I Rest in Christ, Part 2: Who Am I?

In 1Corinthians 13:11 Paul writes, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”  When we are young children, we are mostly not capable of independent thought.  We accept what mom and dad tell us as truth and go with it.  But as we grow, we learn to think and reason independently; that is what adolescence is all about.  One of the things that develops in those years is the sense of identity as we begin to diverge and separate from our parents.  To be fair, for thousands of years philosophers have been trying to answer the question, “Who am I?”  The modern consensus of opinion is that it is an unanswerable question, because mostly such questions are based on worldly values.

On the contrary, for those of us who are believers it is a very answerable question.  We have a Book that is far beyond the greatest of philosophers in its wisdom and the Author of that book answers that question.  In Zephaniah 3:17 He says, “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing.”  Heed what it says, because if the Creator of everything visible and invisible takes great delight in us there must be a profound reason.  Further,

“You are no longer darkness, but light in my Son. Walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8). You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill (Matthew 5:14). I have called you (2 Peter 1:3). I have chosen you (Revelation 17:14). You are now a saint, a servant, a steward, and a soldier (Romans 1:7; Acts 26:16; 1 Peter 4:10; 2 Timothy 2:3). You are a witness and a worker (Acts 1:8; Ephesians 2:10). Through Jesus you are victorious (1 Corinthians 15:57). You have a glorious future (Romans 8:18). You are a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20). You are an ambassador for my Son (2 Corinthians 5:20)."  (John Rinehard, “What God Thinks About You.”)

If we look at this list of attributes, we realize they have a connecting link.  They all describe a person whose focus is on God.  In the Garden of Eden God created two trees:  The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life.  They represent two ways of interacting with the world and show us that in interacting with the things that come our way we always have a choice.  Because of our sin nature we generally interact with the world through our flesh, that is, we tend to operate out of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  By this I mean we think we know the answer to everything that comes our way.  We depend on our own knowledge and strength and resources.  We don’t trust God to provide the answers.

On the other hand the person who operates out of The Tree of Life is like the person described in the above quote.  That person has chosen to accept Yeshua as his Savior and has chosen to allow God to direct his life.  Please understand those are two different things.  If a person accepts Yeshua as his Savior does he have eternal life?  Yes.  Does he have many rewards at the Bema seat Judgement?  No.  But the person who allows God to direct his life and guide him in decision making is operating out of the Tree of Life.  That person has responded to the call of God and lives his life in such a way that others recognize it.

If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, try to understand how unique and special that is.  Except for material things that really don’t matter the world today isn’t much different than it has been for thousands of years.  All the ways humankind has thought about God still exist today.  The Greek concept of the gods was that they were aloof, disinterested with mankind, and more interested with their own needs.  The Deists thinks of God as distant and uninvolved, and that while He may have once done some good work here on earth, He is now doing the same thing on some other distant planet.  The Jewish concept of God is closer to the truth as they saw God as involved and concerned with the future of mankind.  But the faith that Jesus introduced took worship of God to a new and unique level.  Jesus taught that God was Father.  He taught that God loves, cares, nurtures, succors, and supplies everything we need.

Consider Psalm 103.               8The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

So God is intimately involved in our lives, and even more than that, He is our Father!  We are His son or daughter, and co-heir with Christ of all the blessings God has for us.  Ephesians 1:3-14 describes who we are in Christ.  We are blessed with every spiritual blessing.  We are chosen, adopted, forgiven, lavished with grace and mercy, and unconditionally loved.  We have the promise of spending eternity with God.  And none of this, none of this, is dependent on what we do.  Finally, let’s look at one other thing.

Psalm 8 says that we are the apex, the highest, of God’s creation, made to be just a little lower than angels.  And, as it says in Genesis 1:27, like nothing else in all of creation we are made in God’s image.  All of the rest of creation has been put under our care.  That means we are God’s managers, or more appropriately, His ambassadors, to the rest of the world.  We are here to reflect God’s glory.

All of this means we are not an accident; we are here on purpose.  Each of us was placed here on earth to show the world what God is like.  We are moral, honorable, loving children of God.  We love the un-loveable, even love and bless our enemies.  When we consider such things it should give our life new direction.  Considering that God created us to reflect his glory, how does that direct the way we interact with the people we encounter.  Do we ignore and pass by?  Do we rebuke, judge, and correct?  Do we love, accept, and forgive?

These are things we must consider in our lives.