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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! (II Corinthians 5:16-17) 

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. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:27-29) 

Other translations say that those who are in Christ are new creations. Think about this for a few minutes.  If you join the military, you go through some sort of basic training. You are separated from everyone you know. You are stripped of your individuality – same haircuts, same food, same bedroom (barracks) and same drill instructor screaming at you and telling you that you’re nothing. The same concept is used by cults and militia, though often not quite so aggressively. If you ever watched “What Not To Wear,” the show used the same formula. They made fun of the way the person dressed, gave rules about clothes, sent the person off to shop for herself, and intervened when the person failed to follow the rules or got too discouraged.

This is not an unusual process. It’s all about identity. When you become a Christian, you’re no longer a Jew, nor a Gentile. You’re a Christian. You aren’t rich, or poor. You’re a Christian. You’re not a slave, and you’re not a freeman. You’re a Christian. You’re neither male, nor female. You are a Christian. This doesn’t mean that those others cease to exist, but they do cease to be the basis on which you make decisions or relate to others.

One of the complaints I hear in society is that we’re divided. People say that we need to come together. Those same folks are the ones who talk about validating people in their identities. It seems like a nice thing to do. But here’s the problem. Most people are seeking support for an identity that does them more harm than good. Some want to be able to rely on someone/everyone to build them up in a way that feeds their identity, and if anyone declines to build them up, that person is rejected, abused, and/or hated. It's called codependency.

Those who seek their identities in anything or anyone else but Christ deserve pity and guidance/correction, and we all do it. As I think about my own identity in Christ, I feel my defenses go up. I’m not that…or that… It would be nice to be those things, but I can’t live up to the standards or don’t want to live up to them. The price is too high, or I’m a failure. It’s something I need to continue to work on, and so do you. If we truly based our identities in Him, none of the other identities wouldn’t matter, and we would never seek to validate anyone in any other. Instead, we would seek to free them from those idols.

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