“Getting A Clue: Who Am I?”
Gen. 1:26-31 & 2:4-7, 18-25; Col 1:15-20
I cannot overestimate the importance of image – especially in today’s culture. People wander from relationship to relationship, pursuit to pursuit, project to project, social group to social group, social media to social media – all because they are not sure who, at core, they are. And our young people are hit with a daily barrage of messages and brands claiming to tell them who they are; they are constantly influenced and tempted by peers, family, social media, and romantic partners and fantasies. Never has it been more difficult for a young people to discover their identity, and therefore their true value and worth. Dr. Joyce Brothers hit the nail on the head years ago when she stated: “An individual’s self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behavior: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change, the choice of friends, mates, and careers. It’s no exaggeration to say that a strong positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.”
It’s time for the church to speak up loudly and clearly, for we get the clues to our image from God’s Word. When we look at the creation accounts in Genesis, we discover the first clue to our identity: WE HAVE A DIGNITY TO CLAIM. (Gen. 1:26-27) “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Our dignity is BASED ON OUR ORIGIN. We have a chip of God in us! (1) Humans are so special that God created us in His image. Our identity is not found in our physical looks, our sexuality, our popularity, our social status, our family of origin, our job or position, our talents, our activities, our accomplishments, our failures, our peer group, the size of our home, the amount of our bank account. Our identity is based on our origin as creations of God. As the late D. Ivan Dykstra, of Hope College, put it, “Identity is … not a matter of psychology, it’s a matter of theology.” (2)
Since our identity is based on our origin as a creation of God, OUR DIGNITY DOES NOT REST ON OUR QUALITIES BUT ON GOD’S. Each of us is valued by God. That’s why God sacrificed His only Son to redeem and heal us! As The Message translates Galatians 5:25-26: “That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives.”
We learn, also, that our dignity is BASED ON GOD’S OWNERSHIP. Remember when the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes? Jesus asked for a small coin and said, “Whose portrait is this, and whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” If the money bears Caesar’s image and therefore belongs to Caesar, then SINCE WE BEAR GOD’S IMAGE, WE BELONG TO HIM. I was born of, created by my parents– I belonged to them. We are created by God – we belong to Him. Henri Nouwen drives home the importance of our origin and ownership: “The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this. Every time you feel hurt, offended or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: ‘These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity and held safe in an everlasting embrace.” (3)
As the Heidelberg Catechism so eloquently paints it: “I am not my own, but belong - body and soul, in life and in death - to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has also set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.” This is where our identity starts. You have a dignity to claim.
The second clue to our identity WE HAVE A DESIGN TO FOLLOW. (Gen. 2:7, 21-22) “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being… So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS. Like birds instinctively heading south for the winter, like a flower or tree leaning towards the sun, humans yearn for God – even if they are not aware of it. In his book, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis wrote that there developed within him a growing awareness that the things he once found deeply satisfying only left him craving for more. He concluded that nothing in this world could ever give him lasting satisfaction and that therefore he must have been created for another world.(4) That other world was his relationship with God through Jesus Christ. WE WERE CREATED TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
I have here a vacuum cleaner. It doesn’t work. Right now it’s useless; it can’t do what it’s created to do; it can’t clean up anything. If I plug it in, however, it works as it is intended to and sucks up the dirt and dust. Apart from our relationship with God we, too, cannot do what we are intended to do – we cannot be who we are created to be. Apart from God we are unsatisfied and incomplete. But in relationship with Him we are complete.
We are spiritual beings WHO ARE CREATED FOR GODLINESS. Just as Jesus was patterned to reflect God, so we are patterned to reflect Jesus! The New Living Translation of Genesis 1:26 reads: “God patterned (man) after himself.” That’s the significance of God creating the rest of the world by his word while creating man with his very breath! Answer #6 of the Heidelberg Catechism states, “...God created man good and in his image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might rightly know God his creator, love him with his whole heart, and live with him in eternal blessedness, praising and glorifying him.” To put it another way, WE ARE TRANSMITTERS OF GOD’S NATURE. You can hear me through this microphone because there is a transmitter in the rear of the sanctuary which carries and reflects my voice to you. So we are created with the potential to be godly, to reflect or transmit Jesus. God wants us to be like Himself.
Listen to Peter (2 Pt. 1:3-4): “As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share his divine nature!” Paul similarly wrote, in Ephesians 4:22-24, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
There’s a website that is a favorite for many preteens teens called MySpace. On the site people can create their own identity – true or imagined, to appeal to whomever they long to be like and with. It allows them to try out different identities and make them up along the way. The Church needs to aggressively remind young people that their true, authentic selves, and our true authentic selves, are not something we create; rather we find our true value and purpose in a vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The issue is not self-invention or reinvention, it’s self-discovery. As one pastor put it, “It’s when we move from MySpace to HisSpace that we discover who we really are and who we are destined to become.”(5) You are destined to reflect Jesus!
