Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Recovering Identity

Identity. How do we understand that? How do we define that? If we're followers of Christ, then what does that do to our identity? Since I am a follower of Christ, that will inform what I say about identity.

What I have discovered as I have interacted with different people who claim Christ as their Lord is that many people misunderstand identity. It seems that Jesus was far more interested in our character, in our values, and in our identity than in what we do. The underlying assumption is that if we have the right identity, then the actions will follow. Yet, two thousand years later, much of the religion that has now tacked the name of Christ on it has equated following Christ with a set of actions. When we reduce following Christ to mere action, then we have a problem. We simply have created a new religion. In fact, it seems that Christ was almost always redirecting our attention away from action to identity.

The pharisees of Jesus time were interested in action. They specialized in having the right actions for the moment. They got the cart before the horse and forgot that God has always been about the heart. Hence, in Matthew 15, Jesus confronts the pharisees and teachers of the law, telling them that they have it all wrong, that it is not what goes into a man's mouth that makes him unclean but what comes out of it, for that identifies the condition of the heart. He quoted Isaiah who said, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Jesus was convinced that if the heart could just be transformed, then the rest would follow. God has always been convinced of this. He was never giving laws just so all of Israel would fall in line. The laws were supposed to serve as reminders that they served a holy God, that they were not participants of this world but of the Kingdom to come. They had this strange sense that this life wasn't all there was.

Identity is the source of our action, if we understand correctly. But sadly, what often ends up happening is that we have an incredible understanding of who God is and what he has done, but not who we are as a result of and in relation to that. Therefore, when crisis comes in our lives, when we are at wits end (I'm speaking of followers of Christ) we remember, "Oh yeah, Christians serve, read the bible, have a quiet time, and go to church. I need to start doing those things again and then everything in my life will fall back into place. Then I will stop delving into the sin that is destroying me right now." The sad part is that eventually, we discover that the prayer isn't working, the reading the Word isn't working, and we get to the point that we might even start to doubt our pursuit of Christ altogether. The reason for this is because we can have all of the right actions, but without the right heart, it is like tearing the label off a Pepsi bottle, putting a Dr. Pepper label on it, and then acting like it is now Dr. Pepper. What good is it if we change the look of the outside and the inside is still the same?

There is a movement in Christianity that desperately espouses that even after you become a follower of Christ that your identity is still essentially that of a sinner. What is strange is that the overwhelming understanding for the believer throughout the New Testament (NT) is that he is now a new creation. We often think of this as merely a new model of an old car. But that's not what God has said at all. He has said that you are truly a new creation. Something completely different. Maybe more accurately, someone completely different.

Paul has gone as far as to believe, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." It seems that Paul believed that you were truly righteous and holy now. Not some time in the future, but now. He is consistent in this understanding of identity, especially if we read and understand Romans 6-8 as a whole rather than merely ripping chapter 7:7-21 out of context.

So what's at stake here? First, if we continue to mess up our understanding of who we are, then we will continue to buy into religion as our saving grace rather than Jesus sacrifice for our sins and the transformative power of his Spirit in our lives. When we have the former, then we equate following Christ with a set of beliefs and actions (i.e. going to church, reading the Bible, having daily quiet times, etc.). But Christ was always interested in going deeper than that. He wanted us to know him, to trust in his sacrifice on our behalf, that it is through that action we are now made right before God. Not anything we have ever done, are doing, or will do, but in who we are in Him. This is a subtle difference, but it is a huge difference. One, measures his faith by what he does. Thus, if he has a "good week" of following Christ, it means that he read his bible, prayed, and went to church. The other measures his faith by who he is and how he has grown in that reality. Thus, if he has a "good week" it is because he has rested in the reality that he is not who he was, but that he is transformed into someone knew, dare I say, for the first time, being fully human.

If we continue to define our essential identity as sinners rather than transformed, holy, and righteous followers of Christ, then a few things happen. First, we begin to expect sin. Our own language betrays us, doesn't it? "We're all just sinners saved by the blood of Jesus." Or, "Don't worry about it man, no one's perfect. We're all going to sin." These phrases bring us comfort and allow us to continue on with the status quo, expecting that sin is just a foregone conclusion. Second, we begin to accept sin. We assume that there is a certain level of sin that is acceptable, that is simply unavoidable. So we accept it's presense in our lives, like we accept the presense of the four seasons.

But if we understand that for those who are in Christ they are new creations, holy and blameless now, that sin is not a part of who they are, or at least, shouldn't be, then the following occurs. First, we begin to reject sin. When we choose sin or have the option of it, we reject it, knowing that that simply is not who we are anymore. Second, we begin to be repulsed by sin. When we see our own sinfulness from the past, or we have the option of it in front of us, we are repulsed by even the thought of choosing it, knowing that to choose it would be like trying to breathe water. It's simply not how we are wired.

Therefore, I am firmly convinced that Jesus has always been interested in our heart, character, and identity more than he is our actions. He has always assumed that if we would simply allow ourselves to be transformed on the inside that the outside would follow. Yet, we continue to buy into the adversary's lies that all we really need is more religious practices, doctrines, and theologies, and then we will be where we should be.

Identity. That's what it's about. If we can recover our identity, and be who we were created to be, revolution will happen. Quietly, at first. From the inside out. Reform will occur. Transformation will ignite a movement of believers that no longer simply want to engage the actions of Christianity, but instead, the Identity of Christ in their lives.

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