to the source of life through daily relationship with God which is made possible by his Spirit in us. We don’t do good works to earn salvation; good works flow from the life of the Spirit in us who produces the fruit of Christ in us.
Jesus declared in John 15 that branches who don’t remain in him will be cut off. If we depart from being led by the Spirit and start doing religious things to build our own ego or earn salvation, Paul warns in Galatians that we have cut ourselves off from Christ, like a branch that’s separated from the vine. In Galatians 3:3 Paul says, “After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” Striving to do good works apart from the leadership of the Spirit makes us a dead branch, but Jesus promises that if we simply ask the Father, he will give us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit makes us a new creation so he can make Jesus visible to others through us.
The identity pizza we’re building isn’t complete until we add the ooey, gooey cheese of God the Father’s love that covers us and binds us to him. Before Jesus did any miracles, his identity was revealed by the Father as beloved Son. This must be our primary identity, as well. If you see God the Father as anything other than loving and desiring good for you, your theology will be skewed, and your identity will be affected. God the Father wants to reveal your identity through intimate relationship with him because he loves you and enjoys who he created you to be. Jesus came as the way home to the Father so we could remain in the loving presence of the Father for all eternity.
Jesus said, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17). God loves people so much that he doesn’t want anyone to live in darkness without him and spend eternity separated from him. The Son of God came to save and redeem fallen humanity, restoring us to loving relationship with God and others. Just like cheese binds a pizza together, God’s love is what binds us to him and one another. Every command of God is rooted in love for God and people, so as we build our identity on Christ and receive God’s Spirit, we are transformed by God’s love through daily relationship with him.
In John 15:9-13 Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Love is self-sacrificing, not ego-building. Jesus laid down his life for all who believe in him so we could enjoy relationship with the Father because Jesus loves us the way the Father loves him. We freely receive God’s love and love others as our response to God’s love. “For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:5). Without enough cheese, the toppings on a pizza fall off, which is really annoying. God doesn’t just sprinkle a little love; he fills our hearts with his love.
Jesus commands his followers to love others as he has loved us. In the new covenant through Christ, God the Father’s love is demonstrated by sending Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin so that we don’t get the punishment we deserve and instead receive the reward Jesus deserved. We struggle to receive God’s mercy because it goes against our understanding of justice, but Jesus redefines justice in the new covenant as giving to others the mercy we’ve received from the Father, forgiving as we’ve been forgiven, serving as Jesus served, loving our enemies as Jesus loved us while we were God’s enemies, and giving to others because God has given to us. That’s new covenant justice. That’s love. When we love others as Jesus loves us, we remain connected to the Father’s love.
A cheese pizza is technically a complete pizza, just as God the Father, Son, and Spirit are complete as the triune God (three distinct persons who are unified as One God). But God created us as the toppings because pizza is even better with toppings! (Sorry cheese pizza fans.) You and I are the toppings, the part of the pizza that adds variety and is visible. Just as there are endless ways pizza can be made, our Creator made us to represent various facets of his image in an endless variety of combinations.
All the wonderful things that flavor you are designed to work with and enhance the flavors of others on God’s pizza. Christ in you will look different from Christ in someone else because of the unique combination of gifts, experiences, and personality traits he’s given you. We all need each other because God’s pizza is an ultimate supreme with all the toppings! You matter! God’s love binds us together as the family of God and keeps us from falling off the pizza like sausage that’s rolled onto the floor. The Spirit teaches us how to love others the way God loves us so that we all remain rooted in God’s love.
Putting all the Pieces Together
In each chapter of this study, we will learn how to build our lives on Jesus’ life. As we explore various identities of Christ revealed from Genesis to Revelation, we will put together our identity in Christ like pieces of a puzzle. Each name of Jesus reveals a different aspect of his nature and activity in our lives. As we discover from scripture who Jesus is relationally to us, we will invite his words and Spirit to remain in us so we can bear fruit, loving others the way Jesus loves us. This study is designed to both disciple new believers and challenge all of us to “mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). The only way to measure up to the standard of Christ is to remain in him.
I grew up in the church learning about who Christ is, but I was blind to what the scriptures say about who Christ is in me because I didn’t understand the role of the Holy Spirit in discipling us. What the Bible says about Jesus it also says about Spirit-filled believers. Jesus is the Light of the world, yet Jesus says we are the light of the world. He is the Branch from Isaiah 11, yet Jesus says we’re branches in him. Jesus’ body is God’s Temple, yet the Bible says we are Christ’s body and living stones being built together as God’s temple. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who calls us to look after his flock as shepherds. The more we believe in who Jesus is and believe that he wants to express his nature and continue his work through us, the more we step into who God created us to be and heaven invades the earth.
