The very essence of what it means to be human is that we bear the image of God. When God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” He tells us fundamentally why He is making man – to bear His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). Therefore, our most base-level Identity is “image bearer of God.”

Everyone is an image bearer of God and everything we do in life is either accurately portraying what God is like or lying about what God is like. That’s part of what makes sin so bad. We are lying about who God is when we sin, because we are made in his image.

If our primary Identity is broken through sin, which it is, then we are unable to do what we were created to do, namely give glory to God through imaging Him to, and all over, the world (Rom. 3:23).

Therefore, we need God to forgive us for lying about who He is through our sin. (Justification)

We need someone to correct the broken image we bear. (Sanctification)

We need someone to give us the power to accurately image God. (Holy Spirit)

We need someone to give us the desire to image God. (Regeneration)

We need Jesus…

Our Identity must be found in Jesus. He imaged God perfectly in His life without sin on our behalf. He died the death we should have died for our sin so that we might be forgiven and righteous in God’s eyes (Rom. 6:23, 2 Cor. 5:21). Being free from the condemnation we deserved through faith in Jesus and repentance of our sin, the Christian is able to image God more and more correctly with the new power and desire provided by Jesus through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9-11, Ez. 36:26).

More than that, we see in John 15 that it is impossible to bear any fruit apart from abiding in Jesus. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. When we are abiding in Jesus, we are abiding in the “image of the invisible God” (Heb. 1:2).

The very core of what it means to be a Disciple is to be an image bearer of God who abides in Jesus. When we live out of our Identity in Jesus, three things happen: Worship, Community and Mission.

What is your identity in?

When people think of you, what comes to their mind first?

What comes to your mind?

Single, student, rich, poor, dating, married, your major, your job, arty, creative, stylish, athletic, fat, skinny, jacked, lazy, depressed, fun – the list could go on forever. But most likely, whatever your Identity is found in, outside of Jesus, is probably your functional savior – your idol.

This brings us to the idea that our Identity is expressed in terms of Worshiping the true God Jesus, instead of our idols.