Who Am I?: Identity in Christ

"Who am I?" It's a question that every single one of us has likely asked at one time or another. And with good reason; understanding who we are--defining our identity--completely transforms how we act, think and speak. It is no wonder then, that we so many appeals within Scripture to our identity as being "in Christ." We are to remember that we are new creations in Christ, made free in Christ, made alive in Christ, made wise in Christ... the list is (seemingly) endless.

Yet, many of us struggle to grasp the impact of what it means to be in Christ and, as a result, burden ourselves under condemnation and guilt, failing to live in the freedom that Christ offers. That's the heart of Who Am I?: Identity in Christ by Jerry Bridges. Over its eight chapters, Bridges offers a concise look at the meaning and implications of being "in Christ."

While our identity in Christ is the focus, it's not the starting point of this book. Bridges wisely starts by reminding readers that, before we are in Christ, we are created beings. We are creatures, utterly dependent and accountable to God in every way. This truth is one that we desperately need to remember, particularly we who live in cultures that prize self-sufficiency above all things. On this point, Bridges writes:

"Every so often I encounter one of those "self-made men," the kind who might claim to have "pulled himself up by his own bootstraps." He likes to tell you how he started from nothing and became successful. Some of you reading this book may have experienced that. But why did God bless your plans, why did God bless your efforts? What do you have that you did not receive? Every ability--mental ability or business ability, whether it's in the fine arts or athletics or whatever it might be--it's all a gift from God. We are utterly dependent upon him."

Reminders like this help us gain perspective--if we are indeed utterly dependent upon God, then we have no choice but to acknowledge that dependence. Anything less less would be blasphemy. The notion of being a "self-made man" (or woman) is ludicrous, given this perspective.

While Bridges could have written a book solely devoted to unpacking our dependency on and accountability toward God, our understanding of our identities as Christians is not rooted simply in the Creator-creation relationship. It's rooted in the gospel. I am not merely a creature, but I am in Christ. Better still, I am no longer an object of God's wrath, but united to Him in Christ. In Christ, I am justified before God. I am adopted as His son and a new creation. I am a saint and a servant of Christ... each chapter builds our understanding of our identity and leaves the reader in awe of all that God has done.

While I could offer comments on very chapter, perhaps most meaningful to me was the final chapter, "I Am Not Yet Perfect." One of my great challenges and ongoing struggles is "performance." It's easy for me to heap guilt and condemnation upon myself when I fail to live up to a standard that I can't possibly attain on my own and to act as though I need to earn my standing before God. This is not an uncommon experience. In fact, it's our default setting as it were. "We are performance-oriented by nature, that is, by our sinful nature," writes Bridges. "To use a British term, we don't want to be `on the dole'--to be a charity case before God. We want to `pay our own way' to self-respect based on what we accomplish."

Reading this reminded me once again of my stupidity when it comes to striving to be approved based on performance. I can know all the other truths of what it means to be in Christ--I can know that I am justified and declared holy through Christ's righteousness and not my own. I can know that God looks at me as a son--and yet I can still live as though I have to "earn" all that Christ has freely given! Sometimes this causes me to beat myself up simply because I've not had a "quiet time," but it can play into other aspects of life as well. But we cannot grow in Christ in this way. We cannot make ourselves more holy simply by trying harder and doing more:

"If we are going to grow in the realization of who we are in Christ, we must come to terms with the reality that we are not yet perfect; the presence and activity of sin is still alive and well within us. The reason we must accept this fact is that we cannot look to Christ for our identity if we are still trying to find something about ourselves to prop up our self-esteem. 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."

That is what we need to be reminded of over and over again: "We must abandon any desire to find something within ourselves that makes us acceptable to God." God is pleased with us--what He finds acceptable about us--is that we are in Christ. This is news I never tire of hearing and consistently need to keep front of mind. Without it, I can take literally everything I do, whether my full time job, my ministry within our church, or even my new extremely part-time job with Cruciform Press (the publishers of this book), and try to hold it up before God in an attempt to get Him to say, "Well done." But when He does offer those words that all of us should long to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant," it is not based on what we've done, but on Christ's service. Who Am I`s final chapter is a supremely helpful reminder that while I am not perfect, Christ is and He is sufficient. And that alone is reason enough to get a copy of this book. I trust it will be a blessing to you.

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A note to readers: I've recently taken on a small role with Cruciform Press in the areas of Marketing and social media. As is the case with all my reviews from any publisher, my change in relationship with Cruciform Press (first solely a reader, then an author and now sort-of-staff) does not dictate that I offer a positive review of this book.

