Contemporary culture is hyper-focused on identity, often defining it based on gender or sexuality. God designed us to be far more than either our gender or our sexuality. For more on this particular subject, let me commend several books to you: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield, and Love Thy Body by Nancy Pearcey. These books convey a biblical worldview to the challenges of modern identity theories.
At a more basic, theological level, I want this meditation to remind us who we were created to be and who we have been redeemed too be. This is the Identity Value. This is the third value in the list I developed for my sons.
Identity Value – In a culture that wants to define us by our feelings, stereotypes, and ideologies, we must accept our divinely given identity.
The Identity Motto is: Remember who you are and whose you are.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. – Psalm 139:14-16
Remember who you are. Your identity comes from being made in the image of God, the imago Dei. God made male and female in his image. As his image bearers, God designed us to be rational, creative, moral, personal, and social beings. These characteristics cannot derive from evolutionary naturalism or an impersonal ultimate reality. These characteristics come from our Creator. Our identity is to be thinking, creating, acting, relating, and choosing beings.
Remember whose you are. In truth, we all belong to God because he made us in his image. Specifically, I remind my boys of this value because they belong to God through Jesus Christ. Believers not only belong to God through creation but also redemption. In redemption, God bought us by the blood of Jesus and made us his. Because we belong to him through redemption, our beliefs and behaviors should flow from our identity as redeemed followers of Jesus.
Belief and behavior do flow from identity which is why our culture has confiscated the terminology and ideology surrounding it. If we belief false things about ourselves, we will act in discord with who we really are. The false cultural notions of identity have irreversibly reshaped teens and young adults who bought into gender transition procedures and overtly sexualized identity practices.
Being shaped by biblical truth is part of our identity in Christ.
Meditation takeaways:
- Read Genesis 1-3 for a biblical perspective on what it means to be made in the imago Dei.
- Memorize and meditate on Psalm 139:14-16 about how we have been created. Read and study Psalm 139.
- Pick one of the books above and read deeply about the cultural trajectory of identity, gender, and sexuality.
- Recognize that our obligation to love those who have been warped by false notions of identity. It is not loving to ignore the truth (see Ephesians 4:15).
- Remind yourself regularly who you are (an image bearer of God through creation) and whose you are (beloved child of God through Jesus Christ).