So our purpose, our destiny, our dignity is not happiness or health or wealth, but holiness. God’s “one aim is the production of (holy) saints. God is not an eternal blessing-machine for (us); He did not come to save (us) out of pity: He came to save (us) because He created (us) to be holy.” (6) That’s why Paul could write (Rom. 8:29 GNT) “Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers.” Jesus was just the first to reflect and transmit God. Paul told the Corinthians that we are all involved in this gradual process (2 Cor. 3:18 RSV) “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Each day, each moment, you are changing; each day, each moment you are reflecting more of His glory.
Isn’t that part of the significance of Jesus’ own baptism? Not only in becoming flesh but also in being baptized, JESUS CAME TO BE LIKE US SO WE COULD BE LIKE HIM. And the day will come, as John wrote, “… when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” The day will come when we will more than just reflect Jesus – we shall be fully like Him! I don’t know what Jesus looks like – but I can’t wait to be like Him in all His fullness! That’s why I love our practice of Infant Baptism. We place children on a road to Christ, on a path of development which will end with them becoming like Christ. There is no greater baby gift than to give them this destiny.
It is so crucial to understand our identity because WE CANNOT CONSISTENTLY PERFORM IN A MANNER THAT IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE WAY WE SEE OURSELVES. How we see ourselves makes all the difference. If we see ourselves as divine, as growing into Christ-likeness, we will act in Christ-like ways. As Emerson said, “Could’st thou in vision see Thyself the man God meant, Thou never more could’st be The man that art content.” There is a design for our lives. We see it in Jesus; we are in process of becoming like Him.
So WE HAVE A DECISION TO MAKE. God created us in love. True love does not stifle buts sets the beloved free, so God gave us FREEDOM TO CHOOSE, even knowing there was a risk that we might reject Him, that we might not be accurate transmitters of Him. But His love is so great that He was ready to suffer the pain of rejection, to let His Son die.
So WE MUST CHOOSE. What will be the foundation of your identity? Your physical looks, your sexuality, your popularity, our social status, your family of origin, your job or position, your talents, your activities, your accomplishments, your failures, your peer group, the size of your home, the amount of your bank account? Paul wrote (1Cor. 3:11 GNT):
“For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid.” (Col. 1:16-18) “…all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together… he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” New life, true life starts with Jesus. And He wants to be supreme and preeminent in you! Will you choose Jesus this morning?
Anson Hui is now fifteen-years-old. At the age of three, he was diagnosed with Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD), meaning his body can't break down or store sugars. He requires frequent daytime feedings (drinking raw cornstarch), and nighttime feedings through a pump that hooks into a surgically implanted tube to his stomach. At the age of five, he experienced developmental delays that doctors feared were connected to autism. At that point in his life, he couldn't speak sentences with more than three syllables. He also became a target for school-yard bullies. No wonder that Anson often asked, "Why did God put me here?" However, Anson also discovered that he had a gift. He said, "While everyone else was busy talking, I listened and listened to all the sounds around me." His listening skills helped him develop another gift—perfect or absolute pitch. Anson discovered that he could memorize and then master complex piano pieces (such as Mozart's Concerto in D Minor) with astounding speed and proficiency. Anson has won numerous awards and even performed in Carnegie Hall. Anson's trials and his gifts have led him to declare his deep faith in the living God: "I can't decide many things that God has already planned, but I can still choose to work on my dream because I still have workable hands and a body to do it. I believe every single life is unique and special. Each has its own mission and purpose." In 2009 he received more difficult news. An MRI revealed a benign tumor around his liver, which could lead to a liver transplant, a tricky procedure for any GSD patient. But once again, Anson found solace in God's faithfulness. In a recent interview Anson said, “I know [there's] always a reason for God to give me a special body and talent. My dream is to be a tool of God … so in the end, I can hand in a beautiful [report] to my Lord in heaven with honor. And the most important thing is—I will never regret this journey on earth.” (7)
Choose Jesus.
(1) Dr. Bill Bouknight, Humankind: The Climax of Creation
(2) D. Ivan Dykstra, Who Am I? And Other Sermons, Hope College, Holland Michigan, © 1983 by Hope College, p. 6
(3) A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God, Norman Shawchuck & Reuben P. Job, Upper Room Books, Nashville, © 2006 by Norman Shawchuck & Reuben P. Job, p., 193-194, from Life of the Beloved, by Henri J. M. Nouwen
(4) Ibid, p. 50
(5) From Homiletics Online; HisSpace.com, 12/31/2006
(6) http://ref.ly/o/utmost/380299?length=1575 via @Logos
(7) Julie Jordan, "Music as the No.1 Medicine (Part 2)," The Epoch Times (10-14-10); submitted by Andrew Beunk, Burnaby, British Columbia (PreachingToday.com)
