The Resurrection is Your Identity
April 9, 2026 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
“Identity” is a hot topic these days. What we believe to be true about ourselves defines our value and purpose in life. In our current cultural climate, our work, our family status, our education, our sexual orientation and activity, and our hobbies all define our identity. But the Bible approaches the topic very differently. Of course, the word “identity” does not even appear in our English translations of the Bible. But the concept of who we are and what gives us value and purpose is all over the Bible. I want to focus on the apostle Paul’s writings today.
Colossians 3:1-4 is one passage where Paul emphasizes who we are and for what purpose we live. He writes, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Overwhelmingly, our union with Christ is the defining quality of who we are in Paul’s theology. Here Paul highlights our union with Christ in his resurrection.
As a sidebar, the resurrection is key to understanding who Jesus is. Paul uses the word “raised,” speaking about the resurrection, 41 times in his letters. Outside of 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul speaks about the dead being raised in the final resurrection, Paul predominately uses the word to speak about Jesus. Sometimes Paul uses the word to highlight the benefit we receive in Christ’s resurrection. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11; cf. Rom. 6:4, 1 Cor. 6:14, & 2 Cor. 5:5). At other times, Paul seems to just throw in the descriptor as if this is one of the most important truths to remember about Jesus. “…to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thes. 1:10; cf. Rom. 7:4, Gal. 1:1, & 2 Tim. 2:8). If the most important “events” of Jesus’ earthly life are his death and resurrection, then these become our most important, defining events when we are united to Christ.
Back to Colossians 3. Paul uses a word no other author in the New Testament uses. The English words “raised with” are a singular word in the Greek that emphasizes our union with Christ in his resurrection. Paul uses it three times: Ephesians 2:6, Colossians 2:12, and here in Colossians 3:1. This latter use is drawing out the implication of the reality stated in Colossians 2:11-12. There, Paul explains how circumcision and baptism are both pictures of the same reality: our union with Christ in his death and resurrection. When you place your faith in Jesus as your Savior, you die to your old self and are raised to a new life. Salvation is not merely a ticket into heaven, it is a spiritual transformation in the present life.
For Paul, this is the defining identity marker for Christians. You have been raised with Christ (Col. 3:1). We walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). You are a new creation. The old has passed and the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17). It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20). The resurrection is my identity. Coming to faith in Jesus Christ transforms me as radically as being raised from the dead. In Christ, I am a resurrected person.
Paul’s exhortations in Colossians 3, and many other places in his letters, seek to press this truth into the hearts and minds of believers. Basically, he is saying, “You are a resurrected person; live like a resurrected person. Don’t do what dead people do.” In Colossians 3 Paul says, “Set your minds on things that are above,” and “Put to death what is earthly in you,” and “Put on then compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” This is what the resurrected life looks like. As raised people, we should not be comfortable doing dead people things.
So, who are you? If you are in Christ, you are a raised person. This is your identity. And it defines your life and purpose today.
