Part 2, Lesson 23: Who are you?

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as My prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5.

When you accept Christ as your Savior, it means that God has accepted you as His adopted child. "To all who believed Him and accepted Him, [Jesus] gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12); and "God sent Him to buy freedom for us...so He could adopt us as His own children" (Galatians 4:5). Part of your identity as God’s child is as a representative of our Lord. Jesus told His followers, "You are the light of the world … let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:14 & 16)

You are greatly loved by God. Many people quote Jeremiah 31:3 with just the words, “I have loved you with an everlasting love…”. While those words are beautiful, the context makes them even more beautiful to us. Israel, God’s people whom He loved, had disobeyed Him, and the consequences were that they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Finally, when they cried out for rest from all their wandering, Jesus appeared to them “from far away.” Just as we were far from God before we accepted Him, Jesus heard us from that great distance separating us from Him. He has a path along which He can draw us close to Himself as we accept Him as our Savior. That path is His death, His blood shed on our behalf on the cross. In the instant we accept Him, He brings us near to Himself (Ephesians 2:13). You did not take one single step in this process. You simply cried out to Him and, in that moment, He brought you to Himself. His love for you is as high as heaven is above the earth, but as narrow as the cross upon which He died (Matthew 7:14).


You have a high calling, a great responsibility as His child. Jesus has made us a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9-10). Yes, Jesus chose YOU, you individually to be part of His kingdom! He knows your name, knows everything there is to know about you (Luke 12:7 is just one example). What about being a royal priest? A priest is one who helps others both get right with God and helps them give thanks to Him for what He has done. A priest also prays for those he serves. The “holy nation” and “people for His own possession” are words of belonging. While we can experience this “belonging” here and now, it will be so much greater when we are with Him forever.

The second calling we have is that He has called us to two great purposes while we remain here on earth. The first is that of an ambassador for His kingdom. Ambassadors are the official representatives of a country to a different land. Our home-country is now Heaven, and we represent the interests of our home country to this foreign land in which we live (1 Peter 2:11-12). Jesus asks us to keep ourselves as honorable representatives of Himself.

Memorize: 1 Peter 2:9-10 – “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”