Who Do We Say We Are?
Have you ever met someone who thinks too highly of themselves? Of course you have. At some time or another, everyone thinks too highly of themselves. We live in a self-absorbed, screen-addicted, narcissistic age. And with all our time in front of screens, it’s a lot like a mirror. Staring into the internet abyss, eventually we see ourselves, like the proverbial Narcissus, staring back at us with a smirk. Obviously, we could all reduce our screen time, but that’s just one example of a larger problem. The bigger problem is: how do we communicate biblical encouragement about our identity when people tend to think they’re pretty amazing already? This is the plight we’re facing.
People in general are not suffering from vanishingly low self-esteem. If anything, people tend to think too highly of themselves. Now contrast that with ancient audiences. When Scripture speaks to its original audience, that’s an ancient people often terrified of divine judgment to the point of superstition and paranoia. They had little to no sense of “universal human rights” or the innate dignity of all people. Many of them worked themselves to the bone to earn salvation; many of them never quite realizing that they’d never be good enough to earn heaven. Often they were slaves, or just groveling subjects with no real chance of escaping poverty. They were constantly striving, and failing, at righteousness, hoping to please God, hoping to finally punch their ticket to heaven. So, when Scripture tells these people that salvation is by grace, not works, that Gospel message sits differently with them than it does with modern audiences.
We’re looking at a practical problem here when it comes to preaching the Gospel. We’re supposed to preach the Gospel and make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). But that Gospel is elusive and confusing to people who are deeply deluded about themselves, about sin, and about where they stand with God. Those identity issues make the Gospel as appealing as a time-share scam. Why would they enlist in such an inconvenient commitment like that? As far as they know, they aren’t bad enough to go to hell, so, they think, they’re doing fine without the Gospel.
Furthermore, we face the challenge of teaching Christians about their true identity in Christ when they have no real sense of how undeserving and spoiled they really are.
Pressing the point further, what happens when we take the timeless Gospel message and all the related affirmations about our identity, and we drop that ego-boosting love-bomb on people who are already borderline narcissists?
Now I know there are a lot of people who genuinely have low self-esteem. That person needs to hear all sorts of affirmation and encouragement, so he or she can see their dignity and worth through God’s eyes. But the average pew sitter doesn’t fit that profile. The average person has the opposite problem.
Self-esteem just might be at an all-time high. The average person sitting in pews today is convinced they’re pretty awesome, or at least they’re too shallow and distracted to think much about it. It’s not that we think we’re morally perfect. We just tend to have a high view of ourselves, by default. We’re swimming in so much humanitarian progress we don’t even realize we’re soaking in the notion of “equal human rights.” We’re used to getting participation ribbons. Many of us grew up as an “only child” – and it shows. We’re used to commercials telling us we deserve a vacation, a new car, and expensive jewelry. We’re used to indulging our appetites. We’re trained by microwaves, streaming, and DoorDash to abhor all manner of delayed gratification. We are walking appetites, self-serving and voracious, unless somewhere in the modern mix we make a conscious effort to be countercultural. Needless to say, even the people resisting those debasing trends still have to fight a mighty undertow to avoid getting dragged under.
The average pew sitter, and that’s many of us, might sometimes admit that he sins a little. But we’re convinced it’s no big deal. We don’t fear God’s wrath. We’re not worried about whether our lifestyle is making Jesus look bad or if we’re mangling His message to the world. Our lives are pretty easy too, with 3 meals a day, a warm bed, air conditioning, job opportunities, WiFi, clean water, more entertainment at our fingertips than the ancients could dream of. There’s no urgency about our faith when we’re this comfortable.
Comfort breeds complacency. Complacency breeds apathy. And before you know it, most of the Christian church is basically cellulite in the body of Christ. There’s no great fear of God’s wrath, no strong sense of Christian mission, no zeal for discipleship, and no real sense that we deserve hardship to sanctify us, penalties to punish us, or a divine rebuke to correct us. In the modern era, people tend to expect convenience, low maintenance, short lines, fast food, high life, short commutes, low commitment, a long lifespan, and we expect all those accommodations as if we somehow “deserve” it.
Now I’m not saying the average pew sitter believes they literally deserve all of that. But that doesn’t stop us from acting that way. We’re so used to having everything our way, and being the central attraction in this consumer society, we carry ourselves like a tiny sovereign. We are the almighty customer! Bow before me. I’ll return products, complain to the manager, review your business. In the public square, I can petition, vote, blog, podcast, and post videos to force myself on the world and make my demands known. I am customer; hear me Yelp.
The entitlement complex is real. It’s not just “the world” that thinks this way either. When Christians succumb to an entitled mindset, we tend to lose any sense of urgency about pleasing God, honoring Him, growing in righteousness, or showcasing our love for Him. Our servant heart and ministry mind are compromised because we’re too busy dwelling on ourselves.
When that entitled mindset frames our identity, it’s downright painful to stretch our imagination far enough back to remember that we don’t really “deserve” all that stuff. It’s a real creative effort to put ourselves in the same heart-posture as an ancient audience. Yet that’s the kind of exercise we need if we’re going to read God’s Word for what He’s saying, and not just for what we want to hear. If we want God’s answer to our identity questions, we need to have enough humility to let Him correct us in the process.
