The Art and Necessity of Finding My Identity in Christ: Part 1
We first published our document “Portrait of a Maturing Disciple” in October, 2021. That document marks the target, what it looks like for us to grow in Christ. Occasionally, we have used the pages of this blog to drill down on one of the statements in that document.
Under the category of “Know” (which we explored in the March 3 post) we’ve listed three specific things we need to know, key ideas we never stop learning but continue to absorb and assimilate into our thoughts, habits, and instincts:
Repentance
Identity and Security
Dependence on the Spirit
Today we’re looking at the first of two implications of what it means for me to find my identity in Christ:
Identity and Security: Because God sees in me not my own sin and rebellion but the perfect righteousness of His Son, I know and understand that my deepest and most significant identity lies not in my accomplishments or self-discipline or virtue (or failures) but in my secure standing as a beloved child of the King.
Identity formation is a fascinating thing.
My identity is how I answer the question “What makes me special?” The answer is complex, of course, involving markers that are given to us (e.g., family background, innate physical characteristics) as well as individual markers we discover and cultivate over time (gifts and passions).
I can remember the forces that shaped my identity as a child. I grew up as an Air Force brat. That meant that every few years I was the new kid: at school, at church, on the block. I had to learn how to make friends quickly, and I had to learn how to quickly establish my identity in each new social group. In my mind that meant that I needed to show right away that I was a high achiever: I got good grades, I could play the piano, and I was an athlete.
But that childhood craving to impress others never really went away; it only changed venues. Now that I’m in my mid-60s, my athletic and academic days are long over, and music doesn’t play such an important role in my life. But I still want to distinguish myself as a high achiever. So it is important to my sense of self that I am able to impress people with my insight or my knowledge; I feel the need to play the role of the wise man.
Of course this is just another form of the vanity and insecurity that drove my desire to succeed when I was young. Just as I was tempted to find my identity in achievement as a boy and teen, now I’m tempted to find my identity in being wise and thoughtful and knowledgeable.
But that’s just my story, my particular temptation – shaped as it is by my family background and my particular set of gifts and passions. Others are prone to find their identity in other markers: their ethnic identity, their limitations, even their sin and failure. All the identity sources outside Christ have one thing in common: they are fragile and unreliable, and they all fail to provide the deepest source of identity formation that we all need.
Before I am an American, before I am a straight white man, a senior citizen, a husband, a father, a pastor (all compelling identities with their own implications), before every other identity marker I must find my identity in Christ. Everything else is details.
But finding my identity in Christ is much easier said than done.
Even after I come to faith in Christ, even after the Spirit undertakes His sanctifying work in my heart, finding my identity in Christ isn’t automatic; it isn’t like an on-off switch.
From where I stand, it looks as if this is going to be a life-long process as the Spirit reshapes my affections and recalibrates my wayward heart. The temptation to find my identity outside Christ is actually a temptation to idolatry; that means that this particular sin is deeply embedded and entangled in my sense of self, a wicked knot that only God’s Spirit can untangle.
So a huge part of my learning how to obey Jesus is slowly learning how to find my deepest identity in Christ.
What makes me special?
All the other possible answers to that question fade into insignificance compared with this glorious fact: in Christ the Father has invited this rebel into His family as His adopted son.
Think of how the Apostle Paul never ceased to be amazed at his identity in Christ. Notwithstanding all that he had accomplished as rising star in first century Judaism, he found his truest and deepest identity not in his accomplishments but in Christ:
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Phil 3:4-7; Gal 6:14)
Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Discipleship Pastor