gracetidings:with dr doug mamvura
Most people — including believers — suffer from a tremendous identity crisis.
We all have a unique and special identity. Your identity is your personhood and it is who or what you believe you are as an individual. Your identity is connected to your purpose and so if you are confused about your identity, you will miss your opportunities.
“The love of Christ compels us because we know that One died for all, so all have died. Christ died for all so that those who live would not continue to live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised from the dead. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:14 -17).
It is very important to realise that we should not know anyone after the flesh as stated by Apostle Paul in the above-quoted scripture. You and I as “new creation” should not be known according to flesh. You are a spirit and you have a soul and live in a body. Your body is not you.
Our flesh identifies us with Adam. However, as believers, we now need to know ourselves after Christ. All of us have suffered in Adam from an identity crisis.
We have had a fallen identity, some of us have an imposed identity, some have a fake identity while others have had their identity stolen. Your identity is shaped by your identifications. What or who we identify with has an effect on our identity.
There are three major dominant identities. We all have an identification with them. Some we are able to overcome, but others we just have to manage.
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The first one is the one that comes from genetic identity. We get this from our parents. There are people who are very tall and this comes from their genetic identity. Some are fat or ugly and you just have to look at their parents and then understand why they are in that state. There is nothing that one can do about this state. One just has to accept the way they are. You can’t make yourself tall or short. This is about your genetics.
On the other hand, we all have our identity from Adam which is associated with the fact that we were all born sinners. We are sinners not because we commit sin. We commit sin because we are sinners from birth because of the fall in the garden. All the negative identities we see today in man such as corruption, prostitution, drunkenness, murder come as a result of having been conceived in sin because of Adam. This is why we should never condemn people who haven’t received Christ. We should show them God’s love so that they are able to turn away from their wicked ways. It is the goodness of God that lead man to repentance, not intimidation (Romans 2:4).
The third and most important identity is the one we have in Christ. We only get this identity the moment we are born again when we “become a new creation”.
This is the one every human being should yearn for. The beauty about it is that you don’t have to do anything for you to receive it except to accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour through faith and believe that God raised Him from the dead. You automatically receive His identity of righteousness. His Word says that “He became sin so we could become the righteousness of God”. There is that divine exchange that takes place the moment you are born again. This identity makes you a supernatural human being because as Christ is so are you in this world (1 John 4:17). It gives you victory over all challenges that you will face in life because whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world (1 John 5:4). You become more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37). It is very sad that most believers are not aware of their true identity in Christ. They live like beggars when they are supposed to live like kings because the Bible makes it very clear that “those who receive the abundance of grace and gift of righteousness, shall reign as kings” in this life (Romans 5:17).
So how do you discover your identity? Your identity as a believer is discovered through God’s Word. We discover who we are in our Creator God through His Word and fellowshipping with Him. No man can reveal Jesus to us except through scriptures.
Before one explores how scriptures reveals our identity to us, it is important to look at our Lord Jesus Christ and how He discovered who He was. Did you know that Jesus had to discover who He was just like you and I are supposed to? We see Jesus’ parents missing Him after having gone for a Passover festival to Jerusalem. When His mother asked Him why He had remained behind, He answered her: “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” The Bible then says: “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and all people” (Luke 2:52). This shows that though He was God, He went through the natural growth process just like human beings because He had to identify with us.
In Hebrews 10:7, we find Him being quoted: Look I have come to do your will, O God, as is written about me in the scriptures.” In John 5:39-40, Jesus says: “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” Finally, in Luke 24:27, we hear: “Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
The above-quoted scriptures confirm that Jesus discovered His identity through the scriptures. You and I are not exceptions. In Colossians 1:27, the Bible says: “To the God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you the hope of glory.” So, it is through the Scriptures that we get to know that Christ is in us and that is the hope of glory. Paul speaks about how it pleased God to reveal Jesus to him. We also see how John the Baptist in John 1:19, when he was responding to the question who he was saying “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord”, which is a quote from Isaiah 40:3. He could have answered that I am the son of a Priest or the son of Elizabeth who is cousin to Mary the mother of Jesus. Instead, he knew his identity through the scriptures. My question to you is: Do you know who you are? What is your purpose? Where purpose is not known abuse is inevitable. You can never use golf clubs to play tennis.
Some of us are not very clear about their identity in Christ. I have often heard people confessing false humility saying “I am a sinner saved by grace. Or my righteousness is like filthy rags.” I am sorry to say this is nonsense. You are a new creation, a brand new person and everything about you is new (2 Corinthians 5:17). To say your righteousness is like filthy rags, is mockery of what Jesus did for you because you now have His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5: 21), so are you saying Jesus’ righteousness is like filthy rags?
Some of us will die like mere man (Psalms 82:7) because we don’t know our true identity in Christ. God has given us “dominion over the works of His hands and has put all things under our feet” (Psalm 8:6) and yet how many of us are experiencing that victory? Know who you are. l Dr Doug Mamvura is a graduate of Charis Bible School. Feedback: [email protected] or Twitter @dougmamvura
