“Who am I?” Every person who has walked this planted has always wonder who they are. This answer brings a lot of clarity to ‘why was I born?’ Even the devil knew the power of this question that he tempted the woman in the garden. This is what he asked the woman in Genesis 3:4-5, “Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”” Here you see the temptation is for her to be like God. The irony is that, they were already like God. Look at what God said about them in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness….” God created both the man and the woman in His Image and Likeness.

One of the things that Jesus was confident in was His identity; so, when the devil came to tempt Him, He defeated Him. Look at what Jesus says He is in John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”” Jesus just called Himself God. In the book of Exodus 3:14, God says the following, “And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”” (BTW: One thing about Jesus that I liked was how bold He was. He made that statement to Jews who knew the law and he knew full well what was going to happen if He made that statement.) Philippians 2:5-7 shows how Jesus was confident in Himself. It says the following, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” This verse shows us how Jesus knew who He was, and because of it He could anything that God instructed Him to do because He was secure in Himself.

But that’s Jesus, what about Me? Who am I? I’m glad you asked. We see that answer in 1 John 5:1, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God….” That verse tells me that I am a child of God. That is who I am. But what does that look like? It’s clarified in 2 Corinthians 5:17;21, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new…. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Verse 17 tells us that when I became a child of God, my past was washed away. In other words, I don’t have a past because I have been made new. Even though my past has been washed away, the things I did in the past still haunt me. When this happens, we must reject and resist them, and we must remind ourselves who we are. Verse 21 tells us that we are the righteousness of God in Christ. So, when our past tries to haunt us, we must remind ourselves that Jesus washed all my past with His blood and He made me righteous.

Believing that we are righteous is always hard because we are always sinning. The reason why it’s hard is because we fail to realize that our actions don’t make us righteous but our belief in Jesus does. In Romans 4:3-4 says the following, “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.” The reason why Abraham was righteous is because He believed God. The reason why we are righteous today is because we believe Jesus. The moment we think our actions (whether good or bad) determine our righteousness we have fallen from Grace and into self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is based on our works, but Faith-righteousness is based on the works of Jesus.