There are truths in the Bible which are not accepted literally, but are still given a mystical, poetical interpretation. In order to know how to act and move in certain circumstances, we must understand the divine principle of identification. One individual can become so identified with another that that they lose their individual identity.
Marriage is a limited form of identification. When a woman is married, she keeps her first name, but changes her last name to that of her husband. She may have been rather poor and unable to afford any luxuries, but that situation changes if she marries a rich man. She is identified with her husband, with his name, and with what he owns.
We are the Bride of Christ. When we accept the Lord, we not only accept our heritage as heirs of God, but also as joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. If we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him. This is a matter of identification. It is very essential that we always realize that we are married to victory, so that we never again struggle to achieve it.
There is a great difference between a child who is born into a poor family and one who is born into a rich family. The child who is born into the rich family knows that they have a heritage just by virtue of the fact that they are identified with a rich family and a part of that family. The same is true of our relationship with the Lord. We are born to victory. We have victory, and we must appropriate it, apply it, and put it into action. Without wavering, we say, “As children of God, as the Bride of Jesus Christ, it is our privilege and our prerogative to bruise Satan under our feet and to enter into the victory of Jesus Christ, into all the treasures that He has provided for us.”
When a young person is tormented by basic drives and is unable to achieve the victory they need, they should learn how to depend on the victory of Jesus Christ. We can illustrate this with the example of a child who is trying to learn how to float in water. If the child is afraid and does not relax, they will sink like a rock. They should be told to have confidence that the water will hold them up. If they do that, they will relax and begin to float. This principle can be applied spiritually. Many people do not have victory because they are still struggling to achieve it, instead of relaxing and floating on the victory of the Lord. When you learn how to really commit yourself to the Lord, you will have the victory over your problems.
Every young person should learn that secret. Cast yourself on the Lord and He will sustain you. Learn to trust in His victory. Trust in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ, in the authority of His name. When Jesus commissioned the disciples, He said, “In My name you will cast out demons. In My name, you will lay hands on the sick and heal them.” It was in Christ’s authority and in His finished work that these works would be accomplished.
There can be a high level of transference, not only of people’s problems from one to another, but also of their victories. When one member is honored, they all rejoice; when one member suffers, they all suffer (1 Corinthians 12:26).
Identification within the Body of Christ is a deep mystical principle with great reality. I am so identified with Christ that anyone who touches me touches Jesus. Anything they do unto me, they do unto Jesus. Jesus is so identified with you that anything I do unto you, I do unto the Lord. Any victory that Jesus has won is my victory. Anything that He has is mine. That is what identification means.
In water baptism you become identified with Christ’s death and you are baptized into Christ’s death. When you come up out of the water, you are risen and identified with His resurrection. Paul wrote: If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. Colossians 3:1a. Then he told how we are to live in the resurrected life of Jesus. Resurrection life is not something you wait for; it is something you appropriate because you are already identified with Him who has risen from the dead on your behalf. It is your privilege; you take it. You appropriate death, and then you appropriate life. Become identified with Christ!
And in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ (Christ went through this on your behalf); having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. Colossians 2:10–12.
If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (You are so identified with Christ’s death that it is marked to you for an experience.) When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1–4.
This is what it means to be identified with the Lord, with His life and every action in it. When Jesus went to the whipping post, He was beaten, so that by His stripes we would be healed. When He was mocked and ridiculed, He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46b. He was identified with our unworthiness. He took upon Himself all of our sin. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). That is identification, known also as transference (although transference generally refers only to one or two things that are transferred). Someone walking along at the foot of the cross could have looked up and said, “Who is that?” He had no form; His visage was completely marred. How could anyone recognize Him? But that was us. We were hanging there, so completely was He identified with us.
Isaiah 53 speaks of our identification with Christ.… he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Verse 5. Christ was identified with you. In effect, you were there. He was bruised for your iniquity.
Galatians 2:20 also speaks of identification: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Who was out there in the wilderness meeting the assault of the devil, fasting for forty days and nights? In a sense, it was you! Of course it was Jesus, he had to pass this test in order to be endued with power, but He was your representative; He was your champion.
In the days when dueling was a popular way of settling a grievance between two people, those who were involved often did not want to fight for themselves, because they probably would be hurt. So, they would choose a champion who went out and did the fighting for them. The Lord is your champion. He was out there fighting your battle. And now when Satan comes like a roaring lion, you can resist him steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:8–9). You can say to him, “Don’t you remember, Satan? I won the victory over you out there in the wilderness!”
