If you are looking for a brief survey of what the Bible says about our identity as Christians, I can’t recommend this book highly enough!
Jerry Bridges, in just 95-pages. manages to explain and illustrate 8 aspects of our identity: creature, united, justified, adopted, new creation, saint, servant, and not yet.
And he does this in a simple, yet memorable, and biblical way.
Encouragement
Who Am I? will be particularly valuable for younger or newer Christians who need to be grounded in their identity in Christ.
But even if you’ve struggled for years with identity issues—don’t underestimate the power that this little book could have in your life. You will go back to it again and again, to feed and shore up your identity in Christ.
So here are 10 of my favorite quotes from this book.
Top 10 Quotes from Who Am I?
10. On Being a Creature
I am a creature, created in the image of God, fully dependent on him and fully accountable to him. (15)
9. On Being a Young Christian
As a young Christian I did not realize what it meant to be in a living union with Christ… To me, prayer was like a long distance phone call to heaven, in which I might get through or I might not. My Christian life was largely one of self-effort. (24)
8. On Justification
The great mystery and wonder of justification, and the thing we must grasp if we are to truly understand it, is how God can declare us righteous with respect to his law, when in actual fact we have disobeyed that law, and continue to disobey it on a more or less regular basis. (28)
7. On the Love of God
We must remind ourselves that God loves us, not because we are loveable, but because we are in Christ, and the love which the Father has for his Son flows over to us because we are in him. (51)
6. On Being Dead to Sin
The fact that we have died to the dominion of sin is not a truth to be put on a shelf and admired. It is a truth we must put to use every day. (60)
5. On Sainthood
Sainthood is not a spiritual attainment, or even a recognition of such attainment. It is rather a state or status into which God brings every believer. All Christians are saints. (65)
4. On Being a Servant of Jesus Christ
I am a servant of Jesus Christ. By God’s grace, I serve him by serving others in the particular role or roles to which, in his providential wisdom, he has called me. (86)
3. On the Gospel
We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. (89)
2. On God’s Grace
Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace. (92)
1. On Looking to Christ
For every look you take at yourself in your daily experience, take two looks at who you are in Christ. (95)
