There’s More to Identity than You Think
By Paul Tautges, TGC.
My adult children all have three-lens cameras built into their phones. The multiple lenses enable them to zoom in on our grandbabies’ adorable faces, get a wide-angle view of an ocean sunset, and capture better images in low-light conditions. The combined work of these lenses enhances photo quality and results in sharper images.
Similarly, focusing on our Christian identity through three lenses—saint, sinner, and sufferer—gives us a clearer and more comprehensive picture of who we are.
You’re a Saint
Your first and primary identity as a Christian is firmly rooted in your union with Christ. Every other identity marker is secondary.
As Mike Emlet says,
Ongoing struggle with suffering or with sin must be understood in this basic context of our new identity as children of the living God. We are saints who suffer. We are saints who sin. But we are saints nonetheless at our core.
In Christ, you stand before God as a saint. Sanctification is the process by which you learn to practice this new position.
For example, when Paul writes to the believers in Corinth, he addresses his letter “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:2). Despite the gap between the Corinthians’ holy position and their unholy practices, Paul assures them they’re “called to be saints.” That’s true of every Christian from the moment of conversion.
But like the Corinthian believers, we don’t always behave like saints. The challenge before us is to put into practice our position in Christ—to be who we already are in our standing before God.
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