I deeply appreciated Jerry Bridges' "The Pursuit of Holiness" when I read it many years ago, and having spent a few days sitting under his teaching recently, I was excited to lead a group of college students through the experience of reading and discussing "Who Am I?" together. Over the course of a month, we had some good conversation, but it wasn't nearly the dynamic experience that I had hoped we might have together.

The premise of the book is that those of us who call ourselves Christians ought to know what that means about our core identity. Bridges begins with a chapter of our general identity as humans, applicable to all. Then he spends another chapter describing the idea of what it means for Christians to be "in Christ." And then he spends the final six chapters specifying six more identifying markers that describe different realities about our identity "in Christ," that we are justified, adopted sons of God, new creations, saints, servants of Christ, and not yet perfect.

To be sure, Bridges' writing is consistently biblical, as he repeatedly offers Scriptural references to support the points that he's making. And, by and large, I thought that his points were sound and clear (though he did make a few odd, slightly off-handed remarks that seemed disconnected from his central theses and, therefore, unfounded and unconvincing). However, in all of that, I never felt like I was really engaging with those points. It just wasn't very interesting or engaging or applicable, in many ways. Of course, our group discussion helped us to find those points of access, but even so, it sometimes felt as if we had to abandon the content of the book to have anything meaningful to discuss. In many ways, this felt like a rather academic, overly simplistic theological summary, without the illustrations and stories that allow this sort of content to make sense and truly impact my life.

I'm sure that some will read this review and consider my experience to reflect my own laziness or some other similar defect. While this may be true, I suppose my experience belies my expectations for what makes a Christian book worth reading. Though I am confident that Jerry Bridges made countless true statements throughout this book, it just never grabbed my heart or my mind. It wasn't very compelling or very interesting. As such, I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it, as he covers some solid ground. But it would also fall far down my list of books to recommend for those who want to consider what it means to follow Christ. I'm curious to read more from Bridges because I'm convinced that he has much to say that I need to hear, but I found this particular book to be rather disappointing.

Great book to read, so much to process, but excellent in it's presentation of Christ. Excellent book for anyone struggling with their identity, as it pertains to Christ, and the relationship we possess with Him. Could be used in a small group format to be discussed, I could see our small group pursuing that avenue.

What does trusting in Jesus Christ means for your new identity as a Christian? In this book author Jerry Bridges explores the Christian’s new identity biblically. He does this by applying what in systematic theology is called the Order of Salvation to the question of who a believer is. By Order of Salvation I mean what God has done to save believers from their sins and the penalty and power of sin.
The eight chapters in the book were edifying. The first is on the fact that we are creatures made by God. This is foundational for everything else that follows. Chapter two is titled “I am in Christ” which goes over and apply the doctrine of union with Christ. Next is a chapter on the doctrine of justification, a chapter on adoption and a chapter on believers being a new creation. Chapter six then is on believers being saints and chapter seven is on believers being a servant of Christ and what does that mean practically. Finally chapter eight discusses the reality that we are not yet perfect; I thought this was important to balance out chapter five of how we are generate, we can say no to sin.
I really enjoyed this book as I enjoyed other works by the author Jerry Bridges. It is biblically sound, Gospel centered, grace driven and practical. He’s practical in a way that I like: His discussion about biblical doctrines is meant to warm our hearts to have affections and love for God, and that then is motivation for obedience. So while its not always a “how-to” application, it is always an application of loving and worshipping God as the primary motivation to obey God.
The book is easy to understand and I’m glad our youth group is going over it. Chapters are short and great for discussions for those that want to use it in a small group setting. It is also great for personal devotional with it being a chapter a day, though I also thought the book was interesting enough that I read the second half the book in one sitting at night. Edifying and God exalting; I pray those who read this would come to Christ or grow in Christ having seen our identity in Christ is relevant for how we live our life and handling difficulties.

I’m a devote Christian and this book was painfully boring

I loved this short book that really gets to the heart of who we are in Christ.

Great book!

Greta insight by Jerry Bridges, and in the process of using with a group for Bible study as well as a 1 on 1 discipleship time. Great book, clear and easy read.

Wonderfully written about who we are in Christ.

Short little book. We used this book is a discipleship study. Based on the discussions in the group, the new Christians saw it as helpful and it answered many of the questions that they had. Those who had been in the faith for a long period of time saw it as a great reminder of the truths we believe. I would recommend that this book is read and re-read with different color highlighters. See what different areas tat you focus on! Most importantly live in the Bible but make this one of the books that you visit frequently.