Your Identity
You may be at a place where you are rediscovering who you are and perhaps what God is calling you to. Throughout the discovery of yourself, there may be instances where you are influenced by your own desires, today’s modern world, and the experiences you’ve had in the world so far. I know for myself, I wasn’t always someone who found interest in following Christ wherever He called me. When I was younger, there was an internal battle inside of my heart that played a big role in how I was being shaped. While in this battle I found myself challenged to choose between identifying with sin or in Christ. At the end of the day, praise God, Christ replaced my sin diseased heart and gave me an identity in Him. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20).
As the world continues to prove itself broken and unrelenting of suffering, there is a dire need to go to Christ, our Physician, to heal us of our diseased heart to rediscover our identity in Christ. Only in Him, will we discover who we truly are. Your greatest need is to choose Christ in the journey of finding who you are and what God has called you to. I’d like to walk us through the inescapable reality of our identity in sin. Nevertheless, there is a cure that is freely given in Christ Jesus to be restored into our destined identity.
1 Peter 2:11, “abstain from the passions of the flesh. Which wages a war against your soul.”
Our Identity with Sin
What is this internal battle that Peter speaks of? Well, this battle began at the very beginning of time in the pages of 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 created us, to be in His image. Not just bodily in His image, but morally in His image. Our identity came from Him and was in Him. That means we were meant to be glorious in God, carrying His goodness and love. We can see a similar creation pattern in how our children carry our image in them–the attributes they physically have and natural abilities that they’ve adopted from us.
We fast-forward to Genesis 3 where the first two humans fall because of the eagerness to be like God not realizing they were already in the image of God. They were more like God than they ever were before the fall. But Satan lied to them. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Do you see that word play—the way Satan twists simple words to create doubt? In Genesis 1, God created mankind “in the image of God”. In Genesis 3, Satan says, “you will be like God”. Satan actually minimizes our identity and makes it as if what he has to offer is greater.
Today, does the world not settle for less in who they are choosing to identify with? Every day people buy into the lie that Satan has continued to pass-on for generations. I would like to argue that when Satan said, “you will be like God”, he meant it. Satan saw himself as god. When he rebelled against God, he said, “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the most high” (Isaiah 14:14). Proclaiming, “I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea” (Ezekiel 28:2).
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, it was as if they were reborn–their identity in the image of God became blemished with the image of Satan. Consequently, the human race was born into the likeness of the god of this world, Satan. This began the first generation of diseased hearts. God looked upon His creation as they multiplied and only saw wickedness. Genesis 6:5, “The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
The thing about having a sin heart diseased is that you never need to educate yourself into sin. As a matter of fact, you do not need to educate a child to sin. It is in our sin nature to do the opposite of good. If you are a parent, I trust that at some point you’ve experienced your child(ren) rebelling and doing things you’ve never taught them. My son began hitting my husband and I before he was able to speak clearly. Prior to this, he never had screen time or witnessed violence. Yet, before he turned 1, he already had an urge to rebel in violence. Just a few days ago [he is 3 now], my son lied to my husband and I. To witness this natural ability to lie at such a young age was a reminder that sin is inescapable. This is the battle which rages on in the heart of men that Peter speaks 1 Peter 2:11, “abstain from the passions of the flesh. Which wages a war against your soul.”
The heart that sinned from Adam and Eve continues to be passed down from generation to generation since the fall in the Garden of Eden. How do we know this? In Genesis 6, Cain murders Abel. Humanity naturally continues into this downward spiral of learned sin–in other words generational sin. We have experienced this reality ourselves in our own personal lives. But the Bible also speaks of this rebellion being passed down in Exodus 20 as God is giving the 10 commandments. In the NLT version, God states “...the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.”
