What happens in a day? Each one includes both darkness and light, sunrise and sunset, warm rays of day and cool shadows of night. Yet the entire 24-hour period takes its name not from the darkness but from the light.

The same is true of your identity in Jesus.

As one wise preacher put it…

“You, like the day, take not your name from the evening, but from the morning; and you are spoken of in the word of God as if you were even now perfectly holy as you will be soon. You are called the child of light, though there is darkness in you still. You are named after what is the predominating quality in the sight of God, which will one day be the only principle remaining.”

Let’s be real:  though we still struggle with sin in this life, it is not what defines us as Christians. As we learn from Galatians 2:20, your old self that identified with sin has been nailed to the cross with Jesus. And through the cross you have a new identity in Jesus, who lives in you.

The real “you” isn’t a sinner disguised as a saint. You are forever identified with Christ through the cross. He provides your identity, not the world, your family, or even your actions.

And since none of those things give you your identity, they also can’t take it away from you.

The ultimate version of yourself is found the closer you get to the cross. The more you see yourself through God’s eyes, the more you will feel the comfort and confidence of being a child of the King, a child of light.

Dear God, thank You for the new identity You have given me through Jesus. Help me to see myself as You see me, not as a child of sin and darkness, but as Your child, a new creation. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

– Nick Hall