One of the devil’s tactics is to make us doubt our identity.  He is full of lies; in him, there is no truth at all (John 8:44).  In the desert, the devil tested Jesus by questioning his identity, whether he really was the Son of God—“if you are Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf” (Luke 4:3).  “If you are Son of God . . . throw yourself down from here” (Luke 4:9).  However, God’s plan is founded on faith (1 Timothy 1:4), and so we must combat the devil’s lies with the truth about our identity (Ephesians 6:14).  

What does the Word of God say about our identity?  Who are we?  How does God see us?  “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life” (Ephesians 2:10).  We are made in God’s image and created for a mission.  We are his—his chosen, his children, his beloved, even his home.  We are a gift, precious to our Lord!  

We are God’s creation.

We are God’s creation, made in his own image.  “God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him . . . God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:27, 31).  With our “faces like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord,” we are all “being transformed into the image that we reflect in brighter and brighter glory; this is the working of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).  

God created us with purpose and for a purpose.  He created our inmost selves, knit us together in our mothers’ wombs—each of us is a wonder (Psalm 139:13-14)!  God told Jeremiah, even “before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came to birth, I consecrated you; I appointed you as prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4-5).  Likewise, as Jesus told the disciples, “I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last” (John 15:16).  The Lord wants us to know that he loves us and has chosen us for a mission (Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4).  

We are his.

In the parable of the good shepherd, Jesus explains that we are his, and our identity is secure in him.  “I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me . . . I give them eternal life; they will never be lost, and no one will ever steal them from my hand” (John 10:14, 28).  He loved those “who were his” to the end (John 13:1).  Through the Old Testament, too, God said, “Your time had come, the time for love.  I spread my cloak over you and covered your nakedness; I gave you my oath, I made a covenant with you . . . and you became mine” (Ezekiel 16:8).  

We are God’s children.

God’s vast love for us is revealed in the truth that we are his children.  “You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God’s children—which is what we are” (1 John 3:1)!  In his awesome plan of salvation, the Father “chose us in Christ before the world was made . . . marking us out for himself beforehand, to be adopted sons [and daughters], through Jesus Christ.  Such was his purpose and good pleasure” (Ephesians 1:4-5).  All who are guided by the Spirit are children of God, and having received “the Spirit of adoption,” we can cry out to God, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:14-15; Galatians 4:6).  When we cry out to him, he hears and rescues us from all our troubles (Psalm 34:6).

We are the beloved of God and a home for him.

Do you realize that “you are a temple of God with the Spirit of God living in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16; see also Ephesians 2:22).  Since the Spirit of God has made a home in us, we have life through the Spirit living in us (Romans 8:9, 11).  

It is a beautiful and deep mystery that God loves us so much that he would dwell within us.  As Jesus said, “whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and reveal myself to him . . . Anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him” (John 14:21, 23).  

We are the Father’s gift to our Lord Jesus.

In John 17, Jesus says that we are the Father’s gift to him, and again that our identity is secure in him.  “I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me.  They were yours and you gave them to me . . . I kept those you had given me true to your name.  I have watched over them and not one is lost . . . Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see my glory” (John 17:6, 12, 24).  

In the spiritual war over our identity and worth, it is encouraging to remember that the Lord wants us to be with him. Remain in him, as he in you (John 15:4).  Draw near to him, and he will draw near to you (James 4:8).  He loves you (John 3:16, 15:9)! 

We are precious in the eyes of the Lord.

The Lord sees us in all our struggles and sufferings (Psalm 139), and he is moved by our circumstances because we are precious to him.  “Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies?  And yet not one is forgotten in God’s sight.  Why, every hair on your head has been counted.  There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).  The Gospels include many wonderful accounts of how God sees us; it is beautiful and healing to reflect on them in prayer.  Below are just a few examples.    

• As Jesus saw the two blind men of Jericho, he “stopped, called them over and said, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’  They said to him, ‘Lord, let us have our sight back.’  Jesus felt pity for them and touched their eyes, and at once their sight returned and they followed him” (Matthew 20:32-34).  

• “A man suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to him and pleaded on his knees saying, ‘If you are willing, you can cleanse me.’  Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, ‘I am willing.  Be cleansed’” (Mark 1:40-41).  

• When the Lord saw the widow of Nain whose only son had died, “he felt sorry for her and said to her, ‘Don’t cry.’  Then he went up and touched the bier and the bearers stood still, and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you: get up.’  And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Luke 7:13-15).  

• The “prodigal son” decided to return home, “left the place and went back to his father.  While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity.  He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him. Then his son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I no longer deserve to be called your son.’  But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick!  Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the calf we have been fattening and kill it; we will celebrate by having a feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.’  And they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:20-24). 

• Before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Mary went to him and threw herself at his feet in tears.  “At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who had come with her, Jesus was greatly distressed, and with a profound sigh he said, ‘Where have you put him?’   They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’   Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him’” (John 11:33-36)!

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It is important that we treat ourselves with love, patience, and kindness (Mark 12:31; 1 Corinthians 13:4).  Part of loving ourselves is remembering, experiencing, and rejoicing in the truth of who we are (1 Corinthians 13:6).  We are lovable and precious because we are made in God’s image and because of who he says we are—his chosen, his children, his beloved, his home.  If we try to define ourselves without God, we will experience a crisis of identity, but in God, our identity is secure.  How amazing it is that we are his work of art!