“That wasn’t you!” “Oh yes, it was. Christ was identified with me; He was my champion. He won the victory for me, and it is my victory.” Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57. You do not fight this battle. It has been won for you. You just identify yourself with it. You assume the victory!
The book of Colossians speaks about all of the things you should be putting off. You can do this because you are so identified with the Lord. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Colossians 3:8–10, 14. This chapter gives a long list of the things to put off and all the things we should put on. It tells us what the well-dressed saint wears—right down to the bond of love, the bond of perfection, the belt that holds it all together.
This is not a matter of working yourself over; it is a matter of what you assume. You can be anything that Christ is, because you put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can put on His love and His faith. The Word speaks of righteousness as being like a robe that you can put on. When you identify yourself with the Lord, then you can assume His righteousness and His victory. You can assume the things that He won for you. It is all laid up like a treasure in the bank, and all you have to do is go in and say, “I am the one to whom this belongs. I am an heir of God.”
The book of Hebrews gave the New Testament its name. It refers to Christ as the testator, the mediator of the new testament (Hebrews 9:15–16). When He died, He died for you. What He won, He won for you. This is a New Covenant, a New Testament—not a last will and testament, but a forever testament, this inexhaustible heritage in God is yours forever. Claim it and lay hold of it. Do not think of the victory as though it is still to be won. When you think of the answers you need, think of them only as things that must be appropriated. Come before the Lord and say, “Here I am. I am ready to collect what is mine. I am ready to collect what You have freely given. I am not going to dishonor You, Lord, by standing around here, whining like a beggar. I am going to honor You by coming as a son who is identified with Your fullness and with the heritage that is mine.”
Do you realize how interested God is in this matter of identification? Everything depends on it; but it does not depend on our own worthiness. We do not deserve anything. We know what we are in the flesh, and we know what God has made us. The glory all belongs to God. We would all be lost, undone sinners, if it were not for the fact that Christ died for us and opened the door for us. If we begin in the Spirit by appropriating the wonderful life of Jesus Christ, we will win all the way through on that same basis. We are saved by His life; we are redeemed by His death. It is all ours.
Several passages in Matthew also speak of identification. Jesus tells us, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward.” Matthew 10:40–42. The world treats you just as it would treat Jesus, because He is identified with your life. Christ is identified with everything you say and everything you do. You cannot even give a cup of cold water without receiving a reward.
Jesus said, “And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me.” Matthew 18:5. If you do not become like a little child, you cannot even get into the Kingdom of heaven. If you receive a little child, you are receiving them. Never forget that. Every time you hug a little child, you are loving Jesus, because He is identified with that child. You cannot bless a little child without blessing Jesus. If you would like to really be blessed, begin teaching a Church-at-Study class and love the little children. Do not look upon it as a police action or a baby-sitting job. Think about Jesus being in that room, running around in a lot of little immature children. Keep blessing Him and loving Him, and you will be blessed.
When the mothers came with their little ones to have Jesus bless them, they probably came expressing the sentiments of most mothers: “Everybody stand back; I’m bringing my little Susie to be blessed. Everybody get out of my way.” The disciples disapproved and rebuked the mothers. The Lord was teaching at the time, and they did not want Him to be disturbed. But the Lord said, “Suffer those little children to come to Me and forbid them not.” God has something special for little children. He has identified Himself with them. He said, “Unless you become like a little child, you cannot even enter into the Kingdom.”
When you understand the principle of identification, you will look at everything differently. You will not look at any individual without recognizing that you are his brother or his sister. Either you are identified with that individual in the Body of Christ, or the Lord is identified with him, or perhaps in your identification with the Lord you are bringing Christ to him.
Jesus tells us in Luke 10:16–17: “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.” And the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” The demons were subject to the seventy because the Lord had identified Himself with them. When they went out, they were moving in His authority and in His Word. “If they despise you, they despise Me; if they hear you, they hear Me,” Jesus said. You proclaim the King’s business because you are His representative—even more than a representative: He is identified with you. If people want to hear from God, they will listen to you. If they despise God, they will despise you.
Do not question whether or not the Lord will heal a certain sick person. Instead, walk right up to him and say, “In the name of Jesus, get up and walk.” You are God’s representative. The power of Christ is identified with your hands and with what you say and do. Peter and John told the lame man, “Silver and gold have we none. But such as we have, we give you. In the name of Jesus, get up and walk” (Acts 3:6). They were so identified with the Lord that the lame man was healed right then.
