Category: Human Identity

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3. HUMAN IDENTITY:  Paul on New Creation Identity

This is the third of three talks – the notes for the video recording of Talk Three

3. HUMAN IDENTITY:  Paul on New Creation Identity

PAUL ON (CHRISTIAN) IDENTITY:

His earliest letter (AD 48), Galatians, is about identity:  SON/DAUGHTER OF GOD.

The Galatian believers had been deceived: acceptance in Christ was conditional on one’s ‘works of righteousness’, a return to legalistic Judaism. Paul confronts and corrects them by teaching we are unconditionally accepted and justified in Christ by grace and faith. That comes with a new identity.

Paul’s climactic statement is Galatians 3:26-29, recalling Jesus’ baptism: In our baptism, on confession of faith in Jesus, we are clothed with Christ, i.e., we take on a new identity that transcends previous ‘labels’:

1) Cultural: “neither Jew nor Gentile” – racial reconciliation – neither white nor black.

2) Social: “neither slave nor free” – class reconciliation – neither master nor servant, rich nor poor.

3) Sexual: “neither male nor female” – gender reconciliation; it does not mean that our sexual-gender identity is removed in Christ, and nor does Paul’s statement justify non-binary identity as some use it to mean. Nor is our ethnic identity removed – it is transcended in Christ. People from every language, tribe, and nation will still be identifiable in heaven, as we see in John’s vision of God’s people around the throne (Revelation 7:9).

“Clothed with Christ” means we are heirs with Christ as God’s sons & daughters (Galatians 4:1-7).

THAT is our new identity, no longer a ‘slave’ – to sin, to the Law, to identities – but a ‘child of God’. Because “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts that calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’  So, you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:6-7).

Paul expanded on this a few years later (AD 52) in his letter to the Corinthian followers of Jesus.
He explains our identity as God’s NEW CREATION. So, in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21:

“From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view” – through the above identities.

“We no longer even regard Christ in this way” – as Jewish, male, rabbi – rather as The Messiah.

“Therefore, anyone in Messiah is a new creation, the old has passed, the new has come” – therefore, all the labels/identities we carry, that people gave/give us, that we ourselves choose, are transformed and transcended in Christ. We see ourselves and others as God does in new creation. The old labels through which we see and relate are passing away. The new has come.

God identifies us as his “Beloved” son/daughter… as “a new creation” (v.17), as “reconciled” with God (v.18), as “ambassadors of Christ” (v.20), as “the righteousness of God” (v.21).

Paul expanded on this later (AD 60) in Ephesians 1:3-14:  Our SEVENFOLD IDENTITY ‘IN CHRIST’.

We are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ” (v.3). Paul then lists seven spiritual ‘blessings’ in Christ, which constitute our new identity.

  1. I am chosen in Christ (v.4): ‘known and chosen’ by God before the creation of the world.
  2. I am holy and blameless in Christ (v.4): ‘set apart for God’ as his ‘saint’, i.e., made righteous in Christ, without guilt or shame or blame.
  3. I am predestined in Christ (v.5): ‘marked out before-hand’ by God for his eternal purpose.
  4. I am adopted in Christ (v.5): ‘into God’s family… I am God’s son/daughter’, with all the privileges of “grace, which he freely gives us in his Beloved” (v.6, his Agapetos Son).
  5. I am redeemed in Christ (v.7): ‘bought out of slavery with a price’ – the ransom that Jesus paid for our redemption and freedom, through his precious blood.
  6. I am forgiven in Christ (v.7): ‘forgiven & cleansed of all sin’ (but, we keep clean and forgiven by walking in the light and confessing any sin we commit, 1 John 1:4-9).
  7. I am sealed in Christ (v.13-14): ‘marked by the indwelling Holy Spirit’, who is God’s ‘down-payment’ that guarantees my full inheritance as God’s beloved daughter/son. Our full inheritance is the future resurrection of our bodies to rule and reign with Christ.

HOW TO LIVE INTO THIS IDENTITY IN CHRIST:

Decide that it is true. God knows better about you than you do! We hold onto lies about ourselves that we carry since childhood. Jesus said that if you “hold to my teaching, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

Choose to believe it! Faith is a choice. God is more trustworthy that your feelings or what others say about you. He declared you his ‘Be-Loved’… trust him… believe it!

