Jesus and My Identity Crisis

“Identity” is a hot topic these days. In areas as varied as ethnicity and politics and gender and voter registration, we are all talking about identity.

What do we mean by “identity”? I am a man, a pastor, a husband and dad and Pappaw. I’m a side-sleeper, a Beavercreek resident, a booklover, a native Texan, an introvert.

But those are just labels. They describe me, but they don’t really supply me with an identity; they don’t say much about my sense of self.

So who am I?

According to some, identity formation is vastly more complicated than it used to be. Human features that once were a given (my gender and sexual orientation) must now be chosen from a dazzling array of options.

But it’s not just the radical Left that gets this wrong. There are other identity formation devices that are so baked into our cultural expectations that we fall back on them without thinking about it. All of them promise to give me a solid sense of self, but they fail to live up to that promise.

• I might try to define my essential self by my tribe and its causes (my nationality, my ethnicity, my ideological camp, along with all the causes that my group embraces).  
• Or I might define myself by my accomplishments, reputation, and status (my education, my job title, my socioeconomic position).
• Or I might look to my personal competence (I pay my bills on time, I’m a safe driver, I floss daily).  

There’s nothing wrong with any of these ways of understanding myself, but they’re flimsy. They don’t get much deeper than side-sleeper and booklover.

My problem is that neither my culture nor I can provide me with an identity.
 
Only the Creator can give us a deep and significant sense of self. He did this first by instilling in us His own image: we are made in the image of our Creator. That was our original identity.

But we all have defaced that image. As a result, all of us naturally identify with the first rebel; our deepest identity is “in Adam.”  

Fortunately, God didn’t leave us in that state. In Christ, God has given us a new identity, one that aligns us with God’s original purposes for our lives: that we would know Him and honor Him and enjoy Him forever.

In the opening paragraphs of his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul lays out a stunning description of what we have in Christ.

In Adam, I was alienated from God; in Christ, I am chosen and made a citizen of His Kingdom. Thanks to Jesus, this former rebel has a standing in the community of the beloved (Eph 1:4-5).

In Adam, I was enslaved to sin; in Christ, I am redeemed from my captivity. The death and resurrection of Jesus set me free from the law of sin and death. Yes, I will still struggle with sin so long as I am in this body. But the final outcome of that struggle is not in question. Because I am in Christ, I know that He will prevail against sin in my heart and life (Eph 1:7).

In Adam, I had no part in God’s family; in Christ, I am adopted. I have a place at the table; I am welcome in God’s house (Eph 1:11).

In Adam, I was set adrift, left to my own devices, without hope and without God in the world; in Christ, I am sealed by the Spirit, resting in the assurance that He will bring to completion what He started. He has promised that He will finally bring me home (Eph 1:13).

Yes, I still live in this body, in this culture, and I still try to fulfill my roles. And I still sin and fail my Lord. But none of those things – not my aging body, not my broken culture, not how well I fulfill expectations, not even the indwelling presence of sin – none of those things define me anymore.

Christ in me is my permanent, my deepest identity. My life’s task – and the Spirit’s prime objective – is that my “in Christ” sense of self become more and more real to me as I learn to live out that identity more and more faithfully.

Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Pastor of Discipleship