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Who am I? As believers we must know who we are as Christ-followers. Our identity needs to be firmly grounded in what the Bible tells us about how God sees us when we belong to him. Not for the purpose of self-focus, but in order to be equipped to worship and serve our Lord effectively.
When you become a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, we have seen already that you become the Building of God; a residence for the Holy Spirit, making your body his temple. Then we saw that all believers are part of the Body of Christ, and a body has functional parts that work together and each part is necessary.
- And then we are called the BRIDE of Christ.
“One of the seven angels . . .came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb’” (Revelation 21:9).
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready’” (Revelation 19:7).
In Ephesians 5 Paul talks about the marriage relationship, how a husband should treat his wife, even as his own body, and how the two of them become one flesh. Then he adds “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32).
It’s good to know that we are the BUILDING of God and the BODY of Christ, but that wasn’t enough. God wanted us to know how much he loves us, how dear we are to him, how much he treasures us. And so, he has made us the betrothed BRIDE of Jesus Christ.
This is who we are in Jesus—because of Jesus. We are his bride-to-be. I’m certain God used this analogy because he wanted us to know how much he loves us, how tender and close is our relationship to him.
Dear friends, can we not rejoice in who we are? Isn’t that identity more important than any earthly classifications or identifications? Remember as you go out into your world, if you know Jesus, you are the beloved betrothed Bride of Christ. Rejoice!