Starting Over with a New Identity

by

Jimmy Humphrey

Imagine for a moment that you were witness to a ghastly crime, where the main villain was a shady Chicago businessman, who just so happened to have an Italian last name, dressed in nice suits, and was known for the large gold chains that draped around his neck. In order to ensure you are alive and able to testify in court, the police temporarily enroll you in the witness protection program. In it, you are assigned a new identification. You receive a new name, a new job, and are suddenly moved into a remote rural town. You are no longer who you once were, and if you wish to remain alive, you will distance yourself as far as possible from your old life.

Our identity is a very important thing. When you meet a stranger for the first time, we will often engage in a lot of small talk that centers around basic biographical information. We’ll size each other up, talking about where we were born, where we went to school, where we work, family life, and the like. We ultimately look to share information about who we are and what we are about. As the conversation continues, we’ll look for some sort of common points of identification that gives us the excuse to continue lingering with one another in conversation, or should we fail to do that, we’ll look to excuse ourselves from any further conversation.

Our identity is a very curious thing. Not only is our identity an expression of who we are, but in many ways, our identity molds us into the people we become. Artists become artsy. Kings become regal. Football players become jocks. And Christians, Lord willing, become more like Christ.

The apostle Paul said:

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20; NASB)

The more I live, the more I am convinced that understanding who I am in Christ is one of the most important things I can ever hope to grasp. My identity is bound up in Christ and who He is in me. And the more I understand this truth, and the more I live my life in light of whom I am in Christ, the more I find myself flourishing. But in those areas of my life that I fail to identify with Christ first and foremost, I find a worldly carnality that chokes me to death.

When I think of myself, I should not think of myself as a young, white, middle-class, college-educated male, who works for one of the largest banks in the world. I should not think about the name on my jeans, the car that I drive, or the size of my bank account. I should not think about myself as a politically conservative minded American, who cheers wildly for the local professional sports teams. I should not think about my height, my weight, or any other such thing.

For when I bind up my identity in these things, I limit myself, and become a slave to these labels. But when my mind is on who I am in Christ, and my identification with Him, I have access to all things, and am truly free. I become whoever Jesus Christ says I am in Him.

I am saved. I am righteous. I am holy. I am forgiven. I am a child of God. I am worthy. I am a citizen of a heavenly kingdom. I am a part of the family of God. God loves me, and is working all things for my good. I have been given everything pertaining to life and godliness. I lack for no good thing. My cup runneth over. I am the head and not the tail. I am blessed in my going in and in my going out. I have a purpose. I am making a difference. I am altogether awesome and wonderful. I can do all things. I am more than a conqueror. I am risen with Christ. I am seated in heavenly places. I am a new creation.

But instead of identifying with many of these Scriptural truths, and understanding how they apply to us, many of us find our identity in the million other things this world wants us to embrace. We become people who can’t think of ourselves apart from our nationality, ethnicity, gender, height, weight, age, social status, job title, sexual orientation, or political party. And as is often the case, one of these particular identities ends up having a stronger hold on us than the rest.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying there is anything wrong in and of itself with identifying yourself with a particular nationality, ethnicity, etc. As people, and even as Christians, we will certainly have an identity that touches upon all of these things. God in His wisdom is not looking to dissolve us of all the unique distinctions we embrace. But with that said, God does not want us to be grounded in an identity that isn’t centered in who we are in Him.

If we were to survey the world around us, we would learn that there is a great danger in being caught up in our own identity apart from Christ. Six million Jews know how terrible it is when people become intoxicated by their German nationality. The caste system has caused millions of people in India to starve. Homosexuals become unable to escape their sinful lifestyles because they can’t think of themselves as somebody other than a homosexual. Managers violently handle their employees in the workplace. Over ninety-percent of blacks voted for president Obama in the last election. And many Southerners still fly the flag of a nation that hasn’t existed in 150 years.

As you can see, ultimately at the end of the day, you and I need to be saved from all this stuff. But you and I will never learn to be saved from all this stuff until we are saved from ourselves. Germans need to be saved from being German. Blacks need to be saved from being black. Baptists need to be saved from being Baptist. Cool young pastors need to be saved from their coolness. Bono needs to be saved from Bono. I need to be saved from being me.

We are ultimately in need of a new identity. An identity that is bound up with who Jesus Christ is, and who He has made us to be. In Jesus Christ, I am no longer a middle-class white boy who went to college and works for a bank. Like somebody enrolled in the witness protection program, I have seen something amazing, and I have been given a new identity. In a moment, everything about me was changed. It is no longer I who live, but Christ in me.

