Scroll through an Instagram feed with a primary audience of Christian women and, sooner or later, you’ll run into a post about your identity in Christ. From social media to books to blogs to podcasts to sermons at women’s conferences, we’re repeatedly affirmed about who God created us to be.

Today, in my daily reading, I was in Isaiah 43 and some of those truths came beautifully alive in just that one chapter.

Because of Jesus,

I am redeemed. (Isaiah 43:1)

I am known. (Isaiah 43:1)

I belong to Him. (Isaiah 43:1)

I am never alone. (Isaiah 43:2)

I am saved. (Isaiah 43:3)

I am precious to Him. (Isaiah 43:4)

I am honored in His sight. (Isaiah 43:4)

I am loved by Him. (Isaiah 43: 4)

I am redeemed. (Isaiah 43:14)

I am forgiven. (Isaiah 43:25)

Without a doubt, I stand on those infallible truths about who I am because of Whose I am.

But, friend, am I told all these powerful things simply so I can hoard them in my heart and not feel insecure? Is God just saying to me: “Here, feel good about yourself. The end.”?

The answer seems embedded in that same passage:

We are created for God’s glory. (Isaiah 43:7)

While part of living for God’s glory is knowing who we are in Christ, we are also called to honor Him with our actions and affections

But are we like the Israelites who basked in His blessings but did not heed His commands?

In verses 22 to 24 (of the Message version) of that very same chapter of affirmations, God says of them:

“But you didn’t pay a bit of attention to me, Jacob.
You so quickly tired of me, Israel.
You wouldn’t even bring sheep for offerings in worship.
You couldn’t be bothered with sacrifices.
It wasn’t that I asked that much from you.
I didn’t expect expensive presents.
But you didn’t even do the minimum—
so stingy with me, so closefisted.
Yet you haven’t been stingy with your sins.
You’ve been plenty generous with them—and I’m fed up.

They didn’t pay any attention to Him. They tired of Him. They didn’t bother with sacrifices. They didn’t even do the minimum. Ouch.

God is not a demanding taskmaster or a grouchy boss who expects results and returns from us. Far from it. He loves us because He is love. It is an unconditional love that He poured on us while we were still His enemies.

But we are created for His glory. That’s why we are here. If we live for any other purpose, then our lives are at best diluted and dull versions of what God intends for us. Giving God the attention and adoration due to His name is not about pandering to His ego; it is responding to His love and living out our purpose.

In lapping up all that He says about us have we become too self-focussed? Have we forgotten that, ultimately, this is His story and not ours?

I absolutely subscribe to salvation by grace and not works. But we are also called to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.”(Philippians 2: 12) Not work for our salvation. But to work out our salvation. As Tim Keller says, “God’s salvation doesn’t come in response to a changed life. A changed life naturally comes in response to salvation.”

In response to the marvelous, astounding, perfect work of Jesus on the Cross, we are called to walk in obedience, to weary ourselves for Him, to carry our cross, to build treasures in heaven, to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, to be radically generous, to share His truth, to make disciples, to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love others as ourselves.

I love verses that encourage us to find our identity and worth in God (If they are written in a pretty font, I admit, I kinda like them more). But along with those affirmations about who we are in Christ, there are other truths—sometimes, difficult and inconvenient truths—that bear repeating.

May we know who we are in Christ. Being rooted in that truth, may we live for His glory.

 

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