Christ, Christ, Christself

             So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27) 

 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

 

 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  (Galatians 3:27-29)

 

          Once upon a time – not so long ago, pronouns having gender was basically defined in terms of sexual characteristics. If you appeared to be like a being produced eggs, you were female, and the appropriate pronouns were she, her, herself. If you appeared to be like a being that produced sperm, you were a male, with appropriate pronouns. Things that didn’t look like something that produced eggs or sperm was either considered neutral or granted gender based on preferences within those three options, which is why ships have tended to be female. If, during that not so long ago time – if you claimed to be something you clearly were not (e.g. God, Napoleon, a tree, or a doll) you were corrected, and if you persisted, you were treated for mental illness.

          Then, humanity continued down its trail into insanity. The drive to become “like the Most High” infected society to the extent that we are now being told – and legally required in some cases – to use whatever pronouns any individual tells us to for that individual. Here’s a list I found of some of the options: Pronoun/List | Ezgender Wiki | Fandom.

          So, while we continue to refer to our dogs as boys and girls, we now may have to refer to a boy or girl as barks and not consider what barks are doing to barkselves. My wanting to be a dog when I was a child ended quickly. It was OK to have a leash fastened around my wrist, but when it came time to eat dog biscuits, I decided the fun was over. I have to wonder what barks would think if I told barks to “Sit. Stay” and left them with that command for an hour or two. Or if I crowded their space and effectively towered over them – being dominant. Granted, perhaps the idea is only that we should talk about our actual dogs using those pronouns, but I asked Grace, and she doesn’t care if I call her a her. “Bark” doesn’t refer to her, it refers to a sound she makes.

          What does all this have to do with Christianity or Christian thinking? Most of the pronouns discussed are affectations. When someone declares barkselves to be dogs, they don’t become dogs. They don’t act like dogs. Nothing about them changes. When a person becomes Christian, something does happen. We are given spiritual life. Our identity is no longer male or female, but become one with other Christians and united with Christ. The Son of God sends His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. Following the pronoun trend, we should become either He, Him, Himself, Christ, Christ, Christself, or perhaps Son, Son, Sonself.

          Two questions come to mind with this. Assuming that we could get used to using these new pronouns – what would the reaction be on the part of those who generally support all these pronouns? More importantly, how would we respond? This is difficult, because I have an answer to the second question. For years, I refused to wear a cross or put a Christian bumper sticker on my car because I didn’t want to bring God shame by my less than perfect behavior being associated with Him. I didn’t want anyone to say, “Bad Christian” the way I would be tempted to say, “Bad dog!” to the person who identifies barkself as a dog but doesn’t remain in a sit, stay for as long as I command bark to.

          But that makes me wonder. If I started using Christ, Christ, and Christself as my pronouns, how would my thinking and behavior change to reflect the lofty identity I am assuming? While some might scream about our arrogance, in identifying ourselves (or Christselves) with Christ, there is a truth to the identity that is not present in many of the others and the reminder might build our faith or cause us to be more cautious about our behavior so that we don’t shame Him or ourselves.