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Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; (Colossians 3:12 NKJV)
Understanding your Christian identity in Christ is the most important discovery you can make because it helps you find answers to the deep questions: Who am I? Where do I belong?
For those who believe, the Bible gives a powerful answer: you are the elect of God.
This isn’t about being better than others, but it is about being chosen by love, redeemed by grace, and given a new life.
This truth can free you from guilt, shame, and endless striving.
In her book My Journey Through the Cross, Ashley D. Wille shares her own struggle to find this identity and the freedom she saw when she finally understood what it means to be one of God’s chosen people.
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You Are Chosen and Remade
Many people live with a hidden emptiness within them, a feeling that a big piece of life’s puzzle is missing. Ashley Wille describes this from her childhood: “I knew deep down that a big piece of my life’s puzzle was missing. And I knew I had to find it.”
This search is common amongst everyone.
We try to find our worth in our job, our family, our successes, or our possessions. But these things, as Ashley observed, can feel hollow: “like cavernous boxes.”
The gospel brings excellent news, though: the elect of God are not defined by what they do or have; they are defined more by what God has done for them. When you trust in Christ, you are spiritually reborn.
The old “you”—the one ruled by guilt and sin—is gone.
God creates a new “you” that is connected to Him.
Ashley came to understand this as a radical exchange: “My whole package was given to Him in exchange for His whole package to me.”
You give Him your sin and failure; He gives you His righteousness and love, letting you become part of His chosen people.
The Freedom of Being an Elect of God
A huge barrier to peace is living under constant condemnation.
We are constantly thinking that we must follow the rules ideally to make God love us. This was Ashley’s trap for years. She felt bombarded by “scriptural ambushes” that led her to believe God was always disappointed in her.
So, she tried harder and harder to obey the Ten Commandments, only to end up more frustrated.
This is the life of someone who doesn’t yet fully grasp their identity.
The breakthrough comes from when you realize that the elect of God live under grace, not law. The law showed us our sin, but Christ himself took the punishment for all of us.
Ashley explains the turning point: “I no longer had to perform to impossible standards… He had freed me from them by fulfilling them for me and placing me into Himself.”
For the believer, the relationship with God is no longer based on one’s performance, but on Christ’s perfect performance on one’s behalf.
This means there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
Ashley learned that feeling guilty is often the enemy’s trick to steal your peace. “Guilt condemns and weighs us down,” she writes, “whereas conviction lifts us up in hope, giving direction.”
The Holy Spirit convicts the saints of God to grow, but God would never condemn them, for your sins—past, present, and future—have already been paid for.
As Ashley declares, “My sin account is finished, paid for and done with. My sin account has been replaced by a love grant.”
From Striving to Resting in Your Identity
For years, Ashley lived with what she calls a “religious glass ceiling,” where she worked hard for God but felt stuck and distant from Him.
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The key to breaking through was learning to rest.
She discovered that the elect of God are called to a “Sabbath rest” (Hebrews 4:9), where you stop forcing your own efforts to earn God’s favor and begin trusting completely in what Christ has done.
Ashley explains this shift: “I used to hate my humanity, fight to conquer it… I have come to let Him love my humanity, all of it.”
You can stop trying to be your own savior.
Come to God just as you are, struggles and all, because you are already entirely accepted in Christ.
“He loves me,” Ashley realized. “What He wants is me, just me, not my performance… but me—all of me.”
This is the heart of the identity of the chosen of God—being loved and secure, not because you are perfect, but because you are His.
Your True Identity in Christ
So, who are you if you are in Christ? You are not a sinner trying to become a saint; you are a saint who sometimes sins. You are not an outsider hoping to be let in; you are a beloved child with full access to the Father. Ashley describes the beautiful access we have: “I can barge in to see my Father anytime and anywhere and share anything.”
This is the confidence of the elect of God.
Your identity is not in your past, your feelings, or your failures. It is anchored in the finished work of Jesus. You are chosen and wanted, not an accident. God deliberately chose you to be His own. You’ve been redeemed and forgiven. The price for all your sins has been paid. You are now clean. Now, you are a new creation. The old life of emptiness is gone, and you have a new nature connected to God.
As an Elect of God, you are alsoa Saint of God, set apart for Him, holy and beloved; you are also a child in His family: a brother or sister under God, forever secure in His eternal love.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9 NKJV)
This is your true identity. The journey to believing it fully may have struggles, but the truth remains. You are the elect of God, held forever in the grace of Christ.
Find rest, grace, and your true identity in Ashley D. Wille’s inspiring book, My Journey Through the Cross.
