Our new identity in Christ is not something we bring about for ourselves. A key difference from the way people usually talk about “identifying with” a person or group, though, is that this kind of identification is not something we do ourselves—at least not at first. It was God who predestined us to adoption (Eph. 1:4-5).

It is pretty common nowadays, especially on the political left, to hear people talking about “identifying” as or with different things. Some people “identify” with whatever ethnic, national, cultural, or gender identity they were actually born into (although doing that usually doesn’t cause much controversy). Others “identify” as a gender other than their biological sex.

Some people of mixed ethnic background choose to “identify” with only one of the several ethnicities or cultures corresponding to their biological makeup. Some people of adoptive family choose to “identify” with the ethnic heritage of their biological parents rather than that of the family in which they were raised. 

On the other side of the issue, it is not uncommon to hear condemnations of people for “appropriating” aspects of cultures to which they have no biological connection.

Despite all the talk about it, though, the idea of taking on new identities is not just a recent thing. For example,

• We frequently hear people talking about what “we” (by which is meant the United States) did long ago, despite the fact that whatever is being discussed took place before their ancestors had immigrated.
• People talk about their school’s or city’s sports teams as “we” even though they’re not actually on that team.
• Many people strongly identify with a particular religious tradition even though none of their ancestors belonged to that tradition and they themselves were not brought up in it.

These are examples of people identifying themselves with groups in a way that transcends their own personal experience, ethnic background, national heritage, or ancestral religion. So what does this have to do with the Christian life?

Believers are given a new identity in Christ.

It might surprise you to find out that one of the most central events that takes place when God converts us is that we become identified with Christ. Quite literally, we are given a new identity: an identity in Christ. When we are given new life in Jesus, God makes us part of a “we” who collectively participate in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. This new “we” that we belong to, and that participates in these things, is his Church.

The apostle Paul unpacks this for us in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49. Paul contrasts the first, earthly man, Adam, with the second, spiritual man, Jesus Christ. Whereas “the first man was from the earth, a man of dust,” Paul tells us that “the second man is from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47). We are told,

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Cor. 15.48-49)

This passage puts front and center the fact that there are two Adams. Each Adam is the head of a race of humanity. The first humanity, headed by Adam is a “dusty” humanity, polluted by sin and destined for death. The second humanity is a spiritual humanity, people who were first born of Adam, and then born again as children of God through adoption in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:4-5).

When God converts us, we take on a new spiritual identity: “in Christ.” We “have been baptized into his death” (Rom. 6:3). We died with Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

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