An Eternally Secure Identity in Christ (October 24, 2023)

 ^“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

When voters go to the polls in the general election in two weeks, we will have to present to the poll worker our driver’s license or other acceptable identification in order to cast a ballot. In today’s increasingly impersonal, technology-based society, we are known and identified in the realms of government, business, and the world at large by our Social Security and account numbers, ID cards, and other similar documentation. As we all know, we have to guard this personal information very carefully in light of the fact that identity theft is among the fastest-growing crimes in the world.

While our earthly identities—the digital or physical sources of personal information that distinguish us from everyone else—may be at risk of theft, believers are securely identified as holy and set apart from the world through our relationship with Jesus Christ. By faith in Christ, we have been forgiven of our sins and become permanently identified as children of God. Spiritually, we are no longer residents of this fallen world; we’re just pilgrims passing through to our eternal home on high. We’ve become citizens of heaven and joint heirs with Christ to the riches of glory!

Our identity in Christ is sealed and secure, and, though he constantly tries, Satan can never steal it away. This is the unshakable identity and the blessed assurance that we have in Christ the LORD: “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  (1 John 3:1-2) We are eternally identified as disciples of Jesus by our love for each other!