Insights on Salvation from the perspective of identity
The concept of proclaiming salvation from the perspective of a person’s identity has been fundamental in my work as a Christian psychologist for years. A firm, stable identity is a key ingredient to a healthy emotional life. Finding that identity in Christ is empowering.
The following three ideas add depth to my understanding about the importance of being saved from the perspective of one’s identity in Christ. This concept takes salvation well beyond the traditional view: “saved from sin and now able to have eternal life with God.” There is so much more to salvation (sozo), going well beyond our being born again, to our being fully healed and delivered.
1. To understand salvation from the perspective of identity, We must first reject the “John the Baptist view” expressed in John 3: 30 (NLT). “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” Let’s challenge the traditional interpretation of “we must deny ourselves.” The full Gospel of Sozo means we reclaim our value in God’s eyes. Ben Williams, teacher and evangelist, said, “We miss the boat when we believe that what God wants me to do is NOT what I have had on my heart since I was a child.” God wants more of me, not less of me. While God could live without me, he doesn’t want to. He values me. He’s crazy about me. He created me with a unique plan for his kingdom.
2. Once you gain an identity in Christ, you understand your own value in God’s eyes. This opens up your capacity to love others as Jesus does. “You can’t see other people’s value if you are still trying to gain your own,” according to Ben.
In my own life, as my identity as the Bride of Christ solidified, I experienced the freedom from self-condemnation. As I stepped into my God-given identity, I have been able to shuck the innate tendency to judge others. Now there is no desire to judge them. Strong in my kingdom identity, I can truly forgive and say, “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.” Once that is done, judgment vanishes.
3. Previously I knew that Jesus loved me because he lay down on the cross and allowed the centurion to crucify him. And I knew the scripture that said, “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness” (Is. 52:4 (NIV). But I had never considered why it was ordained for Jesus to be disfigured and beaten beyond recognition.
Thank God, Jesus allowed his image to be destroyed to pay the price (through his bloodied face) for my shattered image. His visage was marred beyond recognition to restore my broken sense of self. God the Father wants me to recognize who I was born to be, a daughter of the Most High God. And Jesus took that disfigured image upon himself in my place.
Each of us has experienced the evil press of the world around us and the havoc it has done with our sense of who we are. But Jesus paid the price for this identity distortion. Through his death, my identity as the glory of God has been restored. Thanks be to Jesus.
In Christ,