I have been given a new name, a new residency, and a new profession. My life is no longer what it once was. With my new identity, I am liberated from the troubles of my old life. My past with all its complications have nothing to do with what I have become. I am free from all prior entanglements and loyalties. For the identity I now have has set me free. With the past now behind me, I have nothing but the future to look forward to. I have been given a new life. A life that is truly hid in Christ.

And that new identity and that new life are available for all who would believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It is available for all who would be willing to lay aside their old lives, and put on a new one. It’s available for all who would be buried with Christ and raised again in the newness of life. It’s available for all who are willing to think differently, live differently, and act differently. It’s available to all who would lay upon an altar everything that is their life. This new identity is available for everyone who would dare to be recognized as the citizen of another kingdom. It is for everyone who would dare to call another group of people their family. It is for everyone who would say they are part of a new race of men. It is available for all who are ultimately willing to part ways with the first creation, so as to make way for God’s new creation.

http://www.iamadisciple.com/articles/new_identity.php

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Jimmy H

King Jimmy,

You have obviously put a lot of thought into this article. You cover a wide range of points about identity. It's so true what you say - about how our identities restrain us. They are like an invisible boundary that say to us: "Do not trespass beyond this point". We are not particularly conscious of their power on us.

I deal with these identity "restraints" everyday in my teaching - especially adults. They believe they cannot go on to higher levels of achievement. It's just not them. But it's simply that that they never did it before.

I think it's that way in our new Kingdom identity too. We can be restrained by an overly limiting sense of identity as redeemed people - like Peter when the sheet of animals came down in a vision from heaven.

Diane

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Diane

I was always amazed in school how many people defeated themselves in their own minds when it came to test taking. Even in Bible college people who knew they could do all things in Christ would buckle in fear of the dreaded test.

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Jimmy H

i think we must be wary of lying to our selfs and saying somthing that we are not also ,, think we need to be humbled in the process of identafication ,,,,,if we are not filled with the spirit ,we should not lie and aferm that we are ,,if we are not mature we should not identafie our selfs as such ,,,we need to be carfull and tell the truth in this we cant talk our way into mature holiness ,,
...

but the princale is a valid one for sure

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."....Jesus of Nazareth'

Every day, and moment by moment, as we walk with Christ, we must pick up our cross, deny our satanic natures, and follow Jesus, by the Spirit of Christ that lives within. This is the nature of Abiding; the only path to bear pleasing fruit to God, and the only path to maturity.

IF we do so, and have a heart to hate this selfish, wicked nature, that abides with us until our death, and embrace THE SOLUTION to our sin problem, we abide; we RESURRECT!, we START OVER WITH A NEW IDENTITY.

" For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. [ new identity ]

" I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. "

"I live, yet not I"...this is the perfect image of "A NEW IDENTITY".
We either desire to die, and hate our own way..[ I do ], or we choose to crucify Jesus within, and hate His own way.

Either way we resurrect into an identity, and the eternal question presented to us all every day we live is; "Do you really want Me?"....or yourself?

" Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

" He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

" If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him!"

Every day, every moment, we must cry out, and strive to put on that New Identity!, while shedding the old that lives inside.

Thanks King Jimmy for the thoughts. BT

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Diane

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Mike Compton

Brother Jimmy, I believe that we become or identify with what we read. What books or writings that we read, relate to or prefer. Of all things, I believe that shapes and defines our identities more than anything else on earth.


{eta}Came to this view first, the last time I visited a Christian bookstore,
10 yrs ago.

I agree with you JIG...what we read or expose ourselves to is very influential to our internal frameworks and identity.

On that note, I personally feel the modern Christian bookstore is rife with identity confusion.

I actually find it much more clarifying to read something the polar opposite to my beliefs, then the various modern evangelical attempts at cultural synthesis.

We can imagine the problems we set up for people's identities when, in the name of "cultural relevancy" we try to live half way between worldly frameworks and biblical frameworks...some netherworld where identity remains filled with contradiction.

Imagine if we affirmed the following narratives rather then the "practical" frameworks of modern evangelical cultural synthesis.

The Narrative of Being Made Alive in Christ

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful naturea and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

How often do we take away these remarkable narratives from one another and offer our own miserable fiction instead...just because of someone's political affiliations, their country of birth, their denominations, or their economic situation?

We take these biblical narratives away from others because they probably aren't real enough to even ourselves. What is real to us is this world, and so we interpret one another through the lens of this world.

MC

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Mike Compton

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Diane