Lost Identity, New Identity!
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Much is said today about “identity” – in the world and amongst Christians. Of course, this sick and wicked world system is perverting every good thing God has created. However, even among Christians, this idea of “finding our identity” is often nothing more than an ego and egotistical journey – one that does not line up with the Gospel.
Consider John the Baptist. Jesus honored him with the words: “greatest of all men born of women” (Mat 11:11), yet John would have totally failed a “self-identity” exam! When asked who he was, John said, “I am nothing but a voice in the wilderness” (John 1:22-23). Later, John made this declaration:
John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Paul, too, utterly failed the “self-identity” exam! He was so wrapped up with “Someone Else” [Jesus] that he said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
Yes, they would have totally failed man-made “ID Exams,” but they definitely passed God’s ID Exam!
True Christianity is NOT identity discovery nor an academic method of character formation to turn us into nice people. True Christianity is just the opposite! It begins with the death of our human identification! The Gospel is all about identifying with Jesus Christ in His Death, His Burial, and His Resurrection through three distinct experiences:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (NKJV)
…I declare to you the GOSPEL…which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved…
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was BURIED, and that He ROSE AGAIN the third day according to the Scriptures.
- At the New Birth, we identify with Christ’s DEATH on the Cross: “He died in my place. It should have been me that died on that Cross!” And, as Paul declared, “I am crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20).
… - At Water Baptism, we identify with Christ’s BURIAL by being “buried with Jesus.” It is an act of faith and obedience whereby our bodies are “buried” in a watery “grave” – the God-designed action by which He looses us from the legal bondage to the Adamic Sin Nature which we inherited upon physical birth into this world. We are “buried with Him by baptism into death” that the “body of sin might be destroyed” (Rom 6:3-7).
… - In the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, we identify with Christ’s RESURRECTION. Just as the Holy Spirit raised Christ from the dead, so He raises us up together with Jesus Christ: “…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father [the Holy Spirit], even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). At the Baptism in the Spirit, we are flooded within and without by the Third Person of Trinity, the “Glory of the Father,” the promised Holy Spirit – the One who takes up residence within us in order to begin to form a totally New Nature, the nature of Christ, inside of us. It is “Christ in you the Hope of Glory” (Col 1:27). Then it is the Holy Spirit who transforms us from “glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18) to be like Jesus from the inside out .
Look at Paul’s longing and heart-cry to be “identified” with Jesus in all three of these experiences:
Philippians 3:10-11 (Amplified Bible) And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of HIS RESURRECTION [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of HIS SUFFERINGS, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to HIS DEATH [dying as He did]; so that I may attain to the resurrection [that will raise me] from the dead.
Rather than searching for our identity, let’s totally lose ourselves in Christ to find His life and His identity growing inside of us:
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Oh, and one more thought…
Apparently, the Apostle John totally lost his identity as well! In the Gospel of John, John completely forgot his own name! He simply refers to himself as “the other disciple” and the “disciple whom Jesus loves” (see John 13:23; John 18:16; John 19:26; John 20:2-4; John 20:8; John 21:7; John 21:20). For more details about John, refer to this blog article: “John – The Other Disciple Whom Jesus Loved”.
I like that! Oh, to be that lost in Jesus’ love!