In this way, the average Christian can have an artificially inflated identity without even realizing it. As a result, our identity in Christ can look more decorative than functional, like our identity in Christ is just another commendation, as if it doesn’t make any practical difference. Sure, we talk about our “identity in Christ,” but is that meaningless Christianese for us, or do we really mean it?
On a good day, I can see these modern entitlement trends at work in me and fight against them. I can take a principled counter-cultural stand, setting my mind on things above, determined to see reality, the world, and myself through the lens of God’s Word. I can let Him define me, let my identity flow from how God has made (and remade) me, and how He sees me now.
But on a bad day, I’m just another pew sitter.
Now, Scripture has a lot to say about who we really are. Taking God at His Word, He defines us regardless of how we define ourselves. For one thing, we’re not the center of the universe, so to speak; He is (Col. 1:16-20). We’re not here for our own sake; we’re here for His sake (Eph. 2:9-10). God doesn’t need us for anything, because God has no needs (Acts 17:25). He doesn’t owe any of us one more day on this earth (Job 14:5). He works with us because it’s a gift to us just to be allowed to ‘help’ in His divine work. God doesn’t even need our worship; it’s us who need to worship God, since that’s our purpose in life (Isaiah 43:7). The very reason we’ve been created in the first place is ultimately to glorify God.
Compared to Bible-readers across most of world history, Modern society has spoiled us. And that’s a real disadvantage. When Scripture addresses modern audiences, it’s more like preaching to Babylon than preaching to the Exiles; we are that privileged and empowered. Our context has shifted. Our sense of self drifts with the current, gliding from “image bearer” to “graven image.” Nevertheless, we can still critique our own culture. We can still confess our wrongs. We can call upon Christ. Plead to the heavens. Submit our hearts and minds, and our very identity, to the words of Christ. We can humble ourselves enough to read Scripture and receive the life-giving correction we desperately need from our heavenly Father. The more we can internalize God’s perspective on things, the better chance we have of seeing reality as it really is. The better chance we have of seeing ourselves in the most correct light. In that divine light, we can finally see ourselves for who we really are. That is, we can see ourselves as God sees us (Acts 1:24). There is no truer sense of self.
So, as you read over this list of identity statements in Scripture, bear in mind the stark divide between what God has to say about us and what we tend to say about ourselves.
Who does God say that We are, apart from Christ?
Genesis 1:27 – man, bearing god’s image, is to “fill the earth” and rule over other creatures.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” [1]
Psalm 134:14 – God made us, and he doesn’t make junk.
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
John 8:34 – yet, in our sin, we have become slaves to sin.
“Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
Acts 17:25-26 – every person from every tribe, tongue, and nation is a “child” of God (his creation). and God steers history itself to reconcile people back to him from before time.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ ”
Romans 3:10-18 – left to ourselves, we are totally depraved, sinful in every part of our being.
“As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 3:23 – sin separates us from God and heaven
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All Scripture quotations are from the NIV unless otherwise noted.
Who does God say that we are, in Christ?
Genesis 1:27-28 – the imago dei still applies as christ redeems our humanity without eliminating it.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”
John 1:12 – we are God’s children (adopted in his family)
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (see also, 1 John 3:1-3)
John 15:15 – Jesus’s disciples (possibly us too) are Jesus’s “friends”
“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
Romans 8:14-17 – we are adopted out of slavery, to become children and heirs of God.
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – we are individual “temples” of God, bought/ransomed at a high price.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 – Christians are a “new creation,” so that the old/flesh/sin-nature is dead
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.” [ESV] (see also, Eph. 4:22-24).
Galatians 2:20 – my new life is so tied to Christ it’s not even “my” life, but Christ’s life in me.
“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.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 – by god’s grace alone, he works on us, working through us, to work for him.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:19 – Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians are fellow citizens in God’s kingdom with Jewish converts to Christianity
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, . . .”
Ephesians 2:20-22 – gentile and Jewish Christians are, together, god’s temple in progress.
“. . . built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Colossians 3:3-4 – we are “hidden” with Christ, so that our sin is cloaked in his life.
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
1 Peter 2:9-10 – believers are “chosen,” a “royal priesthood,” a “holy nation,” “God’s possession,” and the “people of God”
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
References:
[1] All Scripture quotations are from the NIV unless otherwise noted.
Recommended Resources:
The Great Book of Romans by Dr. Frank Turek (Mp4, Mp3, DVD Complete series, STUDENT & INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, COMPLETE Instructor Set)
Jesus, You and the Essentials of Christianity by Frank Turek (INSTRUCTOR Study Guide), (STUDENT Study Guide)
How to Interpret Your Bible by Dr. Frank Turek DVD Complete Series, INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, and STUDENT Study Guide
Why Can’t You Be Normal Just Like Me? by Frank Turek (DVD), (mp4 Download), and (Mp3)
Dr. John D. Ferrer is a speaker and content creator with Crossexamined. He’s also a graduate from the very first class of Crossexamined Instructors Academy. Having earned degrees from Southern Evangelical Seminary (MDiv) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (ThM, PhD), he’s now active in the pro-life community and in his home church in Pella Iowa. When he’s not helping his wife Hillary Ferrer with her ministry Mama Bear Apologetics, you can usually find John writing, researching, and teaching cultural apologetics.
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