A New Identity

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II Corinthians 5:16-21 NIV)

There is a tendency in our world to define ourselves by our troubles or deficiencies.  “I am an alcoholic.” Or drug addict.  “I am a cancer survivor.”  “I am a sexual assault victim.”  “I am OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).” Or ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). I especially see this tendency among students, who often view themselves through the lenses of their struggles. As Paul rightly surmises, this is a very worldly point of view that increasingly is becoming normalized among Christians.

As we approach the celebration of Jesus’ moving into our neighborhood, it is good to remind ourselves of the reason He came. He didn’t come to just hang out with us, to make us feel special because someone like Him wanted to associate with people like us.  He didn’t come in an attempt to boost our self-esteem.  And He surely didn’t come to reinforce the idea that we are who we are and we can never change.  Or, as one student put it, we just have to be resigned to “wrestle with our demons.”  No. He came to transform us into new people, to give us full lives (John 10:10). 

But to hear many talk, this isn’t reality.  Rather, they imply we just need to accept we are who we are and deal with it the best we can.  Then the question must be asked, what difference is Jesus to make?  Is He there just to comfort us in our pain and suffering?  Is He merely a heavenly chaplain?  Is He powerless to bring about change within us or in our circumstances?  

From my reading of the Scriptures, this is not the picture of Jesus that I see, and from my own experience, this is not who He is.  What I see and what I’ve experienced is the Jesus that Paul describes to the Corinthians.  He takes people bogged down in sin and shame, overwhelmed by life, unsatisfied and unfulfilled, without meaning, and transforms them into new people, set free and living with a new joy and purpose.  

The reality is sin separates us from God and robs of us the joy He intended for us.  Unlike what the world tells us, this is not normal from the viewpoint of the Lord.  It is an aberration for which He came to correct.  To be blunt, it is a lie from the deepest regions of Hell that there is no hope for us in our current state, which we just have to accept our lives the way they are.  “NO!” comes the cry from the heavenly realms.  There is hope and it is Jesus.  He came that we might be reconciled with God and be transformed into the people He created us to be.  

Today, remember and cling to the hope there is in Jesus. Your identity is found in Him. He does not count your sin against you or define you by it, and neither should you.   

© Jim Musser 2016