Identity. It is one of the most crucial and shaping aspects of everyone’s life. At least once in our lives, this question crosses our minds, “who am I?” This one question is more difficult to answer than asked. Many factors contribute to a person’s identity – name, region, language, culture, nationality, religious traditions, gender, family, community, economic status, profession, education, and many more. Our identity-consciousness plays a vital role in our lives because it defines our values, behaviour, responsibilities, beliefs, and every other aspect of life. It is something that defines our status and purpose in life as well. It helps us to form an image of how we want the world to see and recognize us.
Throughout history, we can notice that many people have been suppressed by those who defined themselves to be eligible and worthy to enjoy the rights and privileges. They did it at the cost of exercising oppressive power and dominion over the weaker ones. After a long time of such suppression, the oppressed ones began to fight to restore their identity and achieved freedom at last. However, over time, the liberated ones turned out to be the oppressive rulers taking the place of the ones from whom they have been liberated. This repeats again and again. We can see this identity struggle everywhere from individual to communal levels. In every era, we encounter different challenges that question our identity. It may be colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, consumerism, digitalization, gender injustice, nationalism, religious intolerance, etc. Many movements, revolts, and wars have taken place in the past, continuing in the present, and will continue to happen in the future if the circumstances do not change.
Let us look into Bible about what it has to speak to this serious identity struggle. Right in the beginning, in the creation narrative, the identity of human beings is defined as the Image of God. It is both the individual and the collective identity. This identity is connected with their purpose to be the partners of God in ruling His creation. Later in the story, their vocation is also defined. One thing is clear, that God is the giver of the identity i.e., God is the source of human identity. But in the same story, we can also see how humans failed to keep this identity – purpose and vocation. They sought to achieve a different status – to overreach the space of God and become divine beings themselves. Such temptation was a deception. It was an attempt of failure that disturbed their present identity. Though their identity has been associated with a curse, now, God has not withdrawn the status that He gave them. Continuing in the narrative of Genesis, when we encounter the story of Abraham and the other ancestors, God elected them and made a covenant with them. Abraham believed in God and God counted his response of faith as righteousness (Gen. 15:6; Note this theme, we will return to it shortly). Now the identity of the ancestors, later on, is defined by this covenant. Again, it is God who is the source of the identity because He is the One who has initiated the covenantal partnership and the people responded by faith.
Later in the story of the exodus, God liberated the Hebrews from the oppressive and cruel powers of Pharaoh. He responded to their loss of identity by demonstrating His powerful deeds that overthrew the lord of the darkness who claimed to be the sole authority over his subjects. Soon after their liberation, God entered into a covenantal partnership with them and made them His priestly kingdom and a holy nation (Exod. 19:6). Again, God gave these nobodies an identity. They are supposed to keep their identity by continuing their fidelity to the one with whom they have agreed to enter into a covenantal partnership. As long as the covenant remains, their identity remains as the people of God. But they failed to do so, just as Adam and Eve in the Garden. They overlooked the identity that God has given them and sought to make themselves great. The result is their identity got spoiled.
Skipping all other things let us come to the teachings of Paul in the New Testament, especially in Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians. In Galatians 3:27-28, we can notice that all those who are baptized into Christ have clothed themselves with Christ. That is, we are no longer ourselves but we are defined by Christ. And now, in Christ, there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for all are one in Christ sharing in the same covenantal promises that God has made with Abraham. Does this mean that when we are clothed in Christ, we lose our nationality, gender roles and other responsibilities which are part of our identity in the world? No. But they are no longer the primary factors that define our identity. Our primary and foremost identity is in Christ. All the rest of the factors become embedded in this primary identity i.e., our race, gender, social roles – everything – gets defined by our identity in Christ.
We all know that we are saved by grace through faith that we may not boast of our works (Eph. 2:8). We are also justified because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Of course, yes. But this faith is not merely what happens in our hearts. It is not something that is only related to what we believe. What we believe matters to get saved but the aspect of faith has much more than that. Faith is not merely about what but about whom. Indeed, we do not disagree that we have faith in Jesus Christ – the person. Yet it is more than just accepting the fact that we are sinners and He is the only Saviour. Let us get it right. The word faith is relative. Whether the Hebrew word Emunah or the Greek word Pistis, the biblical aspect of faith has something to do with the aspect of faithfulness also. Faithfulness and faith, reliability and reliance, trustworthiness and trust, fidelity and loyalty – all of them – are so strongly related. Faith in God, actually, is the response to the faithfulness of God. It is counting God as trustworthy and reliable. And it is not a response as looking at God’s faithfulness and praising Him for that. Rather, it is responding to faithfulness by agreeing to be faithful to Him. It is a matter of loyalty and fidelity. Let me put it in one sentence. Faith in Jesus Christ is actually about responding to His trustworthiness by promising our trust, fidelity, loyalty, allegiance and faithfulness to Him and Him alone. It is a moment when we agree to enter into a covenantal relationship with Him. And when we do so, through salvation and justification, we are defined by our faith in Christ and it means that our allegiance to Christ is the determinant of our identity. This allegiance is more active than passive. We no longer find our identity in ourselves but our fidelity to Christ. When Christ becomes our identity, we become the new creation – the whole new beings – through the work of the Holy Spirit. Then all our purpose and vocation is defined by the factor of our faith in Christ.
When we realize this, all the other identity struggles can be settled down. We don’t claim to be superior to others. We do not regard our race, culture, language, vocation, responsibilities, or anything as superior or inferior to others. This restores society. This brings unity within the Church and the world. Our identity is a gracious gift of God. Let us be One in Christ.
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