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Today, there’s a tendency to understand our sense of who we are in light of our feelings and ourselves. ‘The answer’s in our heart,’ we’re told, but many people don’t like the answers they find there. Our heart can be cruel and it often misleads us.
There’s a song by Casting Crowns called “Who am I?” that captures the comfort and reassurance of somebody who has built their sense of identity from the Bible. It says:
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever-wandering heart
In a single stanza of their song, they express a number of unique aspects of the Bible’s perspective on identity. Notice that there’s no disguising the weakness. He can acknowledge his hurt and even admit to having a wandering heart. He can do this because he feels the care and attention of a God who sees him for who he is and still loves him. He can also do this because he sees Jesus ‘lighting the way’ and helping him to become all that he longs to be. These three aspects of a healthy identity come straight from the Bible. Let’s consider them.
1. I need no longer be defined by my past
The Bible makes some brutal declarations about our past that we’d prefer not to hear. It talks about our “darkness” (Ephesians 5:8), our “sin” (Romans 3:23), and the consequences of that in our lives (Romans 6:23). But even if the Bible didn’t mention these things, the fact is that they’re real and we often feel them. Today, the tendency is to redefine the things that cause us shame and celebrate them. In the Bible, Jesus instead issues an invitation to all who would turn to Him, that their past need no longer define them. In a relationship with Jesus, I become “alive” in Him (Ephesians 2:5) and am spiritually “born again” (1 Peter 1:23) as “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). That means I have new potential and new resources. God changes the trajectory of our old lives and helps us to go in a direction that wouldn’t have been possible without Him.
2. I am loved and valued by God
As people have tried to understand themselves apart from God, they say things like, ‘I love myself and that’s all that matters.’ But that’s not all that matters. Through faith in Jesus, a person enters into the love of God and that love changes our sense of worth. The Bible says that we are “sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:26). John said, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1), and he urges us to reflect on the love that we have as God’s children. And we’re not just children but heirs. Paul said, “if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) and “in him we have obtained an inheritance” (Ephesians 1:11). Receiving the love of God and the promise of an inheritance is different than just loving yourself and living estranged from God and the love that He offers.
3. I have power from Jesus to become the best version of myself
The secular version of identity says, ‘I have all I need within me. I’m the best version of myself,’ but I’m not sure anybody really believes that. You can say that you’re a ‘boss,’ but it doesn’t make it true. And in looking within, we cut ourselves off from the power that God alone provides. Jesus said that in a relationship with Him, we receive strength from Him like “branches” from a “vine” (John 15:5). As Paul said to Timothy, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). God gives us power to change that includes a new awareness of our blind spots and new resources to confront them. That’s how the apostle Paul was able to make such a 180 degree turn in his life and declare, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
Again, the song by Casting Crowns helps express the wonder of this.
Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me
How do you think about who you are? Reflect on what the Bible says about who you are, who you can become, and how God loves and values you. There’s far more hope in that than an identity built on looking within, pretending that you’re amazing, and cutting yourself off from the love of the God who can help you.
In awe of Him,
Paul
