A Christian’s Identity

God sees Christians differently.

As new creations in Christ, Christians have a new identity (2 Corinthians 5:17).

As part of the Church, we are becoming the Bride of Christ for an eternal union with Him (Revelation 19:6-9).

This new state will change us

Your body has died and is buried with Christ by baptism, and are now made alive again to live new lives (Romans 6:4).

We’re supposed to let God renew our minds and put on a new self (Ephesians 4:21-24).

We will slowly bear more spiritual fruits over time (Galatians 5:22-23).

God will heal all your past trauma (Matthew 11:28, James 5:13-16), but your improvements will rarely be instant.

  • Many of your physical problems can serve a spiritual benefit for you or others, so God doesn’t always heal them.
  • A Christian doesn’t instantly become Christlike, but slowly changes to it (Titus 3:5).
  • We change as fast as we’re willing to give up ourselves and our past (Romans 12:2).

Our spirit will be bold, loving, and self-disciplined (2 Timothy 1:7).

We have a new home in heaven (John 14:2) where we’ll receive a new, more powerful body (Philippians 3:20-21).

  • By implication, all aspects of our current living situation are merely transitional.

Our new identity won’t mix with our old life

The world won’t like this “new you” (John 15:18-19).

The sacrifice is worth it, but you will endure hardship (2 Corinthians 6:3-5, 2 Timothy 4:5).

Our social support network will be in the Body of Christ.

God will typically frame our hardships to confront the defects of our personalities:

  • High openness to experience: He will give a monotonous life for a season.
  • Low openness to experience: He will give more major life changes.
  • High conscientiousness: He’ll bring around more disorganized, messy people.
  • Low conscientiousness: He’ll give more duties and obligations where you must honor your promises.
  • High extraversion: He’ll isolate you and require you to spend more time alone in meditation.
  • Low extraversion: He’ll bring many more people around you on a consistent basis, and may even make you a leader.
  • High agreeableness: He’ll give more conflicts and contentions where you must take a moral stand against others.
  • Low agreeableness: He’ll force circumstances that require getting along more often with other people.
  • High neuroticism: He’ll require you to give over the unknown to Him more frequently.
  • Low neuroticism: He’ll introduce more emotionally volatile people into your life.

All of it is to develop you into the perfection Jesus has planned for you:

  • A very high openness to any experiences God wants to provide.
  • High conscientiousness, where you will live righteously.
  • Extraverted enough to enjoy connecting regularly with the Body.
  • Agreeable and gracious with others, except regarding immorality.
  • A well-disciplined soul that manages emotional flare-ups and devotes it to a framing of mysticism more than anxiety.

However, this requires us to be sincerely honest with ourselves, so we must integrate our shadow personas with ourselves to prevent a double-minded approach from all the changes He requires of us.

Some things are simply not true

While on this earth, we can’t be wholly sinless or perfect (Philippians 3:12, 1 John 1:8).

We won’t have an easier life and may not gain financial wealth (Malachi 3:10, Luke 6:38, James 5:1-6).

We don’t need “Christ and nobody else”, and always need 3 other same-sex believers in our lives:

  1. A mentor who gives us input and guidance from their superior experience (e.g., Paul with Timothy).
  2. A friend walking through the same challenges and experiences we’re having (e.g., Paul with Barnabas).
  3. Someone less experience we can mentor (e.g., Timothy with Paul).

God does often bless us in ways money can’t provide:

Religious rituals won’t always help our relationship with Jesus.

Don’t search for mystical experiences such as miracles, healing, or supernatural phenomena (Matthew 12:38-39).

  • God will bring mystical experiences when He wants to, and our faith is more important to Him than miracles (John 20:29).
  • Many Christians will pursue a spiritual feeling from listening to worship music, but there’s no good in seeking it without understanding.

A relationship with God requires unconditional devotion

God paid heavily for you with His son’s life (1 Corinthians 6:20).

Everything we own is God’s (Matthew 5:27-30, Matthew 13:44-46).

  • God will give us more than we can acquire ourselves, but we must sacrifice everything for it (Matthew 19:27-30, Mark 10:28-31).
  • We don’t always have to burn bridges, relationships, and opportunities, but must always be prepared to release control of them if He asks.
  • The Bible doesn’t provide details for what we must give because each person and the timing for each sacrifice is different.

We are frequently ungrateful for many of the things He gives us:

Our relationship with God either thrives or falters.

Christianity is a long-term commitment (Luke 9:61-62).