Reinforcing Our True Identity

                I was listening to the radio, in the car, on Saturday, on my way to the gym. The subject was on memory and how quickly we can forget things. One of the people who was interviewed talked about how she struggled with how quickly she forgot the events of her life. “If I can’t remember something from my past, does it really matter if it happened at all?”, was her question. So she began journaling everything, just so she had a record of her life. I have to confess that I resonate with her struggle. For many years now, I have been keeping a pretty mundane journal of my life. There are some flashes of insight recorded there and more than a few pretty significant events. But, for the most part, it is a flat record of my day to day activities. I just want to be able to look back at some point and remember where I have been.

                Paul David Tripp, in his book, Lost in the Middle, talks about how easy it is for us, as followers of Christ, to forget our true identity. He calls this “Identity Amnesia”. The people of Israel were plagued with it. Even though God had miraculously rescued them from Egypt, they quickly forgot who they were and wanted to go back to Egypt. How crazy is that? Yet, in many ways, we do the same thing. We forget who we are in Christ and regress back into who we were before He transformed our lives.

                Paul David Tripp outlines four common false identities that we so easily slip back into. He refers to these as spiritual replacement parts.

1. We base our identity on our achievements.

                We measure our life by our successes and failures. If we succeed we feel good about ourselves. If we fail we feel bad about ourselves. Our highest goal in life becomes achieving success.

2. We base our identity on our relationships.

                Being a people pleaser, I can identify with this trap. My sense of value is wrapped up in how much people like me. The acceptance or rejection by others can shape how I act.

3. We base our identity on our self-righteousness.

                This is similar to achievement with a spiritual twist. At the heart of this false identity is the need to prove to God and others that I am right. This false identity falls into the camp of works righteousness. My value is based on how well I perform spiritually.

4. We base our identity on our possessions.

                We have all heard the quip, the one who has the most toys at the end wins. This is a very prevalent false identity. It shows up in our need for a fancier car, a bigger home, the latest fashions hanging in our closet. What we possess becomes the measure of who we are.

                All of these are false identities. Our true identity is found in only one place; our relationship with Jesus Christ. We were created in the image of God, with a hardwired need to be connected with Him. None of the false identities above can fulfill that need. They will all leave us disappointed and discouraged. Instead, our need to be connected with God is fulfilled through our faith in Christ.

                Our true identity is not determined by our anything we do, but by God’s grace extended to us. By being united with Christ, through faith, we are given something that we could never earn. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31.

                Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

                Because of the grace of God, we have been elevated to a status far beyond anything our false identities can offer. We have been taken from being outcasts, living in total obscurity, to being embraced in the inner circle of God’s household. The Apostle Peter describes it for us in 1 Peter 2:9-10.

                But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

                Our new identity in Christ has set us on a positive course into the future. We know that we are secure in Him for all of eternity. Nothing that happens to us in this life can ever diminish who we really are in Christ. Our true identity in Christ should shape how we face the challenges and pressures of life. When we are tempted to “go back to Egypt” we need to be reminded that we don’t belong there anymore. Instead we need to stand firm in our true identity. This will take conscious effort on our part, because our natural self will always want to go back to the old ways. So Peter continues to encourage us to hold onto our true identity in 1 Peter 2:11-12.

                Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

                We are all susceptible to identity amnesia. The enticements of this tangible world can exert a strong pull on our lives. As we approach Easter Sunday, it is a good reminder that, in Christ, we died to the power of this world and have been raised to a new life in Him.

Galatians 2:20

    I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.