I used to think my identity had a lot to do with shallow things like my name, my favorite things, or my strong opinions. As life went on my identity morphed into whatever was most important to me at the time. Then when I became a mom, my identity and importance came from the title, mother, and all of the things that that entailed for me. “Who are you?” was a question that I answered with things that lacked permanence and depth.
I have found myself understanding something crucial over the course of the last few years of my life. My identity in Christ.
I’ve called this time my “identity crisis” partially joking(partially not). Understanding this for me has been a process of peeling back layers of what I’ve believe about myself, God and battling the urge to think that a deeper understanding in this area implies “selfishness”.
This seems like a basic concept, Christ centered identity(and it should be), but if the foundations of this concept aren’t fully understood, it makes great holes in our understanding of the practicality of the gospel in our own lives today. An underdeveloped sense of Christ centered identity leaves us vulnerable to harsh criticism, debilitating labels and arrogant pride.
Before I dive more deeply into this, I want to address the concept that internal reflection is selfish and un-Christlike in nature. I have heard this spoken about negatively in the pulpit, along with mental health issues and Christians in therapy. Sometimes we hear commentaries from online Christian platforms, as well as in passing conversations with other believers. The ungracious view of cognition and self awareness and how to address it can be overwhelming. Essentially the main point I hear being made about self reflection, therapy, and self awareness is that it’s so self focused, it must be leading to sin and selfishness. That could be true, however, I believe that it’s more likely to open the doors to maturity and a better ability to carry out the great commission than avoidance and a lack of self awareness could.
When we become Christians we know that we have just been ‘born again’. We are a new creation in Christ; that’s such good news! The other good news is that we have a fresh start in understanding the world around us through new lenses. We can call them our “gospel lenses”. Our own vision is still clouded with fleshly desires, but with our new gospel lenses, we can see things with a new clarity. When we’re faced with issues; large, small, political, and personal, it will be important to look at all of these things through gospel lenses.
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is explaining to the church of Corinth that they are infants in the faith, that they could not be fed on solid food but needed to be fed with milk. When we are born in Christ, we are infants in the faith and we need milk. What is this milk? It’s the understanding of the core values that you have taken on as someone new in Christ. Core doctrine, Christ centered identity, and understanding the value of image bearers would be perfect examples of milk. Infants also need to be cared for(people to come alongside to mentor, encourage and hold accountable), so who cares for us when we have been born into the body of Christ? Fellow believers that have “grown up” in the faith and are able to help sustain those who are new. This helps set up the foundations for a strong faith. *Keep in mind that this is how things are supposed to work. There are a lot of ways that this can and does go wrong, but we know that God redeems broken spiritual situations all of the time. He’s the expert.*
So how do we come to an understanding of our Identity in Christ? The first place we should always look is scripture. Starting in Genesis:
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27
God lays the foundations for identity in the beginning. We were made in the image of the most high. But that’s obviously not where the story stops. We see sin enter into the world, our original purpose marred, the ground cursed and our bodies given over to sin. Seems depressing, yes?
But God, being merciful and faithful, devised a plan for hope. And so began the timeline marching to salvation and fulfillment of covenant. This is a key point. The timeline is recorded in the Bible and continues today. We are part of His history/prophecy/future(otherwise referred to as His plan), and knowing the Bible intimately will be an important piece of understanding your Christ centered identity.
Fast forward and our savior is the perfect example of what it looks like to walk this earth blameless. He came to be the perfect sacrifice. He was killed on our behalf, suffered the penalty of our sins and rose again. Conquering death. Defeating evil. Saving humanity.
What does that mean for you? In shorter terms; you are a sinner but when you accepted Christ and proclaimed Him as Lord, you were saved! There begins the journey of sanctification and carrying out the call to “go and make disciples”.
In summary: Created in the image of God. Sinner in need of a savior. Created new in Christ Jesus. Called to become mature in Him by the never ending process of sanctification. Commissioned to go and make disciples.
I’ve written about the process of sanctification. It is an incredibly important piece of our walk here on earth. It’s a process of becoming mature. A natural part of this process is self awareness.
Self awareness is something that develops naturally in us while we’re growing and our brains are developing. It’s essentially our ability to see and address our own character and feelings and how it affects the people around us. It aids in self control(which is a fruit of the spirit). It’s the part of becoming mature that gives us the ability to be honest with ourselves about who we are and what’s going on inside of us.
Taking honest inventory is an important part of being a believer. We have examples of this from Jesus Himself.
Jesus would often go off to be alone. He needed time to pray and reflect. We see examples of this all through the synoptic gospels(Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). I’m not implying that the God of the universe needed to become more self aware and mature. Nor did He technically need rest, right? But He obediently came here, humbly lived as a man and provided the perfect example for what we should be doing. Here are some scriptures where Jesus went off to be alone:
Luke 4:1-2, Luke 4:42, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12-13, Luke 22:41-45, Mark 6: 45-47, Matthew 14:13, Mark 1:35
This means that we are a people who need to have time of quiet reflection in order to live the life we’re called to. In our modern world, with technology constantly screaming for our attention and hustle culture being put on a pedestal, this is harder to accomplish than ever.
At this point you might be saying, this seems complicated. You may be right but I don’t believe it has to be. We aren’t called to a “one and done”, convenient kind of faith. It’s important to realize that in order to be sanctified, we must have a soft, compliant heart toward God and a willingness for continual growth. We also must be resilient and willing to endure much on this earth.
If I could give you a homework assignment for growing in your Christ Centered Identity it would be this:
Go read the book of Romans, 1 Peter and Ephesians. Take it one passage at a time. Take notes of the questions that you have. Highlight the things that stand out to you. Write down the things in those books that tell you about your identity in Christ.
My hope is that your confidence and identity is so strongly built on the foundation of Christ that when you face all sorts of adversity, you’re strength comes from His great love, mercy and grace.
The Crunchy Vagabond 