Our Identity In Christ Sermon

Who You Already Are In Christ

Most of us spend enormous energy trying to become something. We work for approval at the office, we perform for acceptance at home, we manage our image in every room we walk into. And if we are honest, that exhausting cycle does not stop when we walk through the doors of a church. We bring it right in with us. We wonder whether God is pleased with us today based on how our week went. We measure our standing before him by the quality of our quiet time, the consistency of our giving, the absence of the sin we committed on Thursday. We live as though our identity before God is something we are still building, still earning, still proving.

The apostle Paul writes to correct exactly that misunderstanding, and he does it not with a motivational speech but with a theological declaration. Open your Bible to Ephesians chapter one. Before Paul gives a single command in this letter, before he asks anything of his readers, he spends the first fourteen verses of chapter one describing what God has already done. That is not an accident. Paul is laying a foundation. He is telling you who you already are before he ever tells you how to live.

Here is the central claim of this message. Your identity as a believer is not something you build through performance or earn through approval. It is something you receive through union with Jesus Christ.

Let us walk through this carefully, because the text deserves that.

What God Has Already Done

Ephesians 1:3 opens with a burst of praise. Paul writes, "Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ." Notice the tense. Has blessed. Past tense. Not will bless if you perform well enough. Not is blessing you as long as you maintain your spiritual disciplines. Has blessed. The blessing is complete in Christ.

Paul then stacks declaration upon declaration. Verse 4: God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Verse 5: He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. Verse 7: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Verse 11: In him we have also received an inheritance. Verse 13: In him you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Count how many times that phrase appears in these twelve verses. In him. In Christ. In the Beloved. Paul uses it over and over because it is the hinge on which everything turns. Every single blessing he names is located in a person, not in your performance. You do not manufacture these blessings. You receive them because you are united to the One in whom they all reside.

This is the doctrine of union with Christ, and it is not a minor theme tucked away in a corner of the New Testament. It is the structural center of Paul's entire theology. When you trusted Christ, you were joined to him. His righteousness became yours. His standing before the Father became yours. His inheritance became yours. You did not earn any of it. You received it all because you are in him.

The Problem With Building Your Own Identity

Now let us be honest about why this is so hard to believe. We live in a world that tells us identity is something you construct. You build your brand. You curate your image. You achieve your way into significance. And the tragedy is that many of us have carried that same framework into our relationship with God. We have turned the Christian life into a performance review, and we are always waiting to see how we scored.

When that happens, something quietly devastating occurs. Your sense of who you are before God becomes hostage to your last spiritual success or failure. A good week of Bible reading makes you feel close to God. A bad week of moral failure makes you feel distant and disqualified. You are riding a spiritual rollercoaster that was never meant to be your home.

Paul is not describing that kind of life. He is describing something far more stable, far more glorious, and far more honest about the human condition. He is describing an identity that is anchored not in what you have done but in what Christ has done, not in what you feel but in what God has declared.

Ephesians 1:6 says that God has "graced us with favor in the Beloved." The word translated graced here is the same root as the word for grace. God has freely and lavishly bestowed his favor on you, not because of your record, but because of your union with his beloved Son. That is your standing. That is your identity.

Hidden With Christ In God

Now turn to Colossians 3. Paul is writing to a different congregation but pressing the same truth from a different angle. Verse 1: "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Verse 2: "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." And then verse 3, one of the most remarkable sentences in the New Testament: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

Hidden with Christ in God. Let that phrase settle for a moment. Your true life, your real identity, is not on display for the world to evaluate. It is not subject to the verdict of your critics, your failures, or your fears. It is hidden. Secured. Held in the safest place in the universe, which is in Christ, who is himself in God.

This is not escapism. Paul is not telling you to ignore real life. He is telling you where your real life actually is. The world looks at you and sees your job title, your income, your social standing, your track record. God looks at you and sees his Son, because you are in his Son. That is your identity. That is who you are.

Verse 4 adds one more dimension: "When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Your identity is not only secured in the present. It is moving toward a future revelation. The day is coming when what is now hidden will be fully seen. The glory that belongs to Christ, in whom you are hidden, will be the glory in which you appear.

What This Means For How You Live

Doctrine that does not reach the ground is incomplete. So let us talk about what this actually changes.

First, it changes how you approach God. If your identity is grounded in Christ and not in your performance, then you do not come to God hoping you have done enough to be welcome. You come as a child who belongs to the Father, not because of your record but because of your adoption in Christ. Ephesians 1:5 says that God predestined you for adoption as his son or daughter through Jesus Christ. Adopted children do not earn their place at the table every morning. They belong there. So do you.

Second, it changes how you handle failure. When you sin, and you will sin, the question is not whether God still accepts you. The question is whether you will run toward him or away from him. Because your identity is not built on your moral performance, your failure does not destroy your standing. It grieves the relationship, yes. It requires repentance, yes. But it does not undo what God has declared. Ephesians 1:7 says that in Christ we have the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. That forgiveness is not a one-time transaction at conversion. It is the ongoing reality of life in Christ.

Third, it changes how you see other people. When your identity is secure in Christ, you are no longer competing with everyone around you. You do not need to diminish others to feel significant. You do not need the approval of the room to know that you matter. You are already chosen, adopted, redeemed, sealed, and headed for glory. That security frees you to serve rather than perform, to love rather than compare, to give rather than grasp.

Fourth, it changes what you are actually seeking. Colossians 3:1 does not say to think about heavenly things as a way of escaping earthly responsibility. It says to seek the things above because that is where Christ is, and Christ is your life. When your identity is rooted in him, the things that once seemed absolutely essential, the approval of certain people, the achievement of certain goals, the accumulation of certain things, begin to lose their grip. Not because they are all wrong, but because they are no longer your source. Christ is your source. Christ is your life.

A Word To Those Still Searching

If you are here today and you have not yet placed your trust in Jesus Christ, I want you to hear something clearly. The identity Paul describes in Ephesians 1 is not something you are born with automatically. It is received through faith. Paul says in verse 13 that you were sealed with the Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him. The door to this identity is faith in Christ.

You do not have to keep building a self that is good enough. You do not have to keep performing for an audience that will never fully satisfy you. There is a standing before God that is offered to you freely, purchased entirely by the blood of Christ, received entirely by faith. That is the gospel. And the invitation is open.

Conclusion

Here is what I want you to carry out of this room today. You are not a work in progress trying to earn God's favor. You are a child of God who is already chosen, already adopted, already redeemed, already sealed, and already hidden with Christ in God. That is not arrogance. That is the declaration of Scripture. That is what God says about everyone who is in his Son.

The world will tell you to keep building, keep performing, keep proving. God says you are already his. Live from that. Pray from that. Serve from that. Love people from that. And when the enemy whispers that you are not enough, you point him to Ephesians 1 and you say, "I am not arguing about my record. I am standing in Christ's."

That is your identity. Receive it. Rest in it. And let it change everything.

Sources Consulted

The Holy Bible, Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2017. Ephesians 1:3-14; Colossians 3:1-4.

F. F. Bruce. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Eerdmans, 1984.

Peter T. O'Brien. The Letter to the Ephesians. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, 1999.

Douglas J. Moo. The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, 2008.

Thomas R. Schreiner. Paul, Apostle of God's Glory in Christ: A Pauline Theology. InterVarsity Press, 2001.