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“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10:27-29

After three tries, the store clerk told my bride that the credit card just wouldn’t work. Fortunately, we had a back-up. We were out of the country and needed a credit card.

A call to the bank told us that our card had been “compromised.” We found out that meant that our identity had been stolen and someone had made a new card and having a merry time buying jewelry. I thought this could not be done with the new chip cards, but as always the thieves are just a few steps ahead of technology.

Fortunately the store did not block the purchases and no one was out any money. When we arrived home, a new card was waiting. I was, to say the least, angered that someone had stolen our identity and was using it to steal.

As I pondered the whole experience, I thought of a spiritual parallel. When I accepted Jesus as my Savior, I acquired a new identity that no one can take away. I am His and He is mine and no one can separate us. My identity in Christ cannot be compromised, stolen or taken away.

In the secular world, our identity often takes the form of a number: Social Security, credit card, driver’s license or passport. We won’t get too far if we don’t have an official form of identity, usually accompanied by a picture.

In the world of faith, however, we receive our identity from God through Jesus Christ, and no one can ever take it away. In fact, much of the Bible talks about what God’s people are called to do because of their identity. Paul cuts to the heart when he writes, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10

By John Grant
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney

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Christ Himself is the eternal blueprint for our lives. Only in studying Him, in measuring ourselves by Him, do we grow securely upon the foundation of God.

Beloved, we were created to become like Christ. God’s plan has not faded or become obsolete! Even as Christ has not changed, so neither has the plan of God for the church. Our transformation will burn in God’s heart “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ”
(Ephesians 4:13).

You see, the focus of both leadership and congregations should be upon attaining Christlike transformation and His love for people. This has been the Father’s purpose from the beginning of time and it remains His unchanging goal at the end of the age. (See Genesis. 1:26-27 and Romans 8:29.)

The problem is that, too often, as Christians we define ourselves by what we do for God rather than what we become to Him. What pleases the Father most is not what proceeds from our hands but what rises from our hearts. He is seeking the revelation of His Son in us. There is nothing on earth that so pleases the Father’s heart as when Jesus Christ is revealed through us. As Paul wrote, we become a “fragrance of Christ to God”
(2 Corinthians 2:15).

This is why we focus on revealing Christ Himself. Other aspects of Christianity develop correctly only as they emerge out of our greater pursuit of Christlikeness. You see? No aspect of our spirituality functions properly apart from our living union with Christ. It is here, in pursuing Christlikeness, that we find true spiritual assurance that we are not being led astray.

Consider: Paul said that the result of seeking the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ is that “we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4).

Paul warned that people can be “carried about by every wind of doctrine.” Yes, false doctrines are dangerous, but Paul wasn’t limiting his warning only to false teachings. For even a true doctrine can have a false emphasis and lead us astray. The pursuit of Christlikeness aligns us with the Father’s highest priority for our lives. It secures us upon the path to truth, for “truth is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4:21). He Himself is the way, the truth and the life.

As a result, Paul wrote that intimacy with Christ was the deepest cry of his heart. He said, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).

He was not speaking of some esoteric knowledge of Christ but an intimacy that led to conformity. Do we see this? He wrote, “That I may know Him . . . being conformed.” Knowing Christ and being conformed to Him is of the same essence. Christ Himself is the true foundation upon which we must build our lives.

By Francis Frangipane
used by permission

An Identity that Cannot be Stolen

The True Foundation

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An Identity that Cannot be Stolen

The True Foundation