Getting Your Identity Settled

I identify as a . . . who?

In a fascinating article entitled Freedom from Blackness posted Thursday, Jason Hill, a professor of ethics at DePaul University in Chicago made this provocative statement,

The fabricated black race should never have been born. It was confected out of false biological taxonomies by Europeans to justify a system of human physical bondage that, paradoxically, brought black people into the historical process. It was a cruel, artificial construct, and blacks have suffered enough under it. If racist whites owe blacks a reparative moral gesture, it is this—terminate your need to see blacks as blacks and refrain from establishing societal configurations that require them to prove their blackness. It is life-denying for blacks to resort to an appeal to their blackness as a legitimizing referent from which to both interpret and make sense of their humanity.

He goes on to say that the only remedy for racial conflict is to quit our habit of our self-identification on the basis of race. Past inequities need to be set aside—he uses the term forgiven—and people who see themselves as downtrodden because of their race need to commit race treason [his term, not mine]. He refers to Dickens for an explanation,

The virtuous race traitor believes, like Charles Dickens, that the relief of human misery lies not in social revolution but in a transformation of the individual heart.

Hill’s assertion coincides with a biblical truth that applies not only to race but to our culture-wide self-identification crises. Identity conflict is at the core of our present societal and spiritual problems and only God has the answer.

The human identity crisis is not new.

As Acts 9 opens, Saul of Tarsus seemed to be a man confident in his personal identity as he requested official letters from Jerusalem to travel to Damascus and imprison Christians there and extradite them back to Jerusalem to stand trial. However, while he was on his way, Jesus revealed that Saul was dealing with an identity crisis of his own.

As the light is shown down from heaven around Saul, Jesus asks a question of Saul and then makes a statement about him that both address identity.

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 9:4-5)

In His question, Jesus identifies Christians as Christ and Christ as Christians. To persecute believers is to persecute Christ himself. While this is a truly amazing biblical concept, it is the assertion to follow that I would like to explore.

In His statement about Paul, Jesus identifies Saul’s personal identity crisis. The goads of the Holy Spirit were already at work in Saul and Saul was pushing back against them. As the Holy Spirit draws a person toward Christ, He begins to open their eyes to their own sin and our inadequacy before God. The tendency of many like Saul is to resist the growing conviction of the Spirit–to fight back against the horrible reality of sin and its consequences.

But what a joy when a sinner finally stops resisting and surrenders to the convicting work of the Spirit! The scripture identifies that moment for Saul when he, though totally blind and helpless before the One He sought to destroy, utters these words.

So, he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

In those simple words, he acknowledges Jesus as His Lord and surrenders his stubborn will to Jesus.

Saul’s identity crisis was not over yet. Now blind, His friends led him by the hand to Damascus where he sat in the darkness for three days without eating or drinking. The zealot that was Saul had now himself been crucified, but there was nothing to rise in his place.

The beautiful thing about being a Christian is that in Christ we get an entirely new identity!

We are no longer defined by our sin, our selfishness, or even by the injustices we have endured. We do not concoct some lame new identity for ourselves but instead receive something infinitely better–the identity that Christ has chosen for us. We become new creations in Christ.

While Saul sat in the darkness Jesus appeared to Ananias. He gave Ananias a message to take to Saul.

Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children[c] of Israel. 16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake. (Acts 9:15)

Paul embraced his new identity and mission with whole-hearted enthusiasm. He never wavered from it. Many years later, as Saul (now Paul) neared his death he addressed Titus, his son in the faith with these self-defining words.

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior (Titus 1:1-3).

Before the end of his earthly journey, the new Saul of Tarsus had proclaimed the name of Jesus Christ to Jews and gentiles all around the shores of the Mediterranean. He addressed Kings and proconsuls and saw many believe. It is highly likely that Paul’s appeal to Caesar resulted in an audience before Nero himself. When Paul came to the end of his life, he entered eternity with the confidence that he had been faithful to his new identity and calling in Christ.

Getting our identity figured out is truly the path to peace, but it is not something that we choose for ourselves.

So, who are you?