Identity seems to be all we hear about these days. It makes you wonder why. Wondering who we are and why we are, I guess, are fair questions because, without God, we have no identity and no purpose. I will explain a bit about why that is later, but the shocking thing to me is that now people are adding the question, “What am I?” to the list and getting some shocking answers in reply. Who and why are essential questions for everyone to ponder, “What am I?” is born of something a bit different. It is, I think, the logical end of a thoroughly self-centered(and sinful) desire for autonomy based on a rejection of God’s authority as our Creator

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Thankfully, for Christians, our identity is one of the first things restored to us through repentance and faith. It is also one of the many reasons that Christianity has always been deeply connected to the cross. The cross has been the source of and symbol for Christianity from the beginning.

For the love of Christ controls us,

The love of Christ was most perfectly demonstrated by laying his life down for our benefit. But the cross was so much more than simple self-sacrifice. Being God in the flesh, his death was sufficient to cover the price of sin for all of us. The cost of sin is death. Justice requires balance, debts must be paid, and we were all broke.

Now, we are new creations in Christ. What we were before Christ or what we are “in the flesh” is irrelevant now. We are new creations. We do not identify ourselves by our flesh or our previous desires because we died. We are recreated and now defined by God alone.

We are united with Jesus through faith. We all died with him and were reconciled to God through this death. Through His resurrection, we are given new life. And this new life is found only in Him. Our life is no longer ours to define. We will never find life, purpose, or identity in our feelings, temperament, and sexual urges. Our life is now united with Christ. Christ is our life, and our identity is found in Christ alone.

Set your minds on things that are above,

Why do we chafe at the gift of new life?

We always seem to default to the same answer. We would rather die trying to be our own God than live forever in unity with the actual God. We have been making this choice from the beginning when we chose the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil over the Tree of Life. When we reject God as our Creator, every other vice follows naturally. Paul describes this slippery slope problem very well in Romans 1:18 - 32. I would recommend reading this passage through. It answers a lot of questions about how we became who and what we are as a culture. People never change. In Romans 1, Paul describes our “modern” situation perfectly 2000 years ago while describing his culture. And it’s not just that we don’t change. We don’t seem to learn. Later in Romans, we read this rhetorical question.

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?

We have always been ready and willing to blame God for things, directly or indirectly. If we don’t reject Him outright as the Creator, we tend to blame him for His choices. We ask why instead of trusting in his character. Do we really think we could ever possibly know better than God? We question his choices and decisions constantly while reflecting on our choices much too infrequently. If we genuinely wish to see the beauty of what God has done, we have to stop trying to be God ourselves.

Ironically, we don’t need to try to be God. We are now His children through faith in His gift to us through the love and sacrifice of Jesus.

Beloved, we are God’s children now,

This Week

The passages we have looked at today are powerful verses. But they are sometimes difficult to apply directly. This week, let’s commit together to view ourselves through the eyes of who we are in Christ. Let’s allow ourselves to believe that the people we were before Christ are not the people we are now in Christ. Let’s not imprison each other in our old lives by treating each other like nothing has changed. Instead, let’s set each other free by calling out the new creation we have all been given in Christ.

Have a great week!