A Reflection on Identity

The world is abuzz with talk about identity. We loudly declare our identity is this or that, or we quietly hide that our identity is unfortunately this or that other thing. We love to make these distinctions based upon tangible and intangible markers. White, black, asain. Gay, straight or something in between. I feel this way… I look this way… I’ve experienced this thing…

We use all of these markers to construct an identity for ourselves. That when someone asks who we are, these are the things we point to and say, “that is me”. But as a Christian it is vital to ask the ever important question…

Is this biblical?

Is my identity built on my race? On my social status? On my sexuallity? Because I lean this way politically is that who I am? Because I sin is my identity sinner? Because I was born in the United States, is my identity as an American? Where does the bible make the distinction of identity?

The bible makes only one distinction between people. 

Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28, my emphasis). God does not divide the identities of his people by their race, their status, their sex. To God, the one distinction is that people are in Christ.

And so, as much as we love to construct so many little boxes to put our fellow image bearers in, there are only two true categories. 

Those in Christ. 

Those not in Christ. 

Paul says just in the next verse in Galatians “And if you are Christ’s, then you are… heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29, my emphasis). The explicit application here is that there are those who are in Christ, but implicitly built into that statement is the assumption that there are those who are not in Christ. 

“So this is all well and good”, you say, “but what does it actually mean for me?”

Well, the application is dependent on which of those categories you currently fall.

To those in Christ there is a beautiful freedom! Your identity is hidden in Christ! An inheritance imperishing, kept in heaven for you! Yes you may continue to struggle against sin, but you are no longer a sinner! “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2, my emphasis). You no longer must struggle to know who you are. You are not defined by mistakes, sins, outward appearances or inward feelings. Your identity is simply that you are in the savior Jesus Christ. Oh what a freedom! The truest answer you can give to the question “who are you?” is the simple phrase “I am in Christ!”

To those not in Christ, there is a beautiful hope. For God himself took on another nature, that of a man, lived perfectly in a way that you never can. He then let himself be the target of all of God's wrath that should have been directed at you and me, dying and being raised by God to new life. And now he offers the same to you. Jesus offers you a death. That your old self and old tangle of identities would die with him on the cross and be buried with him in the grave. And Jesus offers you a resurrection and new life. That you would be given a new identity that, though you don’t deserve it, is a free gift. That you may be in Christ. What a beautiful hope to have!

And so, in a world that is full of constantly shifting identity... In a world that is nearly obsessed with constructing identities for people based on so many different markers, the Church has an opportunity. A chance to declare that our old selves have died. That our old identity has died. And that we now have one new simple and yet profound identity. No longer black, hispanic, or indigenous. No longer liberal or conservative. No longer male or female, upper class or middle class, though these things may be true of us, they no longer are our identity. For we have been given a new identity.

In Christ.