Confess and speak it over you many times a day. This is how, practically, you receive and make it subjectively real. Speak God’s truth over you, over your mind, emotions, body, and relationships. Memorise and learn by heart Paul’s sevenfold identity and repeat it often.

Keep rebuking all internal voices and external messages that come at you in your mind, emotions, body, relationships, encounters with others, social media, etc. Resist anything that challenges your ‘new creation’ identity in Christ as God’s Beloved daughter or son.

Embrace your ‘Be-Loved-ness’! To be ‘Beloved’ is to be loved… to allow yourself to be loved. We don’t easily receive love due to our experience of (conditional) ‘love’ that has hurt us and broke us. We hold people, even God, at arm’s length, for self-protection. Consequently, we don’t know how to receive unconditional love. We fear pain, manipulation, and rejection. We cannot be vulnerable and trust and embrace true love. So, we have to learn to allow God to love us… in the silent whispers of our heart, through our times of prayer and scripture meditation, through caring others God has placed in our lives, and through being with him in creation.

From Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved. Hear these words from God in the centre of your being:

“I have called you by name from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my Beloved, on you my favour rests. I have moulded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness, and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch over you. You know me as your own, as I know you as my own. You belong to me.”

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2. HUMAN IDENTITY:  Found in Jesus’ Human Identity

This is the second of three talks – the teaching notes for the video recording of Talk Two.

HUMAN IDENTITY:  Found in Jesus’ Human Identity

NEW CREATION – (re)identified in/through Messiah Jesus – the Kingdom Story:

The New Testament reframes human identity in New Creation, in the gospel of God’s Kingdom. Paul’s language is “in Adam” and “in Christ”: all who are born “in/of Adam” are “sinners”; all who are born again (from above) “in/of Christ” are “saints” and “new creations” (1 Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Jesus brought ‘Kingdom identity’ to humanity in his own humanity as God’s son – in his conception, water baptism, ministry, death & resurrection. We find our identity in Jesus’ human identity.

JESUS’ IDENTITY:

1) ‘Illegitimate’ conception: He was conceived before his mother’s wedding – deeply scandalous. Thus, he was known as a ‘mamzer’ (illegitimate/‘bastard’), suffered rejection. He had identity issues, as in “who’s my father?” This dogged him in his ministry (John 8): they asked him, “Where is your father?” (John 8:19), “Who are you?” (John 8:25), “We are not illegitimate children” (John 8:41), “Aren’t we right in saying you’re a Samaritan? (John 8:48, a half-breed). Jesus embraced God (“Abba”) as his real Father (Luke 2:49).

2) Identity confirmed and affirmed at his baptism: “You are my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). All that Jesus dared to believe as he grew up – in his 30 years of formation in Nazareth, that God was his real Abba and he was his son – was declared and confirmed from heaven. “Beloved” is Agapetos, an intense term of endearment, belonging, affection, and intimacy.

More than that, God declared, “You are my Beloved, in whom I am pleased”. The last phrase is also translated, “in whom I delight”, and “on whom my favour rests”. Thus, in Christ, YOU are God’s Agapetos daughter/son, his dearly loved one, in whom he delights. God delights in you! He’s pleased with you! His favour rests on you! Do you believe this about yourself? Do you receive it?

3) Tested by Satan:  Matthew 4:1-11, The devil questioned Jesus’ identity as God’s beloved son, tempting him to use his newly confirmed identity in… and to shift his identity towards….

a) Doing (Matthew 4:3). To speak his own words, not the words of Abba – even to do miracles to meet human need. Jesus only spoke and lived by every word from God’s mouth, “You are my Agapetos Son”.

b) Performing (Matt 4:5-7). To be spectacular and heroic, for acceptance and popularity – by presuming on God – getting God to back him up, even to perform for him.

c) Power (Matthew 4:8-9). To have all the power and be in control – to be defined by power and ownership.

Are you tempted to find your identity in any or more of these three? How do you resist that?

Because Jesus knew he was loved – before he did any ministry for God – he was deeply secure in Abba’s love. Therefore, he could love and give his life away in love… NOT to impress or please God, or to prove anything, or to be accepted and popular, or to feel good about himself, or to gain power, etc.

