“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1
The simple question regarding what you consider to be your identity should bring home this truth: that you are not an isolated individual, for each person possesses many and diverse roles shaped by the circumstances of birth (including race), nurture (including educational and other opportunities), society and how it defines status, and how one earns a living, the list goes on. Thus, the common experience of man as a social being is that a single individual may start out as a son, he may become a brother in his immediate family; or a cousin, an uncle, a grandfather, or a great uncle in his extended family. He may be a trusted friend in his social circle. In his profession, he may be a work colleague, a partner in business, among many other relational professional identities.
While the place one occupies – the role one plays in one’s community or what one achieves in education, one’s profession or other attainment – is often erroneously conflated with one’s identity, it is important that the believer in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, recognise that the only identity that should count (and on which they must place reliance) is what is bestowed by a generous and loving God: that one is the Child of the Living God.
That the identity as a child of God supersedes all the other identities a person may have, is grounded in this pivotal reality: it is what goes to the root of a person’s very being, because it is life itself.
Is that how you see yourself?
Do you consider your identity as a child of God your defining identity that undergirds all you think and do, the way you relate to people, carry out your duties, earn a living, and respond to the issues of life?
I have little doubt that if you consider yourself a Christian, your first answer is likely to be ‘of course’. However, you may have to do some introspection to determine whether you indeed live in that reality, for it is only then that you will have a proper perspective regarding what pertains to that identity: what should engage your energies, dictate your interests, and make you significant in the Kingdom of God into which you have been ushered.
This is the underlying truth: if you have believed in the death of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice made on your behalf, and embraced Him both as your Lord, and Saviour, scripture makes it clear that there is no question regarding your new identity as a child of God: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1: 12). You have been given an inheritance as a child of God, along with Jesus Christ: “and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…”(Romans 8:17a).
Scripture provides the assurance that you need have no fear of God’s judgment in wrath, for, “…having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him”. (Romans 5:9). This is because you are no longer under the doomed dominion of Satan. You are now under the dominion and protection of God Himself: “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).
In God’s Kingdom, you belong: “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). With that right you share in the responsibility to invite others to share in God’s kingdom, by informing them of the amazing gift of God: that through Jesus Christ, He has chosen to forgive the sins of mankind and to reconcile people who have been separated from the Holy God, as His children
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation… – 2 Corinthians 5:18
All these lofty titles and descriptions were achieved by God Himself through Jesus Christ for you because He has embraced you as His child.
Although you did not, and could not earn that identity, it is your responsibility to embrace it, and make it your goal to live in that reality. Embracing your identity as a child of God, should mean that your social position (or lack of it), your professional attainments, and every attendant accolade or financial reward (or lack thereof), should not define who you are. They should rather be the vehicle by which you glorify God; the means by which you live a life pleasing to Him, and what enables you to do your part in advancing the plans and purposes of His Kingdom.
Until lately, I had assumed that my first identity was as a Christian. I have; however, been forced to admit that my professional life, and its accompanying status, had always been the underlying identity by which I had operated.
It is certainly by the mercies of God that I have received enlightenment, and am now beginning to understand that our professions, position in society, and relational identities, are things of the world which we have received, and that the more we have, the greater is the responsibility to use it to carry out the business of the King.
The transience of positions, statuses, and relational identities should dictate that we seek what truly endures.
If in your quest for significance (and we all pursue it), your focus is not on the things that please God, then you have got it all wrong, and it is time to reassess and to change course, in order to commit yourself to what your identity as a child of God should produce, and the difference it should make to others in the community in which you have been placed to do life.
Perhaps in your self-reflection, you should consider the lives of persons who were once, in a bygone age or time, considered to be of note – rich, or powerful persons whose identities were not defined by their commitment to the things of God. Consider if their assumed, professed, or touted significance was grounded in reality, or was as fleeting as the acclaim they enjoyed, and on which sadly, they anchored their lives.
I have done so, and I have reached the conclusion that a life which is not anchored on the identity God has bestowed upon us – calling us His own children – is mere noise, shadows produced by mirror images not grounded in reality. They have no lasting value.
I have in consequence, decided to live wisely by embracing my identity as a child of God and to live accordingly.
That will require me to assume all the responsibilities attendant to my identity as a child of God, even as I receive all the benefits so freely given to me… just because.
Is Child of God your new name? If it is, it is time to self describe and to live in that reality.
