What is Your True Identity?

The world sure spends a lot of time trying to figure out who we are and to whom we belong. God gave us the answer to this question centuries ago.

Isaiah 43:1 “But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.”

It used to be an easy question. If someone asked for your identity, you simply showed them your driver’s license. If someone asked who you were, you told them your name, where you were from, and maybe your parents’ name.

Simon bar-Jonah was Simon, son of Jonah. Jesus of Nazareth was Jesus from Nazareth. Or maybe you were identified by what you did. Your name was James Painter, or Gerald Baker, or Nancy Tailor. Your name matched what you did, where you were from, or who your parents were. These are, or were, things that could not change. Where you grew up and who you were born to was part of your identity.

It is not so simple today. Identities change. For some, identities change as often as they have birthdays. Identity is no longer who you are but what or who you think you are….today.

Someone is male, but today he identify as female. Someone is straight, but today they identify as gay. They are married, but today they are single. They cannot be bound by truth (that would inhibit their ability to freely identify) because they have their own truth. To each person it is very clear. They are what they are today. For the rest of the world? Well, we live in a state of confusion.

We don’t know how to treat them. We don’t know what to call them. We don’t know how to be friends with them, and when we accidentally insult them in any way, they accuse us of homophobia, or bigotry, or call us racist even if race is not an issue. For those of us who believe in absolute truth and live by God’s moral construct, personal truth lives on the edge of insanity. Of course, saying those words would only more solidify their view of “believers of truth” as bigots.

You see, here is the problem. It is not so much how we see ourselves, but how the rest of the world sees us. One may have fathered children, but if he is an absent father, his children will never see him as a parent. Biologically, yes. Parentally, no. I may look in the mirror and still see a slim thirty-something, but the rest of the world sees an over-weight sixty-something. When I purchase clothing, I am reminded that my truth doesn’t matter. I am overweight. You may be a male athlete identifying as a woman athlete. The women athletes will never accept you as a woman. You are simply cheating. You are robbing them of a level playing field.

Sometimes it is not the world’s opinion that matters. It is the opinion of God. When we claim to be a Christian, but do not believe in or accept Christ as Lord and Savior, God says we do not belong to Him. Sitting in a worship center, singing songs, leading in the worship, teaching Sunday school, preaching, hosting a bible study, giving tithes and offerings, going on mission trips, or checking the box on a survey that we are Christian, does not make us Christian. There is only one thing that can do that.

We must accept the gift of Christ. We believe that He died and arose to save us from sin. He did something, as fully God and fully man, that we can never do. He made a way for us to be forgiven through a sinless life. He made a way for us to be reunited with the Father through His death and resurrection. He pointed us down a road that leads to everlasting life by allowing us to accept Him as Lord and Savior. Anything different, no matter how we identify, will not pass the test. God will not respect our truth.

A story is told of a man who died and went to judgement. When Jesus said, “I have never known you,” the man replied, “but I identify as a Christian.” Jesus said, “We don’t play that game here.”

Watch how they live. See what they do. Do their lives contradict their statements of faith? God calls us to be fruit inspectors. What do we see? New converts? Growth into mature Christians? Do we see short tempers, bad attitudes, foul language, dirty jokes, disrespect, lewd behavior, approval of things the bible clearly condemns? Do we see Christian homes or homes that look and act like every other home in the neighborhood?

Truth is absolute. Any variation on truth is a lie. Billy Graham said, “not believing in the Bible does not make the Bible any less true.” The world is full of absolute truths. If you jump off a building, you will fall and possibly to your death. Gravity does not need you to believe in it to be true. At the end of this life, you will die. You do not have to believe in death for it to be true. If you change your identity, God still knows who you are. You cannot hide from Him, and in the end, we will all be judged. Refusing to believe this will not make it less true.

The statement, “there are no absolute truths,” is itself, an absolute truth. It is self-contradicting. And it is false. There is truth. God’s truth. His truth is what our society is based on. His truth is what our moral laws are based on. Saying it is ok to change one’s identity (sex/gender, sexual orientation) only hurts you and those around you.

There is a way we can change our identity. We can all be adopted into God’s family. We are all God’s creations, but those who believe are God’s children. If we want an identity change, God has a solution. Believe. Trust. Obey. Isaiah 43:1 says “I have called you by name. You are mine.”

That sure sounds a lot better than, “I never knew you.”

Whose Child Are You?

We are all someone’s child. Who do you belong to?

Think what a blessing it is to be alive.

Now, think of all the things that had to happen just for you to be you, and for you to be here!

Your parents had to meet. They had to have the ability to have children. They had to desire to have children. They had to have been successfully born to our grandparents, who had to have lived long enough to have met and had children. Your great-grandparents had to have survived diseases, for which there was no cure, survived wars and economic struggles, met each other, had children, etc.

What are the odds that you would have turned out to be you?

About 1 in 10^26850000  or almost 0.

Hawksbill turtles are endangered sea turtles. They are solitary swimmers, for the most part. For them to mate they must meet somewhere in the deep blue sea and be older the 20 years of age. The female must make her way to shore where she is vulnerable. Dig a hole and then lay between 130-160 eggs in a nest in the sand. If the eggs hatch, the little turtles have to survive crabs, sea gulls, people, and other predators just to make it to the sea. Then they must survive all of the things that eat them in the ocean, not get caught in nets, or be hunted for their shells. They have about a 1 in a 1000 shot of surviving.

Wow! The odds of a sea turtle surviving, and for you to be you, are astronomical!

Hawksbill Sea Turtle

Look at all that could have gone differently. You could have been born in a different country or in a different period of time. You could have been taught a different religion, a different language, dressed differently, or had different morals. Or, everything could have been the same, but you could have made different choices, and you would not be who you are today.

My wife and I have survived brain tumors. Think about our odds of survival just fifty years ago. Not good. In fact, the transsphenoidal surgical procedure. I had was once considered too risky in the early 1900’s, but by the time of my procedure, it was low risk and I was out of the hospital in 5 days. The recovery at home was slow, but had I been a patient in 1910, there would have been no recovery at all!

Carol’s First Haircut 3 Months After Surgery

All of this to say, who we are, what we look like, how we talk, and the comforts we enjoy depend on an incredible series of circumstances. But these circumstances do not define us.  

We should not be defined by the color of our skin, our language, our economic status, our country, our gender, or our age. Sure, they play a big part in our lives, but our definition comes from our faith.

Christians are called Christian because of our identity in Christ. Yes, we are all different, but we are all the same too. Our faith gives us common ground, helps us handle the big and small problems, gives us peace that God is sovereign, and gives us the promise that something better awaits.

Yes, we are someone’s child. We are all someone’s physical child.

The real question is, are you God’s child? He would love you to be.

for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:26