Unveiling Our Spiritual Identities: 4 Roles We Have in Christ
A role requires a responsibility.
As believers in Christ, we have many roles, many functions in His Kingdom. Each of these roles require a responsibility from us, a call to action.
The Bible outlines many roles we have in Christ, but here are four foundational ones.
1. Our Role as Kings
Revelation 1:6 tells us that Jesus has made us firstly kings and secondly priests through His sacrifice on the cross.
Our first spiritual identity is that of being royalty, a king in God’s Kingdom.
We are each a king in Christ under the ultimate King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Kings have authority to rule and reign, represented by their crown. They make decrees which become the law by which the kingdom must follow.
Ecclesiastes 8:4 tells us that the words of a king have power. As spiritual kings under Christ, we have the responsibility to make decrees which align with His will.
For example, in our schools and workplaces there are people who don’t yet know Christ. We have the opportunity and responsibility to decree salvation over our community.
It’s as simple as going in our prayer time or in our car and saying, “I decree my co-workers are sons and daughters of God in Jesus’ name!”
That’s what Romans 4 talks about, the faith of God’s friend Abraham to call those things that are not as though they already are. When we make these decrees, we step into our God-given authority in Christ to see the advancement of His Kingdom on earth.
God tells us His Word is established in Heaven, but He has given the earth to us (see Psalm 119:89, Psalm 115:16). We have a responsibility to both pray and decree as Jesus did for God’s Kingdom and will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
We need to see ourselves as a king, a royal heir with Christ, a ruler wearing a crown, for that is what we are in Him. We have to take up our royal responsibility to partner with the Lord to see His rule come to our life and the lives of those around us.
2. Our Role as Priests
The second identity we are told we have in Revelation 1:6 is a priest. We are priests under Jesus, the Great High Priest (Heb. 4:14).
Throughout the Bible, we see that priests have many functions, including:
· Prayer
· Worship
· Intercession
· Distributing God’s Word
· Ministering to God Himself
Our priestly role in God’s Kingdom looks like intercession (praying for others) and worship. It also looks like ministering to God Himself through spending time with Him and seeking Him with all our heart.
The five offices listed in Ephesians 4:11 are priestly offices in the church. Priests attend to the house of God, so the role of a pastor or teacher is a priestly function.
Our kingly responsibility deals with matters outside the Church, such as the salvation of souls. Our priestly responsibility deals with our ministry to God and to His people.
3. Brides of Christ
Jesus personally gave many teachings and parables about how He is the Bridegroom and how we as His people have the responsibility to prepare for our spiritual marriage with Him (Matt. 9:15; 25:1-13).
In Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul compares the relationship between a husband and wife to the relationship between Jesus and His Bride, the Church, calling this a “great mystery” (Eph. 5:32).
The union between a husband and wife is a representation, a type and shadow, of the substance of the greater union between Christ and His Bride. The physical is only a symbol of the greater spiritual reality.
We are spirit beings, with a soul, who live in a body. Our union with Christ is spiritual, spirit-to-spirit.
But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 2 Corinthians 6:17
So what does it look like to practically live out our role as the Bride of Christ?
We have a responsibility to seek intimacy with Jesus through both preparing for His coming and spending time with Him to grow our personal relationship with Him.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you experience Jesus’ presence and stir a hunger in you for more of Him. Search your heart to see if there are any areas you haven’t yet fully surrendered to Jesus’ lordship.
Another helpful tip is to search the Scriptures for the parallels to the bridal relationship with the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. For example, Esther’s story teaches us the importance of preparing for the King and matching our desires with His.
The Bible starts with the marriage of Adam and Eve in Genesis and ends with the marriage of the Lamb in Revelation.
4. Temples of God
This is perhaps the best of all our roles…our responsibility to be a temple, a host for the Godhead. We literally carry God inside us.
We are temples of the Holy Spirit:
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not our own; 1 Corinthians 6:19
Christ also dwells in our hearts through faith as we walk in love (Eph. 3:17) and He prayed to the Father that He would be in us (John 17:23).
Consider this verse:
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16
These are great mysteries and they carry great responsibilities for us. Wherever we go, God is with us.
Even when we can’t feel Him, there is no separation from Him. We should involve Him in every area of our lives.
He chose to dwell in us, as close to us as possible, showing His desire for relationship and fellowship with us. What a great demonstration of God’s love and desire for relationship with us.
I pray these roles in Christ empower and challenge you to live out everything God has called you to. These roles carry responsibility, a summons from the Lord to put faith to action.
We have only just begun to discover what God has available to us in Christ.