Identity

I remember high school being a time when everyone was defined by various adjectives: “jocks,” “punks,” “skaters,” “nerds,” “band geeks,” “losers,” “frosh,” and so on.  I was fortunately in my own category of “gingers,” which was great until Southpark decided to ruin it for all the redheads in the world.  (One day we will get our revenge…).  Defining and categorizing people is something that’s happened since time began.

A few weeks ago my small group and I started reading the book of Philippians, and realized that Paul uses a lot of different descriptions for Christians.   In fact, during the first two verses of Philippians, he uses the terms 5 different terms: “holy people,” “servants of Christ,” “deacons,” “overseers,” and “children.”  All these titles got me thinking about our identity as Christians.

I felt like I should look up the word “identity,” so I did a quick word search on biblegateway.com and realized that “identity” isn’t in the bible.  This surprised me, considering that everyone says their “identity is in Christ.”  It’s such a well-known Christian phrase that I figured there was a bible verse that said “our identity is in Christ.”  Although it was surprising, it was also a relief.  Personally, I’ve always struggled with that phrase, because I never understood what it meant.  Not only that, but that’s not usually how I define myself. 

I define myself by what I “do”, and therefore, it is easy for me to say “I’m an intern.” I’m an intern because every morning I go to work and do the job of an intern.  It’s not easy for me to define myself by my relationships, though, because I often don’t know what to “do.” Yes, I’m a Christian who loves Jesus, but what does it mean to be identified “in Christ”?

Even though I couldn’t get a “biblical definition,” I still felt like I should look up “identity.” So, I did a dictionary search and found this:

 Identity is a set of characteristics which define an object or person.  Your identity is your design specifications; your nature; your composition; your character(istics).  This helps a lot, because I can start looking at the different characteristics which define a Christian.  We are identified in His:

• Death:
• Our old life of slavery to satan and sin is destroyed.  Sin leads us away from God and into death.
• Life:
• We are slaves to God and His righteousness.  God is the source of life, and we are able to become increasingly obedient to His will for our life as we spend more time with Him.
• Status:
• We are children of God, and brothers to the King
• Mission:
• We have a mission to be His ambassadors and make His name known.  
• Desires:
• We are defined by our desire to love God and love others.

This was a really helpful definition for me, because it helped me know what to “do.”  I am able to break my “identity in Christ” into categories that aid my prayer life.  I can ask Him to put the sin in my life to “death.”  I can ask Him to give me greater trust and obedience by leading me into a deeper relationship with Him.  I can face persecution once I realize that I’m from a royal line, and my status isn’t defined by my clothing.  I can ask God to provide conversations with unbelievers at work, instead of seeing work as a means to a paycheck.  I can even ask God to change my desires so that my love is evident to all.  As I’m learning, my identity is so grand and glorious that it is going to take an eternity to discover who Jesus has made me to be.

God is good, and I’m grateful for these lessons, but “knowing what to do,” doesn’t always equate to “doing what I know to do.”  I’m going to talk about this more in my next post.  Until then, God bless!