To be identified with Jesus in the New Life

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV 

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Jesus never sinned but became sin so that we could be made right with God and become a saint. Jesus became identified with sin so we could be identified with Him. Jesus did not feel sorry for us or pity us. He became sin for us. He became sin so we can be holy, be a saint, to be "in Him." By taking on our sin and the sin of the whole human race, He changed the course of humanity and put us back where we were made and designed to be. Jesus did on the cross for any person to come and be joined to God. 

"I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 NIV.

This is the complete verse on identification in the Bible. I am identified with Christ. My life is Christ's life. Christ is in me, and I am in Him. I live in a physical world, but I live spiritually by believing in Him and having faith in all my choices, decisions, and lifestyle. I look to Jesus for all I need, not to people or things of the world. I am in Christ, and He is in me.

Zacchaeus wanted more. He tried to change His life somehow. By repenting sin, I become identified with Jesus Christ, and my life becomes His life. This new identification is Christ's realization in me. We are not to find ourselves in this life. Our life is to see Christ; He is our life! There is no life, no self-realization in anything in this world except Christ. We are dead without Christ, lost like Zacchaeus.

"Christ in me, and I in Him"

We identify with God by faith, repentance, and yielding to Him. Identification with Jesus brings me into His peace, joy, presence, fellowship, power, assurance, and oneness. Then the life and experience of sanctification begins. My identification with Christ begins my sanctification journey. When we realize Jesus and who He is, we turn to Him like Zacchaeus and self-realize our life in His life. The Christian life is lived by knowing I belong to Him and realizing I am in Him. It's Christ in me! My passion for life, for living, is Him.

[As adapted from The Bondage Breaker and Stomping Out The Darkness by Dr. Neil Anderson and Dr. Dave Park.]