Identity theft has been a serious crime in our lives in recent years. 11.1 million adults were victims of identity theft in 2009. The total fraud amount was $54 billion. Statistics report that one in ten U. S. consumers are victims of this crime. This is not an advertisement for LifeLock or some other protection agency. But it does strike me that this is more than just a financial problem-there is a fundamental spiritual component here also.

For a number of years, we have heard of people who are searching for their own identity-who they really are. That is a pretty sad picture of our culture. If you don't even know who you are, then who are you serving, and where are you going with your life?

I recently read a newspaper article about a basketball player who, like many others, was covered with tattoos up and down his arm. He had attended a Christian high school and is now playing for UCLA. He felt that those ink spots were important to him as a person, because they "revealed his identity." It's sort of like being a walking billboard. Maybe that is why tattoos are so popular today, but the identity revealed is just skin-deep and may not have the intended result.

All of us have an identity that goes beyond facial recognition, DNA, or fingerprints. Criminals can steal your name for documents, but they really can't steal your identity. You are who you are in your heart. God knows the heart, whether it is for Him or against Him.

As Christians, something very important has happened to us in this regard. Jesus has assumed our human identity in order to bear our sins on the cross of Calvary. He did not become a sinner to do this, but bore the punishment for our sin. He didn't steal our identity, but God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world, and our sin was imputed to Him. Taking our identity was not to harm us, but to save us. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21)

Today's identity theft may cost billions of dollars to the victims. In the case of Christ, it cost Him His precious blood as He bore our curse.

But God is not done with us. He must also change our identity by the work of His Holy Spirit. "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God" (Ezek. 11:19-20). This is real identity change, which we call regeneration. The result is repentance and faith (conversion). We become new creatures in Jesus Christ who arose from the dead. Jesus went from death to life, and by the power of God, so do we. Do you have that identity?

The change continues. It is the Spirit of God who also sanctifies us throughout our life, that we might conform to the image of Christ. As our catechism teaches, this is the "dying of the old man and the coming alive of the new man."

We also are given a new name-the name "Christian." We bear this new name forever. This means that we share in the anointing of Christ as prophets, priests, and kings.

Of course, there is a final change at the return of Christ, when this mortal body will put on immortality. That is our glorification.

The beautiful part of this identity change is that nobody can steal it. It is not protected by LifeLock, but by God Himself. "And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away" (1 Pet. 5:4).

Throughout history there have always been those engaged in a sort of spiritual identity theft. They use the name "Christian" when their heart is not even changed. They like the identity, but don't even worship God. Actually, Jesus reveals their identity in John 8:44 when He says of the Pharisees, "you are of your father the devil. . . ."

There is a great deal of comfort in knowing not just who we are, but Whose we are. Calvin's Institutes begin with laying a foundation which says that we cannot know who we are unless we know who God is. I believe that is the brilliance of the Heidelberg Catechism, which also begins by identifying who we are as Christians: "That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ." There is only one reason that we can say this-He shed His precious blood for our sins and redeemed us from all the power of the devil.

Our new identity is only possible because Christ first identified with us and took that to the cross. That is a LifeLock that is ours without sending in a monthly payment. Jesus paid it all. How we identify ourselves, and who we identify with makes all the difference in the world. We cannot purchase that, since it is a gift. We can only receive it by true faith in Jesus Christ.

When we consider the death and the resurrection of Christ in greater detail at this time of the year, remember that this is what gives us our new identity forever.