Who Does God Say I Am In The Bible?

Who does God say I am? This is one of the most important questions for us to ask.

We are all at the centre of a fierce battle. A battle for our hearts, our minds and our identities. The enemy would love for us to be defined by this world, by our sin and by our shame. But God offers something else. God invites us to be made new, to forget our sin and shame and become a new creation with Him.

Asking the question ‘who does God say I am?’ can be the beginning of an incredible journey of finding out who you were created to be. And, also, of learning to lean into the transformative process of purification Jesus takes us all on in order to become more like Him.

What Does The Bible Say About Our Identities?

Begin your journey of discovering who God says you are by reading the Bible. There are hundreds of powerful statements about us and our identities to be found in Scripture.

Here are a few to get you started:

Who Does God Say I Am? He Says You Are His Child

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1

You are God’s child. This truth is so incredible that we could unpack it for the rest of our lives. Every single thing about who we are needs to be rooted in this, one of the foundations of our faith: we are His children.

No matter what your family is like, or how you were brought up, we are all equal in God’s kingdom, we are all His sons and daughters.

His Co-Worker And Colleague

"For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building." 1 Corinthians 3:9

Don’t let any unpleasant experience of being someone’s colleague affect how you might think of our relationship with God as His co-workers. When Paul writes to the church in Corinth, describing us as being co-workers in God’s service, he is raising our expectations. He is reminding us that we can contribute, in a meaningful way, to building God’s kingdom.

God has a role created just for you. He has work for you to do that is vital in seeing His plans for His people, and for the planet, come to fruition.

He Says You Are Holy

"Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.." Colossians 1:21-23

Once you grasp the full impact of this verse in Colossians, it has the power to change everything about your identity. This quotation from scripture is also a brilliant weapon on difficult days when your thought life is a battlefield.

The enemy wants to define you by your sin and shame. But, Jesus Christ paid the price for all of our sin and shame when He died for us on the cross. That’s what Paul is referring to when he says in 1 Corinthians that we were bought with a price. We are no longer our own, we belong to God. God has made us blameless; don’t let your mistakes or brokenness define you when only God can.

There are two aspects to the question ‘who does God say I am?’ The first, on a macro level, how is my identity and the purpose of my life shaped by my faith? And secondly, on a micro level, how is who I am and my personality shaped by my faith? We’re going to answer both in detail.

Firstly, how does who God says you are change your identity?

How Being A Christian Affects Your Identity

Ticking ‘Christian’ on the next form you fill out means so much more than just you believing in heaven, or implying that you go to church on a Sunday. Here’s what Paul has to say about it in 2 Corinthians 5: 17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Christ has made you new. We are new creations. This alone could be studied for hours on end but, in short, what Paul is explaining here is that just as Jesus died, so too did we. Our ‘old man’, which was full of sin, died with Jesus. And our ‘new man’, which has been made holy and blameless through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, lives today.

It’s a complicated, seemingly contradictory thing to try and understand that we have been made perfect in Jesus already and yet still live in a broken world. But it’s true, we are able to live as new creations in Christ.

So, the overarching truth that defines you is that God has made you new. Through Christ you are a new creation.

How Loving God Defines Who You Are

God cares about every part of you. He knew you and knitted you together in your mother’s womb.

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13

God has ordained every one of your days. He created your ‘inmost being’. There is a purpose for you and God has created a personality just for you.

You don't have to separate out your faith from your personality. As you pursue God, He will draw you out, transforming and refining you as you journey with Him.

There’s no better person to answer the question ‘who does God say I am?’ than God Himself.

Why not begin to ask Him who He made you to be?

He may answer you by reminding you of a Scripture - is there a character in the Bible that He wants you to learn from? Or, He might speak to you through a friend’s affirmations. You might hear His voice as a thought in your head or a nudge in your spirit.

Remember there’s a battle over your identity but Jesus has already overcome all. You are free, through His sacrifice on the cross, to live liberated as a beloved child of God. Today, tomorrow and for eternity.

Photo by Vlad Bagacian on Unsplash Photo by Karl Paul Baldacchino on Unsplash