As followers of Jesus, “in Christ”, we too need to know and live from our identity as ‘Be-Loved’. “He brought me into his banqueting house and his banner over me is LOVE” (Song of Solomon 2:4).

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1. HUMAN IDENTITY:  Creation Design & The Fall

This is the first of three talks given at Freedom House Church, in Salt Rock, South Africa. These are the notes for the video recording of Talk One.

HUMAN IDENTITY:  Creation Design & The Fall

HUMAN IDENTITY 

Definition:  Identity is our sense of self, in relation to others, decided and formed in a mix of beliefs, values, culture, personality, gender, ethnicity, social status, achievements, and even hurt/pain.

Process:  Identity is given, but also formed, and/or chosen, and even imposed (if one accepts it).

The Question is:  Who are you?  Post-modern confusion (dysphoria) is not knowing who we are. We identifying with what we feel/sense about ourselves, what we think others think of us, and so on.

Way of the world:  ‘Self-identifying’ – the basis of ‘expressive individualism’, i.e., to be my authentic self, and thus to be happy, I must self-identify as I choose, as suits me, and be free to live it out.

Biblical view of identity:  ‘God-identifying’ – the basis of ‘fulfilled personhood’, i.e., God identifies us in creation and in new creation, to fulfil our true nature and destiny as God intended for us.

FIRST CREATION – Identified in/through Creation Design – the Genesis Story:

1st Human identity:  Genesis 1:26-27, “let us make ha adam (the human) in our image and likeness”. Human identity is God’s image – to reveal God’s likeness as his image-bearers.

2nd Sexual identity:  Gen 1:27, “male and female created he them” – man or woman image-bearers.

3rd Personal identity:  Gen 2:20,23; 3:20, “he named them…” – names identify the person; they call forth and describe the nature and purpose of the person (“Eve” = “living”, mother of all living).

It has been the same, in the same order, throughout history. The wife first says to husband, “we’re going to have a baby!” Then, “it’s a girl (or boy)!” And then, thirdly, “her (or his) name is….”

That means: “Let US (Trinity) create ha adam in our image” = we’re born and identified in relationship, by relationship, for relationship.  Mom + Dad = me!  Gabriel Marcel said, “The ‘I’ is the child of the ‘We’”, i.e., community defines personhood. The individual (individualism) does not define community.  We are defined by those to whom we belong, by those who love and form us for life.

This is embodied in the Semitic idea of naming and the use of names.

1) “Simon bar Jonah” = Simon the son of Jonah:  we are known by those who whom we belong.

2) Names embody identify and call forth (prophetically) the nature and destiny of the person. “You shall call his name Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). God changes names of people if needed, ‘Jacob’ to ‘Israel’ (Gen 32:27-28). What does your name mean?

‘THE FALL’ RESULTS IN BROKEN IDENTITY – human rebellion against God:

Man’s identity. Genesis 3:17-19, his ‘bent’ (identity) will be toward work (the earth): he was taken from the earth and ‘in pain’ he will toil the earth to bring forth food. Thus, male identity since ‘The Fall’ of humanity in the garden has traditionally been: Provider, Protector, and Procreator.

Woman’s identity. Genesis 3:16, her ‘bent’ (identity) will be toward man (her husband): she was taken from the man and ‘in pain’ she will bring forth children for the man. Thus, female identity since ‘The Fall’ has traditionally been: Wife, Mother, and Home-maker/keeper.

Creation design identity reversed: now broken and illegitimate identity, not derived from our being (being God’s image), but from our doing (doing work, performing, achieving, etc).Biblically, ‘being’ precedes ‘doing’, which is natural outflow of being. To find our identity in our doing is broken creation, having to be the protector, provider, procreator, etc. It is ‘The Fall’ from “Simon bar Jonah” to “Simon the fisherman”, from “Alexander son of God” to “Pastor Alexander”, or “Apostle…”, “Doctor…”.

To be known (called and identified) by our doing, as in our achievements, position, title, social class, etc, is false identity. To find our identity in our ministry, or work, or in what others say or don’t say about us, is a disaster waiting to happen. Jesus rejected titles, dress codes, preferential treatment, positions of prominence, etc, as a means of identity and honour in his Kingdom (Matthew 23:5-12). That is the way of the world, not the way of Jesus.