Our Identity in Christ: A Book Recommendation for “Who Am I?” by Jerry Bridges
“As Christians, our identity is to be found in our relationship with Christ, not in our subjective and often negative life-experiences.” - Jerry Bridges
Our culture is undergoing an identity crisis. The sense of personal rootedness previously supplied by family, neighbourhood, faith community, social institutions, and shared national identity have given way to what philosopher Charles Taylor refers to as “the culture of authenticity”, in which “each one of us has his/her own way of realizing our humanity”1
This makes “Who am I?” an entirely personal question that everyone is left to answer for themselves. And in such a culture, Christians run completely against the grain. That’s because our identity, by contrast, is determined by someone else. It is given to us by Christ, because through faith we are now “in Christ.”
And yet discovering and living out our new identity in Christ isn’t something that happens automatically. Many Christians have never learned or understood the clear instruction of God’s Word regarding their new identity in Christ, what it means, and how to live it out to its fullest. That’s why I think Jerry Bridges’ book, Who Am I? Identity in Christ, is a must read for every believer.
Here is the author’s summary of the book:
“My aim in this book has been to help us understand our basic identity. Our answer to the question, “Who am I?”, is to be found in neither our achievements, nor our failures, nor the evaluations of others, but in Christ alone. It is he who, as our representative before God, lived the perfect life we could never live, died the death we deserve to die, and now sits at the right hand of God, interceding for us—and I suspect, cheering us on.” p. 95.
Each chapter is designed to help you explore, understand, and embrace more fully all that it means for you to belong to Jesus. Working through the book you’ll come to better grasp the life transforming truth of:
- Your nature as God’s creation
- Your relational union with Jesus
- Your legal standing before God
- Your adoption by God as his child
- Your new spiritual life as a new creation in Christ
- Your place within Jesus’ family, the church
- And, your new life purpose as Christ’s servant.
There is so much faith building, life changing truth in this little book. Here are just two of the many encouragements given by Bridges:
“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.” p. 92.
“To really grow in the wonderful reality of who we are in Christ, we must abandon any desire to find something within ourselves that makes us acceptable to God.” p. 93.
Our identity in Christ is such important truth, perhaps especially for Christians under thirty whose generation is raised to believe that everyone is uniquely special with the potential for greatness. For the 99.99% of us who are neither uniquely special nor great, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is the eternal and glorious Son of God, the only truly unique and greatly exalted Lord of all the universe. And our greatest life satisfaction and joy is that we’ve been eternally united with God IN HIM.
You can find Who Am I? Identity in Christ by Jerry Bridges here.
1 Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2007), p. 475.