We are facing the days of miracles, days when great battles must be won, and we will not walk in them by pumping ourselves up to be supermen. We are not supermen and we never will be. The enigma and the puzzle will be the way we minister and show love, because we are identified with the Lord. We are His people, the voice of Jesus Christ in the earth. We are so identified with Him that He does everything through our hands, our feet, our mouth, our ears, and our eyes. We are the Body of Christ, and it is with the realization of this that we enter into the supernatural ministry God has for us.
Because you are identified with Jesus, your individuality disappears when you are baptized in water. You come up as a functional member of the Body of Christ, one who has been crucified with Christ, one who has been buried and resurrected. If you have gone through the motions of water baptism under a man of God, but it has never seemed real, then identify yourself with the spiritual principle. You do not have to be baptized over again, but you can identify yourself with the experience and claim it by faith. If the mechanical side of it has already been done, fine; take the spiritual reality of it and walk in it.
One of the clearest illustrations of the principle of transference is found in Acts 9:1–5. Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who art Thou, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”
Wasn’t Saul persecuting the Christians? Jesus had been resurrected and had gone back to heaven. How could Saul be persecuting Him? Jesus was so identified with the believers whom Saul was persecuting that He could say to Saul, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting!”
The same situation exists today. Do not look at what someone does or says to you as an individual. You are part of the Body of Christ. You are identified with the Lord. Shake off your reactions. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19b. Let it be in the Lord’s hands. It does not have to bother you. When people persecute you and speak evil of you, shrug it off. You are identified with Christ in what you do. Why should you take it personally when something is said against you? You are dead! The devil still keeps sticking a needle in you once in a while to see if you twitch, but if you are completely identified with the Lord’s death, you are crucified with Him and dead to any criticism. That is the key to having the right response to persecution or anything else.
Identify yourself with the Lord, for as the Body is not one member, but many, so also is Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12). Christ is not one person as He once was. He walked in the flesh as one person, but when He was crucified and buried and resurrected, He identified Himself mystically with all of the millions who would accept Him. Now He is no longer one individual. All the members of His Body are part of the Christ. He is the Head and the Lord, but He is making you functional members of His Body—His eyes and His mouth and His hands—to see and to speak and to do His will in the earth. You are one with Him. All that He experienced, He experienced on your behalf. It has become your experience. You can say, “I am risen with Christ,” because His resurrection was yours.
After Paul’s conversion, he identified himself completely in his life with the Lord. He also encouraged others to do the same, as we see in 1 Corinthians 8:11–13. And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.
Paul probably would have fought to the death anyone who tried to put someone under legalism. He saw how deadly legalism was. He preached the grace of God, yet he warned the people about eating meat that had been offered to idols. He told them that if they thereby offended a Christian, they were sinning against Christ with their liberty because Christ was identified with that man. He told them, “You are sinning against Christ.” He said that he would never again eat meat if it would offend a brother. Is that legalism? No, that is the love of God. If you really understand identification, you will not do anything to harm any individual in the Body of Christ because you know that Christ is identified with them. The way you speak to them and treat them is the way you speak to Christ and treat Christ.
Matthew 25 tells us that when Christ comes to judge, He will divide the sheep from the goats. To the goats at his left hand He will say, “I was hungry, and you did not feed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink. I was in prison, and you did not visit Me.” They will answer, “Lord, how can You say such a thing? When did we ever see You hungry? (What an awful thought!) When were You hungry and we did not feed You? You were in prison, Lord? When were You in prison and we did not visit You? When were You naked and we did not clothe You?”
“Inasmuch as you did not do it to the least of these, My brethren, you did not do it to Me.”
Then He will look at the sheep at His right hand and say, “I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink. I was in prison, and you visited Me. I was naked, and you clothed Me. Now enter into My joy.”
“Lord, we can’t understand that. We don’t remember You ever being hungry. We cannot remember You being naked or thirsty or in prison. When did this happen?”
“Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, My brethren, you did it unto Me.”
The joy in Body ministry is the realization that every time we minister to one of the Lord’s people, we are ministering to Him. How pleasing this is to the Lord; how the heavens respond to it. In a very unique and practical way, those who are addicted to the ministry of the saints are ministering unto Him.
You are identified with the Lord forever. Throughout eternity He will carry our humanity and we will carry His deity. Many sons are coming to glory by the Captain of their salvation being made perfect through sufferings. Salute the blessed Jesus in one another. This is why you are not to murmur against one another. This is why you bless an elder or a pastor or a prophet. You bless the men of God because you receive Christ, and they give their lives for you because they see the Christ in you.