God knows the depths of the human heart. He says (Romans 3:11-18) :
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Voddie Baucham, one of my favorite pastors once said in his sermon, “We don’t need the devil to help us sin. We are MORE than capable of sin ourselves.” A person’s problem is not that they were raised the wrong way, not that they haven’t seen enough good examples, not that they haven’t tried hard enough to be good. The human problem is that our hearts have been diseased to love ourselves as our own idol, just as Satan has made himself love himself so much he became his own god. You can give someone the most perfect environment to not rebel, and they will still rebel. Exhibit A, the Garden of Eden. Exhibit B, my house. We must not think ourselves to be good, because that is further from the truth. If God’s common grace did not withhold us for our depravity, we would be twice the greatest evil the world has known, Hitler. On a completely micro scale, I can see myself “withholding” or suppressing the depravity in my own son. Oftentimes I ask my husband, “How do we practically withhold our children from sin when it comes so naturally?” Being a parent to two toddlers has deepened my comprehension of the power of God to suppress humanity’s evil.
In God’s great power, He commands chaos into creation with just a few words. He commands the planets and stars to put themselves into orbit, and they submit to Him. He commands the mountains to be lifted up and valleys to be brought down, and they submit to Him. He commands the sea to calm, and the sea submits. All of nature lifts their voice to God to worship Him. Did you know that scientists created a scientific microphone to listen to plants? What these scientists heard when listening were rhythmic pops. Psalm 148:13, all creation praises the Lord.
All creation on earth naturally praises God, except the creation that was created in His very image. In our current culture state, we have much of the younger generation opening their mouths having the audacity to think they are a creator saying things like, “I manifested this.” I have seen much of this generation steal God’s glory—we must be careful of this grave offense to God because He does not share His glory to no other (Isaiah 42:8). The older I become, the more remorseful I am over this generation’s joy in saturating the identity of sin.
The Cure
All seems hopeless right? But as always, there is good news. The cure is the Gospel, for “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16). The story of the Gospel tells us that we were enslaved by our sins to walk the course of this world. But God in His great love for His creation and glory, sent down His only Son, Jesus Christ who lived a sinless life. Jesus submitted Himself to God so that sin would be laid on Him. God’s holy justice pierced and crushed sin that was laid on Him. In His death and with the blood poured out, a New Covenant was given so His blood would cover the sins of those who believe in Him. The resurrection of Christ enables us to have hope to be alive in Him.
We are unworthy, yet Christ makes us worthy through His death on the cross. It is by Christ Jesus that we no longer need to identify with the ways of Satan through sin. Because of the Gospel of Christ, we have freedom to be healed of our diseased hearts to be restored into the Image of God. Who you identify yourself in determines the course for your eternity—there are only two paths for you. Your greatest need is to choose the path that leads to Christ.
If you have yet to receive Christ, you’re probably thinking, “Well, that’s great Crystal. I am convinced now that the Gospel is the cure to my diseased heart…but how do I get there? How do I take the cure?” First, you must acknowledge your own sin diseased heart and need for Christ. The spiritual state of a diseased heart is comparable to my late grandma’s physical state before passing. My grandma had diabetes and with it came a lot of health complications. One being that it was easy for her to get an open wound on her body because she was numb to the pain of wounds. My grandma had a wound about the size of a ping pong ball. Yet, she refused to believe that she was unwell even though her open wound was black, almost rotten; it was deep and discharge was dripping from it. Even though the symptoms were visible, she felt okay because her pain sensors were dead. Because she did not acknowledge her own wound, she refused to submit herself to her doctor for help.
In the same way, sin has numbed humankind to grasp their sin diseased heart and the spiritual afflictions that come with it. Whether you know it or not, you have spiritual open wounds throughout your body. But our Savior Physician has the cure. When you go to Christ, you will be reborn into a new image and given a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”
In Acts 2, Peter preached the Gospel to the people for the very first time after Jesus’s ascension. The Gospel cut these people’s hearts open in order for them to examine their own heart, and recognize their open wound(s). The weight of sin was laid out for them to see and feel. What followed after in Acts 2 is the same that follows for you if you have not received the free cure Jesus gives. The people who received the Gospel (cure) in Acts 2 repented from their sins, submitted their hearts to Christ, and proclaimed their salvation by water baptism. Likewise, this prescription is what you need to follow as well. Examine your heart, go to God and repent of the sins you’ve committed, and proclaim your salvation. The Gospel of Christ paves a way for you to be in His image again because “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Unlike contemporary culture that tells you to find your identity through tiring rituals, assessments, the stars, etc., your identity has already been written the the Word of God.
CY