Last week I shared some thoughts on Bruce Jenner’s confusion over his gender identity. When watching the interview I kept wondering, how could a person be confused about their gender when the defining characteristics seem so clear?
As I was reflecting on the interview I sensed the Spirit asking me, “Mike, although you may be certain of your gender identity, in what ways do you find yourself confused about your spiritual identity? In what ways do you deny who God created you to be in order to impress or fulfill the expectations of others?” In short, in what ways are you living a lie?
I felt convicted; the Spirit was right. I also find myself feeling confused over my spiritual identity. See, although Jenner’s struggle is that he is trying to become someone who he is not, my struggle is becoming someone who I am. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he/she is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”
So according to this verse, even though it sometimes feels like it, I am no longer bound to my sin nature; I am now a saint who can choose to walk in the Spirit. Because I am secure in Christ, I need not live in fear. Because I am accepted in Christ, I need not strive to win the approval of others. And because I am significant in that I have been created in Christ Jesus to do the good works which he prepared in advance for me to do, I need not try to enhance my value to society through performance or productivity.
Before we look down on Jenner, we must admit that the ways in which we live a deceptive life or fail to live as a new creation are many. We often consider our occasional or besetting sins less offensive to God than the sins other people commit.
For example, having sex before or outside of marriage is much more acceptable than homosexuality or being transgender, yet we consider it a much worse sin than self righteousness or gossip. Or working at the grocery store on Sunday is more acceptable for a student than it would be for a farmer to harvest his crops. Sometimes we pretend that we are pretty good people, yet John reminds us, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Another way we live in spiritual confusion is the refusal to accept our talents, our personality and our giftedness. Rather than enjoying how God hard wired us in these unique areas, we try to be like someone else. We often wish we had someone else’s gifts. By comparing ourselves to others, we often reduce ourselves to being “just average” disciples in God’s kingdom.
Again, if I am honest with myself, the list of ways in which I live a lie are many. The truth is, apart from appropriating my new life in Christ, I am often not the person you think I am. And being aware of my own deceptive ways, I also realize that often times you’re not the person you’re pretending to be. May it not be so with you and me.
So hear the good news about our identity! By faith in Christ God loves you and me and is pleased with us and God will complete the good work of transforming us into the sons and daughters he saved us to be. And may we not forget or be confused, “You and I have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us” (Galatians 2:20).
From a blood bought, Spirit empowered, adopted son of God,
Mike Altena