For the last several posts we’ve been exploring the idea of identity. Click here for Identity 1 and here for Identity 2 if you missed them or would like a refresher. The word “identity” in today’s culture is fraught with revision and altered connotations. For our purposes I’d like to define my meaning of the word.

For me, identity is the sense of who we are at the very center of our selves. Our clearest sense of truth. As a Christian, I’ve mentioned that Christ is at my center. But it hasn’t always been this way. For many of my post high school years I pushed Jesus to the side, ignored and even denied Him. He didn’t leave me, for I’d already chosen Him and entered into the mystery of His death and resurrection through baptism, but He wasn’t at my core.

I have friends that seem never to have had the years of doubt and denial I experienced. They’ve always had a strong, Christ-centered identity. But, likely, they had seasons of doubt as I did, I just didn’t know them then or know them well enough to notice. I’ve found we are a bit self-centered when we’re not Christ-centered.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here!

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

All people, no matter how filled with God their lives may be from their earliest memories, must actively choose to fuse their identities with God’s –to become wholly wrapped in Christ’s grace and redemption–and become a new being with a new heart. We must die in the symbolic death of baptism (as mentioned earlier) and be raised new in the salvation accessible through the shed blood of Jesus’ death on the cross.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

In this way our identities switch from old to new. It’s like crossing a bridge. And the crossing can expose us to new vistas and new struggles. Identifying with Christ isn’t an open road to a life of ease. No, struggles and wilderness seasons come to all. The difference is that when our identity is in Christ, we have the benefit of His presence through the trials–the presence of the one who has overcome them already. Those without Him must navigate difficulties alone and blind.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

Personally, I’ve enjoyed the wisdom and comfort gained from abiding in Jesus. It has given me courage and joy. Much different from the times I tried to forge ahead on my own, in my limited knowledge and blindness.

So how does one cross the bridge? Become new?

I’m not an expert guide in this journey, to be sure. Certainly, many are more accomplished than myself. However, in the last several years, I’ve somehow made it to the other side and managed to stay there–mostly. I think it’s a human trait, a weakness of the flesh, that I (we) must remain vigilant against. Perhaps this is just me, but somehow, I don’t believe so.

One way to stay on the “new” side of the bridge is to embrace my God-given purpose. More about that in the next post.

In the meantime, I encourage you first, to choose an identity in Christ Jesus. Second, strive to cross the bridge from old to new. Next, month, I’ll meet you here again and we’ll begin to explore the idea of purpose.

Featured image photo credit: Sierra Burtis

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