IDENTITY.....WHO ARE WE?

Before moving on to anything else, I just wanted to talk a little bit about "Identity." When we are asked to share some identification for any reason, the first thing that most of us would do is to either pull out our Driver's License, or if we are in another country, pull out our passports. These items reveal who we are...as far as our name, address, date of birth and so on....but the one thing these documents do not reveal is our character. That can only be realized through relationship....getting to know someone on a personal level.


Today, there is so much identity theft going on. For those who have experienced this kind of situation, it is one that is very disturbing. To have someone using your ID is very discomforting. And a real hassel trying to get everything straightened out.

A  few years ago, I saw a program on TV of a young lady who had no identification. I think she had been adopted, and although I can't recall all the details, this young lady didn't even have a birth certificate and was not able to receive one because when she was born, her biological mother had never registered her birth. As a result, she wasn't even able to receive a social insurance card which would enable her to work. According to the system, it was like she had never been born. She had no idea who her biological parents were, whether or not she had other sibblings, and she had no idea of her exact year of birth. Really a strange and sad situation to be in.  At the time of the program, she was in the process of trying to receive a social insurance card so that she would be able to get a job. Here was a girl without any sense of real identity.....who she really was or where she came from.
Many of us, in the Body of Christ, experience these same things. We do not really know who we are. We are like orphans trying to find our place and purpose in this life.

Your Identity Defines Your Purpose In Life. As important as our identity is in regard to finances and possessions, there is an even more important identity based on who and what we are –rather than what we physically own. Here's an example. When a man is asked to describe himself, he will typically respond by saying what he does for his work; he's an engineer, or carpenter, or auto mechanic, etc. It's the first thing he talks about when he's around other men. On the other hand, a woman identifies herself by her relationships with her family and others; she's a mom, a daughter, a wife, a friend ... And that's usually a part of what she talks about with other women.

These intangible identities can be lost. It happens when the children leave home and that mom, in one sense, is no longer a mom, nurturing and raising her children –or- when her husband passes away and she's not a wife anymore. After a man is laid-off or retires, he's no longer recognized as being the engineer, or carpenter, or auto mechanic, or whatever... These identities become the very purpose of our lives. The Core of who we were, and their loss, many times can translate into having no reason to continue living.

As people born on this planet, we have two identities.....our physical identity and our spiritual identity. Both are very real and very necessary to have on this planet.

As we look to the spiritual side of our identity, there is one key piece of factual information that we need to have established within our hearts and minds. When Christ is invited into a person's heart, just like a caterpillar in a cacoon, a metamorphosis begins to take place....that caterpillar is being changed, just as you and I are being changed. When one day, all of a sudden, that caterpillar realizes that it is no longer a creature that crawls, but has now become a beautiful butterfly that flys with such grace and beauty. The caterpillar has become a "brand new" creation.  It is a new being with a new identity. That old being is gone and so is its identity. The caterpillar has become a "brand new" creation. If one were to ever try to find that old caterpillar that existed before, it is now impossible to do. It no longer exists. It's life is over...gone forever!


This is this very thing that happens to us as believers. 
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (New Living Translation)
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[a] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

New Creations......what has really changed? I didn't feel any different, so what actually happened to change my identity?

Paul tells us in Corinthians that the "OLD LIFE" is gone. What does that mean? It means that the person who stood condemned under the law has now become dead to sin. God no longer counts our sins against us, because Jesus took the punishment that was due to us, upon Himself. Every sin known to mankind, past-present and future, were nailed to the cross with Jesus. The requirement that had to be met in the law was now met and made complete in Christ Jesus. In reality, Jesus "BECAME" sin for us. (2 Cor 5:21)

The caterpillar had no part in the process of change...it just rested in the cacoon while it's creator did the work of change. Likewise, we have no part in our change, but just to rest in Jesus. He is the one who does all the work...He will complete the process. (Philippians 1:6)

The very moment that we invite Jesus into our hearts, accepting and acknowledging the finished work of the cross, at that very moment is when we break out of our cacoon.  At that moment, NO SIN is ever counted against us again.  Jesus Christ PAID IN FULL the price for redemption...for our freedom. The new has come....this is describing a "brand new person'....one who is no longer under the law, and one who is now in good standing with God....made righteous IN HIM.  It was at that moment when God put His own Son's righteousness on us. It was at that moment we were given brand new identities.  We are now "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus."

The old person, with it's old identity is completely and absolutely gone. Even though this complete change is an instanteous one, it takes time for the believer in Christ to learn about it and to begin living in this new identity. Our old identity was very dependent on how our attitudes and our actions measured up to God's standard of good and bad....but, our new identity is not based on "US." Our new identity is fully and completely based only "ON HIM" through His grace and acceptance because of what HE (JESUS) HAS DONE (Eph 2:8-9), and no longer on anything we could ever possibly do. Our old identity is dead, but our new identity IN HIM IS ETERNAL!