Christ in Me: In the “Christ in Me” section of each chapter we will explore what Colossians 1:27 calls, “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (NIV). When we shift our focus from pursuing the glory of self to pursuing Christ, our hope of glory is the hope that Christ will be glorified in our lives. Instead of promoting self, we view ourselves as a magnifying glass through which others are invited to view Jesus up close. We are not trying to be God but rather learning how to yield to the Spirit of God who transforms us to be like Christ in every area of our lives. In this section we will explore what the Bible says about who we are in Christ and consider what that looks like in daily life.
Identity Declaration: Each chapter has an identity declaration based on what scripture says about us. I encourage you to say it aloud as you renew your mind with truth. Even if a declaration doesn’t describe your current reality, as you declare it by faith you are agreeing with where God is taking you. False identities start to crumble as you build your identity on the foundation of Christ. Today, I challenge you to boldly declare: I am crucified with Christ. I no longer live as a separate identity unto myself with an ego to protect, but it is Christ who lives within me. I am a branch connected to Jesus, my life-giving, life-sustaining Vine. Apart from him I can do nothing, but by his Spirit I bear the fruit of Christ in me.
Question for Personal Reflection: 2 Corinthians 3:18 declares that “we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (NIV). Each chapter creates space for you to contemplate the love of Jesus and invite transformation by asking the Lord, “How can I love others as Christ has loved me?” Jesus wants love to be the motivator for all we do – not fear of punishment, religious duty, or spiritual pride, but love for Jesus and others. We learn how to love by fixing our eyes on Jesus who demonstrated God’s self-giving love and receiving his love. As we reflect on who Jesus is to us and how Jesus has loved us in each relational identity, we gain a deeper understanding of how we love others and are transformed by love.
The Word Remaining in Me: The Bible study portion of each lesson is designed to give you greater understanding of the concepts we’re exploring, but it’s not merely head knowledge we need. All of scripture points us to a God who wants us to have experiential knowledge of him, so I’ve included questions that prompt conversations with the Lord. If you’d like to study each identity in a weekly devotion format, you can read the four scripture passages at the end of each chapter as a daily devotion in between chapters. (Those who want to go through this study with a small group can click on the Leader Guide link located on the online book page at TillingMinistries.com.)
Reading and praying scripture back to God with belief is how we invite Jesus’ words to remain in us. The Bible is the written word of God which points us to Jesus, the living Word or revelation of God. God’s Spirit inspired those who wrote the words of the Bible, and his Spirit helps us understand scripture. 1 John 2:27 describes the Holy Spirit as our teacher who gives us understanding. “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true – it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.” As you read scripture, ask God’s Spirit to teach you, guide you into truth, and help you remain in fellowship with Christ. Today, I encourage you to read John 15 and ask the Holy Spirit what he wants you to know about remaining in Jesus as a branch of the Vine.
Remaining in Love: Jesus tells us to remain in his love as one who obeys his commands because love is not a passive emotion. Love compels us to do what will benefit others. Each chapter closes with an invitation to draw near to the Lord and move in the revelation of his love. When we encounter God’s love, we receive it, respond in worship, and share it with others. We remain in love with Jesus by listening to him, following in the footsteps of his love, and inviting the Holy Spirit to pour God’s love into our hearts so we can love others as Christ has loved us.
Words to Chew On: Jesus declared that his sheep hear his voice and follow him. The Spirit of God lives inside believers and often sounds like thoughts, but those thoughts carry weight and usually revelation of something you didn’t already know. Since one of the best ways to grow in hearing God’s voice is to journal whatever he says and write down any revelations God gives you, I encourage you to journal thoughts you’re chewing on. Revelation is often “meaty,” to be chewed on and slowly digested. Writing and reflection help us grow in our capacity to receive and steward revelation from God because understanding often develops slowly over time. As you learn to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit, you will discover that he is like a GPS. While he directs you and sometimes points out where you took a wrong turn, he does not condemn you for making a mistake but points you back on the right path. The Spirit builds up your faith in God, not your ego, and transforms you into the likeness of Jesus. (Note: The online book does not contain a journal section, so I encourage you to have a journal or notebook handy for jotting down thoughts as you read and reflect with the Lord.)
God’s will for your life and plan from the beginning is a relationship in which you enjoy intimacy with him. This is because he loves you and also likes who he created you to be. If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, simply ask God to forgive you for going your own way and tell him you want to come home as his child through the way Jesus opened when he died for your sins. Invite the Holy Spirit to live inside you and transform you into a new creation, giving you a new identity in Christ. God hears your thoughts but wants you to talk to him conversationally. When you pray, you can speak to God out loud like you would a friend. He’s listening and will make himself known to you when you seek him.
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7).
Are you ready to discover who Jesus is in ways that will transform how you see yourself? Are you ready for an adventure with the Holy Spirit who leads you into deeper waters of revelation? Let’s go! (And maybe get some pizza…)
