Identity

Scripture: 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Devotional:

This past Sunday, we celebrated the most important event in the history of humanity - the resurrection of Jesus! In our Easter service, we saw multiple people declare that they were committing their lives to the lordship of Jesus. Part of the declaration of baptism is that we are now dead to sin and alive in Jesus as a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). Our identity is now in Christ, rather than in anything else about us.

Let me ask a question. Who are you? What makes you “authentically you”? I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a woman, a teacher, and many other things. But is that who I really am? Is that what makes me “me”? What about you? When you look in a mirror,r what do you see? Do you see your relationships, your job, your successes, or failures? Is that your true self? 

Our culture teaches us that our identity is in discovering and pursuing our deepest desires. Relationships, career, money, fame, freedom, sex…It’s generally accepted as true that our fulfillment can only be found in “absolute negative freedom.” That means the freedom from any constraints. Tim Keller calls this “the sovereign self.” (Sovereign means supreme authority). The idea that “we must discover our deepest desires and longings and then do all we can to realize them, regardless of constraints or opposition.” Maybe you believe these things. There is a kernel of truth in them. God created us to have dreams and goals. These things can fulfill us when God is a part of the equation. But when we put our identity in them, we are on very shaky ground. 

Here are a couple of quotes that show our culture’s idea of identity and fulfillment:

“All successful people, men and women, are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.” – Brian Tracy

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“Capture your dreams, and your life becomes full. You can, because you think you can.” – Nikita Koloff

There is a problem,m though - What happens when we are blocked from these goals? Do we lose our identity? What happens when we achieve these goals and realize they don’t actually fulfill us? 

What is the answer then? Your “authentic self” can only be discovered in the pages of scripture because the author is our Creator.

Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Human beings were created in the image of God. That image has been marred by our sin, which separates us from Him. But because He loves us so much, Jesus took our punishment on the cross so that we could become a new creation in Him, and the image of God could be restored in us! 

How do you view yourself? Are you allowing the culture to tell you who you are? Or do you see yourself through God’s eyes - as His image-bearer, His beloved child, His new creation in Christ? There is so much freedom when we recognize who we really are and align our lives with that to become more like Jesus every day!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you that you died so that I could be free from sin and become a new creation in you. Help me to see myself through your eyes, and to reflect you to the world around me in all that I say and do today. Be glorified in my life. Amen!