What Will a Resurrected Identity Look Like?

The hope of Christian identity is a resurrected self. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above…for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1, 3). Ephesians gives an identity formation plan built off this: “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22, 24)

Combine these two together and you get Paul’s vision of identity formation. No illustration can capture it, because your new identity is invisible and supernatural. Think of yourself as a disembodied spirit with two physical, “enfleshed” casings to choose from. One is a disease-stricken tree. It’s withering; its days are numbered. Its fruit comes out rotten, and it’s destined to shrivel. This is your corrupt, sinful self. The other casing is the body of a baby eagle. The eagle is still learning to fly, but its destiny is to reign the skies. This is your new, resurrected, Spirit-empowered self. You can slide between these two identities.

Because identity is internal and ethereal, we can perhaps best contemplate a resurrected identity by looking at what the Bible says about you’re your resurrected body will look like. In Corinthians, Paul gets into the details. He says that with your resurrected body, there is continuity, but there’s also a world of difference. Your body (and identity) now compared to your resurrected body (and identity) is like a bare kernel that will flourish into a plant.

To each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish…There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory (I Cor 15:35-44).

Paul’s grasping to explain the inexplicable. As a Christian, your identity is resurrected in the image of God. You have the seed of God in you now. But you’re also becoming something much more glorious, as much as comparing a star to a lion. It’s not that a lion isn’t glorious, it’s just—how do you compare with a star?

Think about how this worked for Jesus. Right now, his glorious, resurrected body in Heaven is recognizably human (Lk 24:39, Phil 3:21). But his human body is also transformed to fully reveal his majestic nature as the exalted Lord of the universe.

This should be monumentally exciting as a Christian. You have an eternal, Spirit-birthed nature. This identity is more vibrant and glorious than you can conceive. That’s why Romans 8:23 says that we who have the “firstfruits of the Spirit…groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” It’s like anticipating your marriage or the start of your dream job. You know it’s going to be good, but you can only guess how good.

Your new identity, like your new body, is still distinctively you. Moses and Elijah were still recognizable as themselves on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17: 2-3). Jesus tells a parable of the poor man Lazarus, resurrected and hanging out with Abraham (Luke 16:19-31). Both people are still recognizable. Your resurrected identity is not like the Hindu reincarnation, where you have some vague impression and of a past identity and its windings. You will know yourself as yourself, others will too, but you will experience ongoing transformation and maturity such that regarding your past self will be like looking back on pictures of your childhood as a senior citizen. And the really exciting news? The best is yet to come.

Feel like your missing out on your best, most thriving identity?

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