Who Am I? — A LifeWords Devotion

2 Corinthians 5:17

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (NLT)

Many of us can testify that we don’t always feel like we are new people just because we have faith in Jesus. Our bodies ache, our minds are jumbled, our wills are compromised, our thoughts wander in dangerous directions.

And yet it is true. Once we embrace Jesus, we are given a new centre, a new focus. Our basic identity has changed. Once I was simply one who sinned, loved by God but estranged from him. Now I am a child of God who yet sins. I remain imperfect, but my imperfections are swallowed up by the perfection of Jesus.

It is important not to label ourselves as mere “sinners”, though we certainly do sin. Rather we label ourselves as God’s treasured children in spite of our sins. Living out of this identity puts us on the right track. We still grieve over our sins and take them seriously. But we recognise Jesus has dealt with the guilt and the eternal consequences of those sins. Belonging to Jesus has given us a fresh start and promises innumerable fresh starts in our stumbling journey to maturity.

Our great task in life, then, is to be in practice what we already are in principle.